Mike Lee

Mike Lee is a junior Republican Senator for the state of Utah. 

Lee grew up in Utah where he attended Brigham Young University and BYU's School of Law where his father was the founding dean. His father also served as Assistant US Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, causing Lee to spend part of his childhood growing up in the Virginia suburbs of DC. 

After graduating law school, Lee clerked for a judge on the US District Court for Utah. He then moved to DC to work on Supreme Court and Appellate litigation. He then served as Assistant US Attorney in Utah and a general counsel to the governor. In 2010, he was elected junior Senator. 

In the Know

Lee supported Ted Cruz's presidential campaign in 2016. 

Lee is not in support of climate change; he argued that EPA regulations of greenhouse gases should be lowered and was one of the 22 senators who signed a letter encouraging Trump to leave the Paris Climate Agreement. 

2017 Headlines

Lee was one of the 13 senators drafting the AHCA behind closed doors. In fact, his reasoning for not supporting the revised bill is that the Cruz Amendment does not go far enough to repeal Obamacare. His full statement reads, "After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest version of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, [the bill] doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

Fun Fact

This really is a "kiss-ass fact." Lee is apparently a big Paul Ryan fan - one of the points of his "5 Point Plan" to fix Congress after the 2016 election was to "Ryan-ize the committees." This basically was Lee saying he agreed with Paul Ryan's desire to cut taxes for the wealthy, but he describes it under the guise of "long-term planning." For the full 5 points, click here.