David Schweikert

David S. Schweikert /ˈʃwaɪkərt/ (born March 3, 1962) is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona, serving since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He currently represents Arizona's 6th congressional district, which includes most of northern Phoenix as well as Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Cave Creek. He previously represented the 5th District from 2011 to 2013.

He previously served two terms in the Arizona State House of Representatives (1991–1994), was chairman of the state Board of Equalization (1995–2004), and was the elected Maricopa County Treasurer (2004–2007). He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives three times: losing a primary to J. D. Hayworth in 1994, losing the general election to incumbent Harry Mitchell in 2008, and then defeating Mitchell in 2010.

Schweikert was born in Los Angeles, California, to an unwed mother who, according to Schweikert, almost had an abortion but chose instead to put him up for adoption. He grew up in Scottsdale with his adoptive parents and two adoptive siblings. He graduated from Saguaro High School there (1980), then earned a B.A. (finance and real estate, 1985) and MBA (2005) from the Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business.

Schweikert and his wife Joyce live in Fountain Hills.

Schweikert was elected to the Arizona State House of Representatives for District 28 in 1990, and re-elected in 1992. He represented Fountain Hills and part of Scottsdale. He arrived in the wake of the AzScam scandal, and was a committee chairman as a freshman and majority whip in his second term. His consistently conservative record led Republican colleagues to elevate him to Majority Whip.

As chair of the State Board of Equalization, Schweikert was also responsible for overseeing billions of dollars in valuations and tax protests from Arizona citizens and businesses. There was speculation in 1999 that Arizona Governor Jane Dee Hull might appoint Schweikert to the Arizona State Corporation Commission. He was appointed chairman of the Arizona State Board of Equalization, a full-time job, where he served from 1995–2003.

He was appointed Chief Deputy Treasurer of Maricopa County in 2004, and was elected Treasurer the same year. He resigned in 2007 to run for Congress again. In 2008 he lost by 10 percentage points, 53%–43%, to Democrat Harry Mitchell in congressional district 5. In 2010 he defeated the two-term incumbent.

Elections

He ran for the September 1994 Republican primary in Arizona's 6th congressional district. It resembled the 5th district formed after the 2000 census, but also included most of the northeastern part of the state, including Flagstaff and the Navajo reservation. J.D. Hayworth defeated him 45%–22%. After that defeat, he took time to reconsider and left for a lengthy vacation, which included travel to Calcutta, the Philippines, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam and Serbia.

Schweikert won a six way Republican primary election September 2, 2008 with 30% of the vote, compared to 27% for his nearest rival, Susan Bitter-Smith.

Several organizations endorsed Schweikert in the 2008 election, including the primary election: Club for Growth, the Arizona Police Association, Arizona Right to Life, and the Arizona Medical Association. Schweikert later blamed his defeat on the very bitter primary fight that preceded it. He received more than a half-million dollars from the Club for Growth. He was endorsed by the Arizona Police Association, which includes Chandler, Mesa, and Tempe law enforcement agencies, the Arizona Right to Life, the Arizona Medical Association and the Citizens Against Government Waste's political action committee.

He lost the general election to freshman incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell, 53%–44%.

Schweikert sought a rematch with Mitchell in 2010, with Libertarian Nick Coons also running. Schweikert won the Republican primary on August 24 with 37% of the vote. Early polling showed the race a dead heat. The Club for Growth decided to again endorse Schweikert after having sat out the competitive primary election.

On November 2, 2010 Schweikert defeated two-term incumbent Congressman Harry Mitchell 52%–43%.

After redistricting, the bulk of Schweikert's former territory became the 9th district, while his home in Fountain Hills was drawn into the newly created 4th district. However, as soon as the maps were released, Schweikert announced he would run in the 6th district. That district had previously been the 3rd, represented by fellow Republican freshman Ben Quayle. However, in a statement announcing his re-election plans, Schweikert pointed out that he'd grown up in Scottsdale—most of which had been drawn into the 6th as well—had represented it in both the state house and in Congress, and owned a second home there. A revised map, however, placed Schweikert's home in Fountain Hills into the reconfigured 6th.

Quayle, whose home in Phoenix had been drawn into the 9th but was just outside the boundaries of the 6th, opted to seek re-election in the 6th as well. During the bitter primary campaign, Schweikert was widely criticised for a mailer that accused Quayle of "going both ways", suggesting that he was bisexual. On the reverse, the mailer listed issues on which it claimed Quayle had taken both liberal and conservative positions. Senator Jon Kyl said that "such campaign tactics insult the voters, degrade politics and expose those who stoop to them as unworthy of high office" and Senator John McCain said the mailer was one of the "worst that I have seen" and that it "crosses the boundary of decent political dialogue and discourse." Quayle's spokeswoman called the mailer "utterly false" and "a sleazy smear tactic." Schweikert's spokesman responded that people "should get their minds out of the gutter" because the mailer was "obviously" referring to "'both ways'—as in liberal and conservative." The Arizona Republic asked two political scientists to review the mailer, who both said that they had "never seen anybody accuse someone of flip-flopping [on political issues] that way" and said that it was "difficult to believe" that the sexual suggestion was unintentional.

Although the 6th contained almost two-thirds of Quayle's constituents, Schweikert defeated Quayle in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district—by 53 percent to Quayle's 47 percent. He won re-election to a second term with 62% of the vote.

Tenure

Congressman Schweikert speaking at a rally in August 2014.

Schweikert argues that the state's immediate objective must be to secure the border against smuggling and illegal immigration. After it is "truly secure," lawmakers can proceed to establish a "common sense temporary guest worker program to enable businesses to obtain the employees they need." Additionally, Schweikert firmly opposes amnesty and "sanctuary cities." NumbersUSA has given Schweikert an A+ rating in accordance to his stance on immigration.

Schweikert opposes the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He opposed the international agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, calling it "disastrous." In 2015, Schweikert was one of 26 Republicans who voted against a Republican leadership-sponsored defense spending proposal; Schweikert took issue with increases to defense spending without corresponding offsets.

Schweikert opposes restrictions on gun ownership. He has received an "A" rating from both the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America. He was endorsed by the NRA in his 2010 election. Schweikert voted in favor of the National Right-To-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, a bill to requires all states, regardless of their own laws, to honor concealed carry permits from other states.

In 2015, Schweikert introduced legislation to remove firearm sales and ammunition from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's list of high-risk industries. In 2016, Schweikert introduced legislation to roll back existing gun laws in the District of Columbia, reversing the District's law limiting concealed-carry permits to those with a "good reason" to carry concealed weapons. In 2017, Schweikert voted to disapprove a Social Security Administration regulation in which the names of certain mentally incompetent beneficiaries (those whose finances handled by a third party representative payee) are submitted to the instant background check system for gun purchases.

Schweikert is anti-abortion. He has attributed his opposition to abortion to his own adoption. For 2015-2016, the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America gave Schweikert a 0% rating, while the anti-abortion National Right to Life gave Schweikert a 100% rating.

Schweikert supports the Hyde Amendment, a rider to appropriations bills that bars federal funds from being spent on abortions, and supports making the Hyde Amendment permanent. Schweikert opposes any funding for Planned Parenthood in any form, and supported legislation to bar the group from participating in any federally funded program, including for non-abortion healthcare services.

Schweikert has signed Grover Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," a pledge committing signers to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses ... and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." Schweikert was endorsed by the interest group FreedomWorks, which supports lower taxes, in the 2012 general election.

Schweikert opposed President Obama's budget, objecting to appropriations to expand the Smithsonian, conduct research, and build high-speed rail.

In 2015, Schweikert was just one of 17 Republicans to oppose the Republican budget, arguing that it did not sufficiently address mandatory spending on entitlement programs. He has called for cutting spending on Medicare and Social Security, arguing that "hard choices" must be made.

Schweikert is an outspoken opponent of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which imposed new financial regulations following the Great Recession. Schweikert opposes the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Volcker Rule. Schweikert has introduced legislation to dismantle Dodd-Frank.

Schweikert supported legislation to kill an Obama administration Department of Labor requirement that established a fiduciary standard for retirement and pension advisers, requiring that such advisers put their clients' financial interests ahead of their own.

In November 2011, Schweikert wrote a letter to President Obama objecting to $70,000 spent by the State Department on books authored by Obama, asking the President return the royalties. Embassies used the books as gratuity gifts and also to stock libraries in various countries.

Schweikert has received a 5% lifetime rating, and a 0% 2016 rating, from the League of Conservation Voters for his votes on environmental issues in the House.

He voted to opening the Outer Continental Shelf to offshore oil drilling and also voted for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in pursuit of coal. He voted to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.

Schweikert does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change, referring to global climate change as "folklore." He signed the Americans For Prosperity's "No Climate Tax Pledge" in which he will "oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue."

Schweikert was a cosponsor of the original USA Freedom Act, which imposed limits of the National Security Agency's collection of bulk telephone metadata and made certain reforms to the FISA Court.

Committee assignments

For the 114th United States Congress, Schweikert is now serving on the following committees:

• United States Congress Joint Economic Committee
• United States House Committee on Financial Services
  • United States House Financial Services Subcommittee Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises
  • United States House Financial Services Subcommittee Monetary Policy and Trade

The House Republican Steering Committee removed Schweikert from the Committee on Financial Services in late 2012 as part of a larger party leadership-caucus shift. He joined Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, demanding to know why they had lost their "plum" committee posts.

Politico quoted a spokesperson for Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia as explaining that Schweikert, Amash and Huelskamp were removed for "their inability to work with other members." The spokesperson clarified that Westmoreland "said that it had nothing to do with their voting record, a scorecard, or their actions across the street [meaning fundraising]." The three were described by Politico and its sourcing of Huelskamp's other colleagues as "jerks" who "made life harder for other Republicans by taking whacks at them in public for supporting the team".