Roy Blunt


Roy Dean Blunt is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from Missouri from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd Missouri Secretary of State and U.S. Representative for Missouri's 7th congressional district.
Born in Niangua, Missouri, Blunt is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University and Southwest Missouri State University. After serving as Missouri Secretary of State from 1985 to 1993, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Missouri's 7th congressional district in 1996. There, he served as Republican Whip from 2003 to 2009.
Blunt successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. The next year, he was elected vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Blunt, who was the dean of Missouri's congressional delegation, was elected to serve as Policy Committee chairman in November 2018. On March 8, 2021, he announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022. He was succeeded in the U.S. Senate by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
After leaving Congress, Blunt began working for the lobbying firm Husch Blackwell Strategies. He also joined as a member of Southwest Airlines' board of directors.

Early life, education, and career

Blunt was born on January 10, 1950, in Niangua, Missouri, the son of Neva Dora and Leroy Blunt, a politician. He earned a B.A. degree in history in 1970 from Southwest Baptist University.
Two years later, he earned a master's degree in history from Southwest Missouri State University. During his time in college, he received three draft deferments from the Vietnam War. Blunt was a high school history teacher at Marshfield High School in the city of Marshfield from 1970 to 1972; he later taught at Southwest Baptist University and as a member of the adjunct faculty at Drury University.
He went on to serve as president of Southwest Baptist University, his alma mater, from 1993 to 1996.

Early political career (1972–1997)

Greene county clerk

Blunt entered politics in 1973, when he was appointed county clerk and chief election official of Greene County, Missouri. He was subsequently elected to the position three times and served a total of 12 years.

1980 lieutenant gubernatorial election

In 1980 incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Phelps ran for governor. Blunt, the Greene County Clerk, decided to run for the open seat and won the Republican primary, but lost the general election to State Representative Ken Rothman 56%–44%.

Secretary of State

In 1984, after incumbent Democratic Missouri Secretary of State James Kirkpatrick decided to retire, Blunt ran for the position and won the Republican primary with 79% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Democratic State Representative Gary D. Sharpe 54%–46%. He became the first Republican to hold the post in 50 years.
In 1988, he won reelection against Democrat James Askew 61%–38%.

1992 gubernatorial election

Since incumbent Republican Governor John Ashcroft was term-limited, Blunt ran for the governorship in 1992. Missouri Attorney General William Webster won the Republican primary, defeating Blunt and Missouri Treasurer Wendell Bailey 44%–40%–15%. Webster lost the general election to Mel Carnahan.

U.S. House of Representatives (1997–2011)

Elections

In 1996 Blunt decided to run for the United States House of Representatives after incumbent U.S. Representative Mel Hancock honored his pledge to serve only four terms. Blunt ran in Missouri's 7th congressional district, the state's most conservative district, in the Ozark Mountains in the southwest. Blunt's political action committee is the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund.
On August 6, 1996, he won the Republican primary, defeating Gary Nodler 56%–44%. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Ruth Bamberger 65%–32%.

Tenure

Education

Blunt voted in favor of school prayer and supported the No Child Left Behind Act. He voted in favor of school vouchers within the District of Columbia but against broader legislation allowing states to use federal money to issue vouchers for private or religious schools. He received a 17% rating from the National Education Association in 2003.

Fiscal issues

Blunt received a 97% rating from the United States Chamber of Commerce. He supported efforts to overhaul U.S. bankruptcy laws, requiring consumers who seek bankruptcy protection to repay more of their debts.
Blunt opposes federal cap and trade legislation and supports drilling for oil on the U.S. coastline. He does not believe in man-made global warming, stating: "There isn't any real science to say we are altering the climate or path of the Earth."

Gun policy

Blunt voted to prohibit lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers if the guns they manufacture or sell are later used in a crime. He has also voted to require anyone who purchases a gun at a gun show to go through a background check that must be completed within 24 hours. He has received an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.

Health policy

Blunt chaired the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group.
In 2006, Blunt successfully advocated for legislation that placed restrictions on over-the-counter cold medicines that could be used in the production of methamphetamines. The legislation, called the Combat Meth Act, was opposed by retail and drug lobbyists.
In August 2009, Blunt stated in two separate newspaper interviews that, because he was 59 years old, "In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn't get it replaced." He stated he had heard the statement in Congressional testimony by "some people who are supposed to be experts on Canadian health care." The PolitiFact service of the St. Petersburg Times reported that it could not find any such testimony.

Minimum wage

Blunt voted against HR 2007-018, which raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.

Social issues

He has voted to ban partial-birth abortions and to restrict or criminalize transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of getting an abortion. He opposes federal funding for elective abortions in accordance with the Hyde Amendment.
He voted in favor of the unsuccessful Federal Marriage Amendment which sought to place a national ban on same-sex marriage, and has voted against gay adoption. He received 94% lifetime and 96% 2004 ratings from the conservative American Conservative Union, a 14% rating from the ACLU, and a 92% rating from the conservative Christian Coalition.

Social Security and Medicare

In 2005, Blunt supported President George W. Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security for those under the age of 55.

Leadership

After only one term, Blunt was appointed Chief Deputy Whip, the highest appointed position in the House Republican Caucus. In that capacity, he served as the Republicans' chief vote-counter. In 2002, when Dick Armey retired and fellow Texan Tom DeLay was elected to succeed him, Blunt was elected to succeed DeLay as House Majority Whip.
Blunt served as Majority Leader on an acting basis starting in September 2005, after DeLay was indicted on felony charges involving campaign finance. On January 8, 2006, one day after DeLay announced that he would not seek to regain his position, Blunt announced he would run to permanently replace DeLay.
On January 14, 2006, Blunt issued a release claiming that the majority of the Republican caucus had endorsed him as DeLay's successor. But when the election was held by secret ballot on February 2, 2006, U.S. Representative John Boehner of Ohio won on the second ballot, with 122 votes to 109 for Blunt. In November 2006, House Republicans elected Blunt to their second-highest position during the 110th Congress, Minority Whip. Blunt handily defeated U.S. Representative John Shadegg of Arizona for the position. He announced he would step down from the position in late 2008, following two successive election cycles where House Republicans had lost seats, avoiding a difficult battle with his deputy, Eric Cantor, who was urged by some to challenge Blunt for the position.

Committee assignments

Upon entering the U.S. House, Blunt served on the House International Relations Committee, the House Committee on Agriculture, and the House Transportation Committee. In 1999, he gave up seats on the latter two committees and joined the Committee on Energy and Commerce. In addition he became a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

U.S. Senate (2011–2023)

2010 election

On February 19, 2009, Blunt announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate election for the seat being vacated by incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Kit Bond. He successfully ran against Democratic nominee Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Constitution Party nominee Jerry Beck, Libertarian nominee Jonathan Dine, and write-in candidates Mark S. Memoly, Frazier Miller, Jeff Wirick and Richie L. Wolfe.

Tenure

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Blunt "has one of the Senate's most conservative voting records, yet he generally avoids the confrontational, firebrand style" and during his tenure in the U.S. Senate "Blunt's most significant legislative accomplishments all had Democrat co-sponsors." The Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy's Bipartisan Index ranked Blunt the 11th most bipartisan senator in the first session of the 115th United States Congress.
Blunt was at the U.S. Capitol when Trump supporters attacked it on January 6, 2021, serving as a teller for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count certification, alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Rodney Davis, and Representative Zoe Lofgren. Before the certification, Blunt said he would support the certification of the election, in contrast to his fellow Missouri senator Josh Hawley. While Blunt observed the deliberations over the objection to counting Arizona's votes, led by Ted Cruz, the Capitol was breached. Along with other senators, Blunt was removed from the Senate floor to an undisclosed location as the insurrectionists moved closer to the Senate chambers. He tweeted during the attack that the "violence and destruction" needed to stop and that "This is not who we are as a nation." Blunt stated that Trump "was a part of it", referring to the insurrection.
In the wake of the attack, Blunt said he would not support impeaching Trump and that there was "no time" to do so. He also called it a "disappointment" that Democrats were considering impeachment. In an interview with Face the Nation, Blunt said, "the president touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again."
As master of ceremonies for the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, Blunt delivered a short speech expounding the Constitution's Preamble, noting that unlike the Articles of Confederation or the Magna Carta, it roots and establishes law and authority in "We the People". Blunt remarked that the endeavor to create a "more perfect Union" is a continuing project and said, "we are more than we have been and we are less than we hope to be".
File:Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.jpg|thumb|Blunt with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas in October 2021
Senate assignments
During the 117th Congress, Blunt's committee and subcommittee appointments are as follows.