John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is an American former politician who served as the 53rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served 13 terms as the U.S. representative for from 1991 to 2015. The district included several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton.
Boehner previously served as the House minority leader from 2007 until 2011, and House majority leader from 2006 until 2007. In January 2011, he was first elected Speaker and then re-elected twice. Boehner resigned from the House of Representatives in October 2015 due to opposition from within the Republican conference.
In September 2016, Squire Patton Boggs, the third-largest lobbying firm in the U.S., announced that Boehner would join their firm. It was also announced that he would become a board member of Reynolds American.
Early life and education
Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne and Earl Henry Boehner, the second of twelve children. His father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry. He grew up in modest circumstances, sharing one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. He started working at his family's bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938. He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life.Boehner attended Cincinnati's Moeller High School and was a linebacker on the school's football team, where he was coached by future Notre Dame coach Gerry Faust. Graduating from Moeller in 1968, when United States involvement in the Vietnam War was at its peak, Boehner enlisted in the United States Navy but was honorably discharged after eight weeks because of a bad back. He earned his B.A. in business administration from Xavier University in 1977, becoming the first person in his family to attend college, taking seven years as he held several jobs to pay for his education.
Early career
Shortly after his graduation in 1977, Boehner accepted a position with Nucite Sales, a small sales business in the plastics industry. He was steadily promoted and eventually became president of the firm, resigning in 1990 when he was elected to Congress.From 1981 to 1984, Boehner served on the board of trustees of Union Township, Butler County, Ohio. He then served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1985 to 1990.
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1990, Boehner ran against incumbent congressman Buz Lukens, who was under fire for having a sexual relationship with a minor. He was all but unknown when he entered a Republican primary that included Lukens and former congressman Tom Kindness. Despite being dramatically outspent, Boehner won with 49 percent of the vote. He then handily beat his Democratic opponent, Greg Jolivette, in the November election. He was subsequently re-elected to Congress 12 times, each by a substantial margin.Boehner's closest races were those in:
- 2006, when he defeated the Democratic Party candidate, U.S. Air Force veteran Mort Meier, 64% to 36%;
- 2008, when he defeated Nicholas Von Stein, 68% to 32%;
- 2010, when he garnered 66% percent of the vote in a four-way race against Democratic nominee Justin Coussoule, Constitution Party nominee Jim Condit, and Libertarian nominee David Harlow.
Gang of Seven and ''Contract with America''
Republican leadership
From 1995 to 1999, Boehner served as House Republican Conference Chairman, making him fourth-ranking House Republican behind Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay. During his time as Conference Chairman, Boehner championed the Freedom to Farm Act that, among other provisions, revised and simplified direct payment programs for crops and eliminated milk price supports through direct government purchases.In the summer of 1997 several House Republicans, who saw Speaker Newt Gingrich's public image as a liability, attempted to replace him as Speaker. The attempted "coup" began July 9 with a meeting between Republican conference chairman Boehner and Republican leadership chairman Bill Paxon of New York. According to their plan, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Boehner and Paxon were to present Gingrich with an ultimatum: resign, or be voted out. However, Armey balked at the proposal to make Paxon the new Speaker and told his chief of staff to warn Gingrich about the coup.
On July 11, Gingrich met with senior Republican leadership to assess the situation. He explained that under no circumstance would he step down. If he was voted out, there would be a new election for Speaker, which would allow for the possibility that Democratsalong with dissenting Republicanswould vote in Dick Gephardt as Speaker. On July 16, Paxon offered to resign from his post, feeling that he had not handled the situation correctly. Paxon was the only unelected member of the leadership group, having been appointed to his position by Gingrich.
After Republicans lost seats in the 1998 elections, the House Republican leadership underwent a reorganization. Armey and DeLay kept their positions, but Gingrich was replaced by Dennis Hastert, and Boehner lost his position as conference chairman to J.C. Watts.
Chairman of Committee on Education and Labor
Following the election of President George W. Bush, Boehner was elected as chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, serving from 2001 until 2006. There he authored several reforms including the Pension Protection Act and a successful school choice voucher program for low-income children in Washington, D.C.Boehner and Senator Ted Kennedy authored the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which was signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. Boehner said that it was his "proudest achievement" in two decades of public service. Boehner was friends with Kennedy, also a Catholic, and every year they chaired fundraisers for cash-strapped Catholic schools.
House Republican Leader
After DeLay resigned as majority leader in 2005, Boehner, House majority whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Representative John Shadegg of Arizona, all sought to become Majority Leader. Boehner campaigned as a reform candidate who wanted to reform the so-called "earmark" process and rein in government spending. In the second round of voting by the House Republican Conference, Boehner defeated Blunt with 122 to 109 votes. Blunt kept his previous position as majority whip, the no. 3 leadership positions in the House. There was some confusion on the first ballot for majority leader when the first count showed one more vote cast than Republicans present, due to a misunderstanding as to whether the rules allowed Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño to vote.After the Republicans lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, the House Republican Conference chose Boehner as the minority leader. While as Majority Leader he was second-in-command behind Speaker Dennis Hastert, as minority leader he was the leader of the House Republicans. As such, he was the Republican nominee for Speaker in 2006 and 2008, losing both times to Nancy Pelosi.
According to the 2008 Congress.org Power Ranking, Boehner was the 6th most powerful congressman and the most powerful Republican. As minority leader, Boehner served as an ex officio member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Speaker of the House (2011–2015)
The Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2010 midterm elections, with a net gain of 63 seats. During his solemn victory speech, Boehner broke into tears when talking about "economic freedom, individual liberty and personal responsibility...I hold these values dear because I've lived them...I've spent my whole life chasing the American Dream". On November 17, 2010, Boehner was unanimously chosen by the House Republicans as their nominee for Speaker, all but assuring his formal election to the post when the new Congress convened with a Republican majority in January 2011. He received the gavel from outgoing speaker Pelosi on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. He was the first Speaker from Ohio since fellow Republicans Nicholas Longworth and J. Warren Keifer.File:Pope Francis and Speaker Boehner.jpg|thumb|left|Speaker Boehner meets with Pope Francis during his visit to the United States Congress.
As Speaker, he was still the leader of the House Republicans. However, by tradition, he normally did not take part in debate, although he had the right to do so, and rarely voted from the floor. He was not a member of any House committees during his speakership.
Boehner was narrowly re-elected as Speaker of the House on January 3, 2013, at the beginning of the 113th United States Congress. He received 220 votes, needing 214 to win.
In July 2014, Boehner moved forward on a lawsuit to force the President to impose penalties on companies who failed to provide healthcare coverage for their employees. Boehner had pressed for legislation to delay this mandate the previous year. The third law firm selected finally filed the suit in November 2014, after Boehner criticized Obama's unilateral moves on immigration policy.
Resignation
On September 25, 2015, Boehner announced that he would step down as Speaker and resign from Congress at the end of October 2015. Boehner's resignation took place after Pope Francis' address to Congress the day before, an event considered by Boehner personally as the highest point in his legislative career. Sources in his office indicated he was stepping aside in the face of increasing discord while trying to manage the passage of a continuing resolution to fund the government. Conservative opposition to funding Planned Parenthood as part of the resolution, and stronger threats to Boehner's leadership on account of the controversy, prompted the resignation.Originally, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy of California had intended to run for Speaker and was seen as the prohibitive favorite. On October 8, 2015, McCarthy abruptly rescinded his candidacy, citing that he felt he could not effectively lead a fractured Republican Conference. After McCarthy's announcement, Boehner stayed on as Speaker until a successor was chosen. After initially turning down requests from Republican leaders, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Ways and Means Committee chairman and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, ran for Speaker with Boehner's blessing. On October 29, 2015, in his final act as Speaker, Boehner presided over Ryan's election. Boehner's resignation from Congress became official on October 31, 2015, at 11:59 p.m.