Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III (born October 29, 1940), also known as Connie Mack III, is an American former Republican politician. He served as a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

from 1983 to 1989 and then as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

from 1989 to 2001. He served as chairperson of the Senate Republican Conference from 1997 to 2001. He was considered for the Republican vice-presidential nomination by

Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his te ...

in 1996 and

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in 2000.

Jack Kemp Jack French Kemp (July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009) was an American politician and a professional football player. A member of the Republican Party from New York, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bu ...

and

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...

, respectively, were chosen instead. He is the grandson of Connie Mack (1862–1956), former owner and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

of baseball's

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

and a member of the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. "The Macks" were once considered one of the major political dynasties in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life, education, and family

Mack was born Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1940, the son of Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy Jr. and Susan (née Sheppard) McGillicuddy. He graduated from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

with a

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

in 1966. He is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Florida Blue Key. His paternal grandfather was Connie Mack (1862–1956), former owner and

of baseball's

and member of the

. Mack's maternal grandfather was Morris Sheppard, U.S. Senator and Representative from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. His maternal step-grandfather was

Tom Connally Thomas Terry Connally (August 19, 1877October 28, 1963) was an American politician, who represented Texas in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, as a member of the Democratic Party. He served in the U.S. House of Representa ...

, who also served as U.S. Senator from Texas; Mack's widowed grandmother married Connally the year after Sheppard died. Mack's father's line were Irish immigrants. Mack's maternal great-grandfather was

John Levi Sheppard John Levi Sheppard (April 13, 1852 – October 11, 1902) was an American lawyer, judge, and legislator. Biography Sheppard was born in Bluffton, Alabama on April 13, 1852. As a child he moved with his mother to Morris County, Texas, where he at ...

, who served as a U.S. Representative from Texas.

Congressional career

Elections

U.S. House elections

Mack made his first run for public office in 1982, when he ran in the Republican primary for the 13th District, a newly created district along the Gulf Coast that stretched from Sarasota to Naples. The old 13th, represented by Democrat William Lehman, had been renumbered as the 17th district. Mack led the field in a crowded four-way Republican primary with 28 percent of the vote and won a run-off election in October against State Representative Ted Ewing 58% to 42%. In the November general election, he won with 65% of the vote. In 1984, he won re-election unopposed and in 1986 won with 75% of the vote.

1988 U.S. Senate election

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles decided to retire. After three terms in the U.S. House, Mack decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He won the primary with 62% of the vote against

Robert Merkle Robert W. Merkle, Jr. (1944-2003) was an American attorney who served as U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Florida from 1982 to 1988. He also ran for governor of Florida and in the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat. He prosecuted drug ...

. In the general election, he defeated Democratic U.S. Congressman

Buddy Mackay Kenneth Hood "Buddy" MacKay Jr. (born March 22, 1933) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 42nd governor of Florida for 24 days from December 1998 to January 1999, upon the death of Lawton Chiles. A member of the Democratic P ...

with just 50% of the vote.

1994 U.S. Senate election

In the general election, Mack defeated Democratic attorney Hugh Rodham (brother of

Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

) 71% to 29%, winning every county in the state. He was the only Republican Senator in Florida history to get elected to more than one term until

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida Hous ...

did so in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Tenure

During his congressional career, Mack supported the passage of laws dealing with health care, fiscal policies, modification of the tax code, and public housing reform. A cancer survivor, Mack has also been a strong advocate for cancer research, early detection and treatment. Mack led a bipartisan congressional effort to double funding for biomedical research through the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

and worked to secure the necessary appropriations. He also secured Medicare coverage for clinical trials and was a leading Republican advocate of the Women's Health Initiative. He worked to strengthen and reform the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

. Mack helped define the framework of legislation to allow the financial industry to respond appropriately to the increasing demands of an aggressive global marketplace. He has worked to reduce government debt. He co-authored and introduced into the House the landmark Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act. Mack was also instrumental in passage of the Everglades Restoration Act, which was signed into law on December 11, 2000. He decided to retire in 2000 rather than run for re-election to a third term. Democrat Bill Nelson, the

Florida State Treasurer The chief financial officer of Florida is an elected statewide constitutional officer of Florida. The office was created in 2002 following the 1998 reforms of the Florida Cabinet. The CFO is a combination of the former offices of comptroller and ...

and a former U.S. Representative, won the open seat. Mack's son, U.S. Congressman Connie Mack IV, ran unsuccessfully against Nelson in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Awards

*1999, he received the National Coalition for Cancer Research Lifetime Achievement Award. *1992, he received the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

's Courage Award and the

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Susan G. Komen (formerly known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure; originally as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; often simply as Komen) is a breast cancer organization in the United States. Komen focuses on patient navigation and advo ...

's Betty Ford Award.

Post-congressional career

In 2005, Connie Mack III was appointed by President

as Chairman of the

President's Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform On January 7, 2005, President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, a bipartisan panel to advise on options to reform the United States income tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and mo ...

. Since early 2007, Mack has served as the Senior Policy Advisor to Liberty Partners of Tallahassee, a Florida-based lobbying firm. On April 15, 2010, Mack resigned as campaign chairman for

Charlie Crist Charles Joseph Crist Jr. (; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the U.S. representative for from 2017 to 2022. Crist has been a member of the Democratic ...

's race for the U.S. Senate.

Representation in other media

* In 2005, Mack was featured in ''Castles in the Sun'', a documentary about the development of Cape Coral. His father Connie Mack, Jr. had worked as a public relations man for Leonard and Jack Rosen, the brothers who developed Cape Coral as a waterfront resort. The producer interviewed Connie Mack III at his Palm Island, Florida home.''Castles in the Sun: The Cape Coral Story''
documentary about the development of Cape Coral, Florida; written and produced by William Tremper

References

External links

*
Connie Mack III Political Papers
at the

U.S. Senator Connie Mack
official U.S. Senate website (archived from December 3, 2000) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Connie 3 1940 births Living people Mack, Connie III Warrington College of Business alumni Republican Party United States senators from Florida Politicians from Philadelphia Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida Sigma Alpha Epsilon members 20th-century Florida politicians