Mike Gallagher | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 8th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Reid Ribble |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael John Gallagher March 3, 1984 Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1[1] |
| Education | Princeton University (BA) National Intelligence University (MS) Georgetown University (MS, MA, PhD) |
| Website | House website |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Marine Corps |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | United States Marine Corps |
Michael John Gallagher (born March 3, 1984) is an American politician who serves as the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district. He was elected in the 2016 elections and took office on January 3, 2017. He is a Republican.
Gallagher lived in Green Bay through middle school. After his parents' divorce, he moved to California and studied at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, while spending summers back in Wisconsin. Gallagher later said his teachers "endowed me with a love for history and set me on a path to earning a Ph.D. with a focus on Cold War history."[2] He graduated with the class of 2002 as a Valedictorian.[3]
Gallagher was a United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, serving seven years (2006–2013) on active duty.[4] He twice deployed to the Al Anbar Province, Iraq, serving on General Petraeus' CENTCOM Assessment Team as a commander of intelligence teams. He assessed American military strategy in the Middle East and Central Asia in his role as a counterintelligence officer, and as a member of the CENTCOM assessment team.[5]
Gallagher earned his B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. With a growing interest in global security, he moved his major from Spanish to Arabic[3] graduating in 2006.[6] Gallagher completed a 117-page long senior thesis, titled "New Approaches to Asymmetric Threats in the Middle East: From Fighting to Winning", under the supervision of Frederick Hitz.[7] At this time he completed a summer internship abroad with the Rand Corporation in Cambridge, UK, working on a strategic study of terrorist groups such as the Basque separatists in Spain.
Having served on his first tour of Iraq with the United States Marine Corps, Gallagher began a MSSI (Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence) at National Intelligence University graduating in 2010.
Gallagher completed a second M.A, in Security Studies in 2012; and a third M.A. in Government in 2013; both from Georgetown University. He then began doctoral studies, writing a dissertation on the administrations of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Cold War,[8] receiving his Ph.D. in Government - International Relations in 2015.[9]
Gallagher served as a Republican staffer on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Scott Walker, then-Governor of Wisconsin, hired Gallagher as a foreign policy advisor in February 2015, in preparation for his 2016 presidential campaign.[10]
After Walker dropped out of the presidential race, Gallagher worked as a senior marketing strategist for Breakthrough Fuel, a supply-chain management company. He was then recruited to run for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district seat, for which Reid Ribble was not seeking re-election.[11][12] Gallagher won a primary against Wisconsin state senator Frank Lasee and Forestville village president Terry McNulty.[13]
In the 2016 general election, Gallagher faced Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson;[14] Gallagher won the election 63 percent to 36 percent.[15] Gallagher won re-election in 2018 against Democrat Beau Liegeois, a Brown County assistant district attorney.[16]
Gallagher voted in line with President Donald Trump's position 93.8% of the time in the 115th Congress and 84.2% of the time in the 116th Congress.[17] However, he broke with the White House on issues such as the Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey and Trump's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.[18] He voted against the majority of his party about 8.7% of the time.[19]
In 2018, Gallagher argued that power within the U.S. House of Representatives was too concentrated in House leadership; he proposed allowing committee members to choose their own chairs and ranking members, rather than having these positions be selected by the parties' respective steering committees. This proposal was rejected in a House Republican vote. Gallagher also argued for a consolidation of the appropriating and authorizing House committees, and a reform of the House calendar that would have the chamber sit "at least five days a week for three consecutive weeks, then spend a full week back in their districts" (a change from the current congressional practice of very short legislative workweeks and frequent long weekends allowing members more time in their districts).[20] Gallagher's unsuccessful reform proposals were praised by Norm Ornstein, a scholar of Congress, as "constructive" although unlikely to be adopted.[20]
Gallagher voted in favor of the 2017 Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).[17] In 2017, he called the ACA "unsustainable".[21] In 2018, Gallagher voted in favor of expanding eligibility for health savings accounts; in 2019; he voted against a proposal to allow the federal government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs.[17]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, Gallagher's district had some of the nation's highest infection rates. Gallagher did not take a position on the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature's lawsuit seeking to invalidate a directive of Democratic Governor Tony Evers to mandate the wearing of masks in public as a way to combat the transmission of the virus.[22]
In a 2016 profile in the Green Bay Press Gazette, Gallagher blamed President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the success of ISIS in Iraq.[23] In 2019, he wrote it would be "a smart geopolitical move" for the U.S. to buy Greenland, a notion that Trump floated.[24] In 2020, Gallagher voted against a measure to block Trump from taking military action against Iran without the consent on the Congress.[17] In 2017, he supported a U.S. airstrike in Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack,[25] and in 2020 he supported the U.S. drone strike that targeted targeted Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.[26] In 2019, Gallagher voted for a measure opposing Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.[17]
In 2019, after American video game company Activision Blizzard punished a Hong Kong-based professional gamer for supporting pro-democracy Hong Kong protests, Gallagher accused Blizzard of censorship.[27] He co-signed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick that read, "As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing’s demands in order to preserve market access."[28]
Gallagher, along with Republican Senator Tom Cotton, drafted a bill in 2020 banning federal agencies, such as the departments of the Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Defense, from purchasing drugs manufactured in China.[29]
In 2017, Gallagher voted in favor of legislation to dismantle Dodd-Frank financial regulations.[17] In 2019, he voted against legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.[17] He voted in favor of the 2017 Republican tax legislation.[17] He voted to repeal a federal regulation barring some companies in the financial sector from including mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts.[17] He supported the 2018 farm bill.[17]
Gallagher has supported bipartisan proposals to use industrial policy to counter Chinese economic power; he joined with Democrats in 2020 in favor of a proposal to grant $10 billion "to establish regional tech hubs that would aim to create new companies and boost manufacturing."[30] Gallagher has sponsored legislation to bar federal agencies from purchasing Chinese-manufactured drones.[31]
In 2019, Gallagher voted against a resolution to block Trump from withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change.[17] He voted in favor of a measure to ban drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but voted against a measure to ban drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.[17] He voted in favor of a measure opposing a carbon tax, and in favor of a delay in ozone protection regulations.[17] In 2017, he voted in favor of repealing the Stream Protection Rule and to repeal federal regulations to require energy companies to reduce emissions and waste, and to disclose payments made to foreign governments.[17] The League of Conservation Voters gave Gallagher a lifetime scope of 5%.[32]
Gallagher has voted in favor of various anti-abortion measures. He voted against a 2019 measure opposing a ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military.[17] He voted in favor of the 2018 First Step Act.[17]
Gallagher voted against the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, and later voted against adopting two articles of impeachment against Trump, on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.[17]
In 2018, Gallagher voted against a House resolution condemning Trump for his comments attacking four Democratic congresswoman and saying that they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came"; Gallagher declined to call Trump's comments racist, although he did rebuke Trump supporters on a previous occasion for "send her back" chants.[33] Gallagher spoke at a Trump rally in Wisconsin in 2019.[34]
Gallagher voted against restoration of a part of the Voting Rights Act.[17] He voted against a 2020 bill for District of Columbia statehood.[17] In 2018, he voted in favor of reauthorizing the warrantless surveillance program as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[17]
In May 2018, following a meeting at the White House, Gallagher received Trump's endorsement of his proposal for congressional term limits; the proposal also received support from Brian Fitzpatrick, Jodey Arrington, and Vicente González. Gallagher's plan consists of limiting senators to two terms and representatives to six terms (totaling 12 years each). It would be grandfathered in order not to apply to sitting members of Congress, except for the so-called "freshman class".[35]
Gallagher became one of seven Republicans who did not support their colleagues' efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. These seven signed a letter that, while giving credence to election fraud allegations made by Trump, said Congress did not have the authority to influence the election's outcome.[36]
On January 9, Gallagher joined a group of other Republican legislators led by Ken Buck of Colorado in signing a letter to President-elect Joe Biden, asking him to formally request that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi halt efforts to impeach Trump.[37]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher | 40,322 | 74.46 | |
| Republican | Frank Lasee | 10,705 | 19.77 | |
| Republican | Terry McNulty | 3,109 | 5.74 | |
| Republican | Write-in votes | 16 | 0.03 | |
| Total votes | 54,152 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher | 227,892 | 62.65 | |
| Democratic | Tom Nelson | 135,682 | 37.30 | |
| Green | Wendy Gribben (write in) | 16 | 0.00 | |
| Democratic | Jerry Kobishop (write-in) | 2 | 0.00 | |
| Write-in votes | Write-in | 188 | 0.05 | |
| Total votes | 363,780 | 100.0 | ||
| Republican hold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher (incumbent) | 62,524 | 99.91 | |
| Republican | Write-in votes | 56 | 0.09 | |
| Total votes | 62,580 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher (incumbent) | 209,410 | 63.69 | |
| Democratic | Beau Liegeois | 119,265 | 36.28 | |
| Write-in votes | Write-in | 99 | 0.03 | |
| Total votes | 328,774 | 100.0 | ||
| Republican hold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher (incumbent) | 50,176 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 50,176 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Gallagher (incumbent) | 268,173 | 64.2 | |
| Democratic | Amanda Stuck | 149,558 | 35.8 | |
| Write-in | 107 | 0.0 | ||
| Total votes | 417,838 | 100.0 | ||
| Republican hold | ||||
