Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Arizona since 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Flake grew up on a cattle ranch in Snowflake, Arizona, with ten siblings. The town is in part named for his great-great grandfather William J. Flake, who co-founded the settlement in 1878; and Flake's father, Dean, served as town mayor and as a pastor. Jeff Flake attended Brigham Young University (BYU), taking time off for Mormon mission to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where he learned to speak Afrikaans. He earned two degrees from BYU -- a B.A. in International Relations in 1986 and a M.A. in Political Science in 1987 -- and while there he also met Cheryl Bae, whom he married in 1985 and with whom he has five children.
Upon graduating from college, Flake worked briefly at a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., before returning to Africa to serve as executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia. In 1992, Flake returned to Arizona where he became executive director of the Goldwater Institute, a think tank and research organization that aims to promote the former Arizona senator's ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and expanded freedom.
Flake was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2000, where he would serve for 12 years. During his tenure, Flake earned a reputation as a budget hawk, serving as a member of the Committee on Appropriations and calling out colleagues for funneling cash toward earmarks. He also supported traditional conservative views with his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion, but he also voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell in the military and supported the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) due in part to his childhood experiences with immigrant workers on his family's ranch. After six terms in the House, Flake was elected to the United States Senate in 2012. He went on to serve in the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Special Committee on Aging, and the Foreign Relations Committee, becoming chair of various subcommittees. Flake was also one of the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" that pushed through a Senate immigration-reform bill in 2013, and he has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump. Flake announced on October 24, 2017 that he would not seek reelection in 2018.
Video Jeff Flake
Early life, education, and early career
Jeffry Lane Flake was born in Snowflake, Arizona, the son of Nerita (née Hock) and Dean Maeser Flake. His birth town was named in part for his great-great-grandfather, Mormon pioneer William J. Flake. Flake obtained a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in Political Science from Brigham Young University. He took a two-year leave of absence to serve as a volunteer Mormon missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa in the early 1980s and speaks Afrikaans. He worked in the public affairs sector after college and served as Executive Director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia and Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute before entering the House of Representatives. He opposed economic sanctions on South Africa in the 1980s, arguing that sanctions would harm the black population who were already suffering under apartheid policies.
Maps Jeff Flake
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
Flake was first elected to Congress in 2000 from what was then the 1st District, after Republican incumbent Matt Salmon stepped down to honor a self-imposed term limit. The district, which included most of the East Valley, was then renumbered as the 6th district as Arizona gained two Congressional seats because of the results of the 2000 census. Flake easily defeated his primary challenger.
In his campaign in 2000, Flake had pledged to serve no more than three terms in Congress which would see him serve no later than January 2007. Shortly after being elected for a third time, Flake announced in early 2005 that he had changed his mind on pledging term limits and was planning to run for reelection in 2006. "It was a mistake to limit my own terms," Flake said.
In that same election, three out of five mayors in his home district opposed his reelection because, according to Flake, he did not "bring pork barrel spending" to the mayors' cities. In 2006, several Democrats had announced their intention to run for the seat but only one met the June filing deadline, and that particular filing was rejected due to an insufficient number of nominating signatures. "I did expect to have a primary opponent. I deserve one," Flake said, referring to the term-limit pledge which he had broken. "By all rights, I ought to have an opponent. I just got lucky, I guess."
In the 2006 mid-term elections, Flake had no Democratic Party opponent and easily defeated the Libertarian Party candidate, Jason Blair, with 74% of the vote.
Tenure
Committee assignments
- Committee on Appropriations
- Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
He served on the Liberty Committee (sometimes called the Liberty Caucus), a group of libertarian-leaning Republican congressmen. He is also a member of the Republican Study Committee.
U.S. Senate
2012 election
In February 2011, Flake announced that he was running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl in 2012. Flake easily won the Republican nomination against real estate businessman Wil Cardon. He faced former surgeon general Richard Carmona, who sought office for the first time in the general election. In May 2012, Flake led Carmona by 13 points in the polls. In an October 2012 poll by Public Policy Polling, Flake was trailing Carmona by two points. After the race tightened, the Wall Street Journal criticized a controversial Flake ad that accused Carmona of having "issues with anger, with ethics, and with women." Flake was endorsed by the Casa Grande Dispatch, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and the Club for Growth. Flake defeated Democratic Richard Carmona 49-46% on November 6, 2012. He won mainly on the strength of carrying Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and 60 percent of the state's population, by 77,200 votes, more than the overall margin of 67,900 votes. He also benefited from Mitt Romney carrying the state by 10 points in the presidential election.
Tenure
Flake replaced retiring Republican U.S. Senator Jon Kyl on January 3, 2013.
2017 congressional shooting
Flake was on the field during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game when the Congressional baseball shooting happened on June 14, 2017. He said the attendees were like "sitting ducks" and that it was likely that the Capitol Police saved their lives:
All of a sudden, we heard a very loud shot. Everybody thought 'sounds like a gun'. The gunman was over by the third base dugout, with a clear view of the field and everybody on it. A lot of us dove into the dugout and tried to get as many as we could, but at that point, there was firing behind us from the security detail, the Capitol Police, and I started yelling back, 'are you friendly?' - making sure that it was our guy, because we didn't know if there were other shooters that had us surrounded, and were coming into the dugout.
Former President Obama called Flake that morning to extend his best wishes and prayers for the victims. Flake had flown with Obama from Washington, D.C. to Arizona in 2011 after the shooting of then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Bipartisan survival trip
Flake used his experience surviving in the wild for six days with a Democratic Senator to develop an idea to end partisan gridlock in Washington. In 2014, Flake and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) were featured on a Discovery Channel reality TV show, Rival Survival, where the two stayed on a small Micronesian island for six days. Flake later joked during a speech at the National Press Club that sending both Senate leaders (Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid [D-NV] and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-KY]) to a remote island together might reduce partisanship and allow more legislation to move forward.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- Subcommittee on Energy
- Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining
- Subcommittee on Water and Power
- Committee on Foreign Relations
- Subcommittee on African Affairs (Chairman)
- Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs
- Subcommittee on European Affairs
- Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection, and Peace Corps
- Committee on the Judiciary
- Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
- Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security
- Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security (Chairman)
- Special Committee on Aging
Appearance in film
Flake was featured in the documentary film series How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories by filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini. Films he appears in through the series include:
- Story 5: The Kids Across the Hill, which shows the complications from the entrance of a Democrat to the Kolbe-Flake immigration bill.
- Story 8: The Road to Miami, features the challenges of the Flake-Kolbe-McCain immigration bill.
- Story 9: Protecting Arizona.
- Story 10: Brothers and Rivals, features Flake's 2004 primary challenge and continued efforts towards immigration reform.
- Story 11: The Senate Speaks, shows the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act introduced by Ted Kennedy, McCain, Kolbe, Flake and Guttierez in the spring of 2005.
Political positions
Budget and economy
Flake is a fiscal conservative, and a critic of government waste and advocates reducing federal spending. He was described by columnist Robert Novak as an "insistent reformer". Flake is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and one of eight House members to receive a 100% approval rating from the American Conservative Union. A "scourge of pork-barrel spending", Flake was ruled the least profligate spender in Congress by Citizens Against Government Waste in July 2007 and designated a "taxpayer superhero." In 2008, Flake voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Flake is "known for his ardent opposition to earmarks." He has been called an "anti-earmark crusader," and frequently challenges earmarks proposed by other members of Congress. Since May 2006, he has become prominent with the "Flake Hour," a tradition at the end of spending bill debates in which he asks earmark sponsors to come to the house floor and justify why taxpayers should pay for their "pet projects." He is credited with prompting House rule changes to require earmark sponsors to identify themselves.
Until September 2010, Flake issued a press release listing an "egregious earmark of the week" every Friday. Usually the earmark will be followed by Flake making a humorous comment; as an example, Rep. Flake once said of Congressman Jose Serrano's $150,000 earmark to fix plumbing in Italian restaurants, "I would argue this is one cannoli the taxpayer doesn't want to take a bite of." The "earmark of the week" releases were ended and replaced with the "So Just How Broke Are We?" series of releases. In March 2010, the House Appropriations Committee implemented rules to ban earmarks to for-profit corporations, a change Flake supported. "This is the best day we've had in a while," he said to the New York Times, which reported that approximately 1,000 such earmarks were authorized in the previous year, worth $1.7 billion.
Disaster aid
In 2012, it was reported that Flake had on at least five occasions voted against legislation intended to prevent natural disasters and provide aid to those harmed by natural disasters. In 2005, Flake was one of only 11 House representatives to vote against a bill providing supplemental emergency funds to handle damage from Hurricane Katrina.
Environment
On December 2, 2014, the Senate passed the Bill Williams River Water Rights Settlement Act. The bill would put an end to a fight over water rights in the Bill Williams River Watershed in Arizona. Flake introduced the Senate version of the bill along with Senator John McCain. The bill also helps the Hualapai Native American tribe, which uses water from the watershed. The bill would put a limit on the amount of water that a local mining company can use, and it would give legal recognition to the tribe's rights to the water source. At a House hearing on the bill in September 2014, in which both the Hualapai Tribe and Freeport Minerals company testified, both the tribe and the company agreed that the bill would provide each, and other interests, with benefits. The settlement would guarantee water rights for the tribe; provide water for Freeport's mine in Bagdad, Arizona; and give the state of Arizona rights to a property area that would be used for a conservation program for several species. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce supported the legislation, saying, "The settlement of water rights claims is a priority in our state in order to provide clarity and long-term certainty to all water users across Arizona."
In 2014, the EPA announced that it would make some changes to federal regulation of water. Two different cases that went before the Supreme Court resulted in the court ordering the EPA to specify which waterways in the U.S. are considered protected by the Clean Water Act. Flake and McCain sent a letter to the head of the EPA, citing a number of reasons why the regulation would hurt Arizona. One of the senators' concerns was about waterways that only flow in certain parts of the year. Flake and McCain believe that if the EPA includes those types of waterways in the new regulations, the regulations would have a negative effect on Arizona's agriculture industry. One of the reasons the EPA is using in deciding which waterways will fall under the new regulation is by concluding whether pollution in waterways will negatively affect other waters downstream. Flake and McCain asserted in their letter that little proof existed to back up such a conclusion, but the EPA responded by saying that the proposed regulation was carefully examined and was made with bipartisan input. Additionally, Flake and McCain wrote that the new changes could make it harder for Arizona firefighters to fight wildfires.
Flake advocated against the rule for two primary reasons. First, Flake wrote that the EPA proposed rule did not make a distinction between waterways that flow all year or just part of the year. Flake cited that 94 percent of Arizona's waterways do not flow continuously year-round, and because of that, the lack of distinction in the rule would affect most of Arizona's waterways. Second, Flake argued that the scientific evidence used by the EPA to back up the rule was "anything but settled." Flake and McCain warned the EPA administrator about their concerns earlier in the year, via a letter sent on May 6, 2014. An editorial published by the Arizona Republic said that the EPA rule would have the effect of requiring the CAP Canal to treat drinking water twice, which would increase costs to Arizona residents. The editorial claims that the canal, and all water sources that go to people's homes, already has to meet Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.
Despite Flake's efforts against the bill, however, it was signed in to law by President Barack Obama on December 16, 2014.
Foreign policy
Flake voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution (authorizing the Iraq War) in the House of Representatives in October 2002. In a debate on the House floor on the authorization of force (October 8, 2002), Flake said, "We ought to let history be our guide here. But the most recent history in this case that we ought to look at is the vote that took place in this Chamber 12 years ago. During that time, we faced a very similar decision. Should we thwart Saddam Hussein in his attempt to go beyond his boundaries or should we appease him? Fortunately, the majority of this body and the other body agreed we ought to thwart him; and I think we can all agree that, had we not done so, that the biological and chemical weapons that Saddam Hussein possesses would be added to nuclear weapons which he would certainly possess today had he not been thwarted at that time. We are in this position today, I would submit, because we have no other choice. This is our only reasonable option. War will no doubt come at great cost. When we visit the war memorials, we see that cost, but the cost of appeasement is far greater. I commend the House leadership for bringing this resolution forward and for shepherding it through process. I especially commend our President who so forcefully pushed for this resolution and who has so deliberately pushed for this resolution. I urge support for the resolution."
After the 2006 election in which Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives largely due to the unpopularity of the war in Iraq, Flake changed his position on the Iraq War to one of cautious opposition, including voting against appropriations. At a 2008 congressional hearing featuring General David Petraeus, Flake said, "I still have a hard time seeing the big picture and what constitutes success [in Iraq]. That's not just one side of the aisle with those kind of concerns. Many on this side of the aisle have that as well."
Flake supported ending the Cuba Trade Embargo and otherwise normalizing relations with Cuba.
Flake supported President Barack Obama's 2014 decision to begin the process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, despite opposition to the policy change from other Republican senators. Flake joined Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Patrick Leahy on a trip to Cuba to return Alan Gross to the United States. Gross, an American aid worker, had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years, but was released as part of the agreement between Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro. Flake believes that the United States embargo against Cuba is flawed, stating, "The policy that we've had in place for the past 50 years has done more in my view ... to keep the Castro regimes in power than anything we could've done." Flake has traveled to Cuba nine times and supports loosening restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba.
Gun control issues
On April 17, 2013, Flake joined 45 other senators in voting against the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, which would have required background checks on private gun sales. Following the vote, Flake was criticized for changing his position on background checks. Just days before the vote, he had sent the mother of one of the Colorado theater shooting victims a handwritten letter stating that "strengthening background checks is something we agree on." In response to a question asking whether he was worried about potential political consequences vowed by gun-control groups, Flake replied, "That's the beauty of a 6-year term. I truly want to do something on this, but what has been a little upsetting is to hear people try to maintain that we were just caving to pressure, discounting any issues that we had with the legislation, with the language. That's just not right." Following his no vote, Flake's approval rating fell from 45% favorable-43% unfavorable, to 32% favorable-51% unfavorable according to one poll, making him the most unpopular senator in America as of April 2013.
In March 2013, he joined with Senators Lindsey Graham, Mark Begich and Mark Pryor in introducing a bill that would prevent individuals who attempt to buy guns by those who have used an insanity defense, were ruled dangerous by a court, or had been committed by a court to mental health treatment.
Immigration
In 2007, Flake introduced legislation that would have provided a path to legalization for illegal immigrants, granted temporary legal status to illegal immigrants who paid a fine and passed background checks, and created a guest worker program. Also in 2007, Flake was removed from the House Judiciary Committee by Republican Minority Leader John Boehner for "bad behavior", which Boehner said was criticism of party leaders, though Flake himself attributed it to his support of comprehensive immigration reform.
In 2009, Flake introduced the Stopping Trained in America PhDs From Leaving the Economy (STAPLE) Act (H.R. 1791). The bill would have authorized students who earned a Ph.D. in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics from U.S. universities to be admitted for permanent residence and to be exempted from the numerical limits on H-1B nonimmigrants. The bill was reintroduced in 2011 and was referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement in February of that year.
In 2010, Flake voted against the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrant minors provided that they join the military or go to university. In late October 2012, Flake stated that he may support it in the future.
In 2013, Flake was a member of the "Gang of Eight"--a bipartisan group of eight senators (four Democrats and four Republicans)--who sponsored an immigration overhaul bill. Flake said of the group: "Pretty quickly we determined that everybody around that table wanted to do this. We weren't looking to score political points." The Senate passed the bill with 68 votes, but the bill failed in the House.
When in November 2014, Obama announced on TV that he would use his executive powers to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States, Flake said that the best response would be not to shut down the government, but to pass a bill that addresses immigration problems. As for Obama's executive plan, Flake said that he opposed it. Flake opposed using a government funding bill to stop Obama's executive action, but Flake also said that he believed that both parties' strategies would make it more difficult to pass immigration reform legislation.
Flake has publicly said that he believes that the reason so many children in recent years have come across the U.S. border illegally without parents is because parents believe their children will be able to stay in the United States if they do so. Flake has said that the Republican Party needs to take a rational approach to solving immigration problems, and if it does not, the party will have a difficult time winning national elections. Flake said that Jeb Bush's support of an immigration system reform makes Bush more electable in a general election. Flake supported Jeb Bush's remarks about immigration being an act of love, and said, "Growing up here in Arizona, I've seen what motivates those who come here illegally. Sure, some come with the intent to do harm or simply to take advantage of our generosity. But many come to find work to feed their families. To lump everyone who crosses the border illegally into the same class is unfair and unproductive."
Flake spoke out against President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to prohibit immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. He stated that "It's unacceptable when even legal permanent residents are being detained or turned away at airports and ports of entry."
Social issues
In October 2008, Esquire named Congressman Flake one of the Ten Best Members of Congress saying in part, "A true conservative, Flake is as rare as the dodo. Republicans should learn from him, and liberals and libertarians will find in him a strong privacy-rights ally." During the 2005 debate on renewal of the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, Jeff Flake successfully submitted several amendments to the bill in the House of Representatives. One required the FBI director to personally sign off on any request for library and bookstore records before applying to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but it was altered in the United States Senate version of the bill. Two of his amendments were signed into law and they subjected any National Security Letter and its gag order to a judicial challenge by the recipient, and narrowed the scope of "Sneak and Peek" warrants to have definite time limits on their duration and extensions before they need to notify the target of the investigation. Before that, "Sneak and Peek" warrants could be extended by the standard of not "unduly delaying trial" without any defined time limitation. This amended bill was titled the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and it was signed into law on March 9, 2006. This bill also required three Inspector General investigations that led to the discovery of exigent letters and National Security Letter abuses. On February 8, 2011, Flake voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The vote failed. On February 10, 2011, Flake again voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. This vote succeeded.
On March 7, 2017, Flake introduced a bill to eliminate FCC Internet privacy rules that were passed under President Barack Obama. His proposed bill would allow Internet service providers to share and sell consumers' browsing history without consent. In regards to Obama's FCC Internet Privacy rules, Flake stated that "It is unnecessary, confusing and adds yet another innovation-stifling regulation to the Internet." Flake received $22,700 in donations from paid lobbyists representing Internet service providers and tech firms to sponsor the anti-privacy legislation. In April 2017, the legislation passed both houses of Congress, which are Republican-controlled, allowing ISPs to sell consumer browsing history and other information without the user's consent. One constituent at a town-hall meeting told Flake that "You sold my privacy up the river."
Flake describes himself as "pro-life"; he opposes legal abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.
In 2010, Flake was one of fifteen Republican House members to vote in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which repealed the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned openly gay service members. The Human Rights Campaign, which scores politicians' support for LGBT rights, gave Flake a score of 32% in the 114th Congress and a 20% during the 113th Congress. Flake had voted to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage with a Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006.
In 2017, Flake voted three times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Although he voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in 2007, which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation, Flake said he had concerns with the 2013 version, which includes both sexual orientation and gender identity. When the vote occurred on November 7, Flake cast his vote in favor of the 2013 version of ENDA.
Roy Moore
In October 2017, Flake refused to support Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in the December 2017 Senate special election in Alabama. Flake said that he could not support a candidate who believed that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. After the Washington Post reported in November 2017 that a number of women had accused Moore of having pursued sexual relationships with them or sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers, Flake quickly condemned Moore and said he would prefer that Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate, win the special election instead of Moore. On December 5, 2017, one week before the election, Flake donated $100 to the Jones campaign and posted a tweet which said "Country over Party".
Supreme Court
In March 2016, Flake said that Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia, should not be confirmed unless Hillary Clinton wins the 2016 presidential election. Flake argued that should Clinton win, Garland should be confirmed in the Senate's lame-duck session because he is less liberal than any nominee Clinton might put forward. After meeting with Garland in April, Flake reiterated this position, saying that confirmation hearings on Garland's nomination should not be taken up until after the election, so that the American people can choose the next president, unless Clinton won, in which case, "we ought to approve him quickly."
In April 2017, he voted to invoke cloture (end debate) on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, putting an end to the Democratic filibuster. Flake also voted for the "nuclear option," ending the ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees, and deviating from Senate tradition. He stated, "While changing Senate rules was not my preferred outcome, this will simply make de jure what was de facto prior to 2003, when filibusters were virtually never used on the executive calendar." Experts have noted that this could presage an end to the use of the filibuster altogether, allowing for simple majority votes on legislation.
Other
In 2015, Flake and Senator John McCain published a report detailing what they called "paid patriotism" by the U.S. Department of Defense for using soldiers, military equipment and resources at professional sports events in the United States. The report gave evidence that taxpayer-funded patriotic displays extended not only to the NFL but also to Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer.
Personal life
Flake and his wife Cheryl (née Bae) have been married since 1985. They live in Mesa and have five children. They are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent time in Zimbabwe and South Africa as a Mormon missionary.
His uncle, Jake Flake, was an Arizona state senator.
In 2009, while serving as a Representative, Flake spent a week alone on the island of Jabonwod, one of the Marshall Islands, as a survivalist venture. He survived by eating crabs, coconuts, and fish. Having enjoyed the experience, he decided to repeat it when he was a senator, this time bringing his two youngest sons with him to another island in the area, Biggarenn, for four days during a congressional recess in 2013.
Electoral history
2018 Senate election
In 2018, Flake's Senate seat will be at stake. Flake angered some Republicans by his criticism of Donald Trump, the party's nominee in the 2016 election for President. President Trump himself was "furious" that Flake called on him to withdraw from the presidential race after the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape. In August, 2017, Flake published his book Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle, which expanded on his criticisms of Donald Trump.
On October 24, 2017, Flake announced he would not seek a second term in the Senate, delivering an impassioned speech on the Senate floor notable for its denunciation of the Trump Administration. Flake's speech, which was described by McKay Coppins as a "thundering indictment of his party, his president, and his country's political culture," was called "the most important speech of 2017" by Chris Cillizza.
In May 2018, Flake stated that he would donate to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin's campaign "if ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship" won the West Virginia primary and became the GOP nominee. Blankenship lost to Patrick Morrisey. That same month, Flake said that Trump had "debased" the presidency, and that he had "seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division. And only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works."
Possible 2020 presidential campaign
In mid-March 2018, Flake spoke in New Hampshire, the first presidential primary state, and said he had not ruled out a GOP primary challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020.
Publications
- Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. 2017. ISBN 978-0399592911, OCLC 993780116
- Senator Jeff Flake Presents Wastebook Porkémon Go January 2017. 2017. ISBN 978-1973708094, OCLC 1011043585
- Jurassic Pork: Old Earmarks Have Survived. 2015. ISBN 978-1540739100, OCLC 980361667
See also
- 2017 Broadband Consumer Privacy Proposal repeal
References
External links
- U.S. Senator Jeff Flake official U.S. Senate site
- Jeff Flake at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Jeff Flake on IMDb
- Jeff Flake at Goodreads
Source of article : Wikipedia
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