James Thomas Kolbe (June 28, 1942 – December 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
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 ...
. He represented
Arizona's 5th congressional district
Arizona's 5th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona, currently represented by Republican Andy Biggs.
The district contains Gilbert, Queen Creek, southern and eastern Chandler, and eastern Mesa ...
from 1985 to 2003 and its
8th congressional district from 2003 to 2007. A
moderate
Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...
, pro–
abortion rights
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
Republican, he
came out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
as gay in 1996 after voting in support of the
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marr ...
; his subsequent re-elections made him the second openly gay Republican elected to Congress.
After leaving Congress, Kolbe served on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations under Democratic president
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
. Kolbe left the Republican Party and became an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
in 2018 after the election of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
. He endorsed
Joe Biden in the
2020 presidential election.
Early life
Kolbe was born in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...
, a suburb of Chicago, on June 28, 1942,
the son of Helen Nevada (Reed) and Walter William Kolbe. When he was five, his family moved to a ranch in rural
Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Santa Cruz is a County (United States), county in southern Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population is 47,669. The county seat is Nogales, Arizona, Nogales. The county was established in 1899. It b ...
. He attended Patagonia Elementary School and
Patagonia Union High School
Patagonia Union High School (PUHS), is a public high school located in Patagonia, Arizona, which serves rural eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona, including the communities of Patagonia, Sonoita, and Elgin. PUHS is a 1A school, with an enrollmen ...
, but graduated from the United States Capitol Page School in 1960 after serving for three years as a
United States Senate Page
A United States Senate Page (Senate Page or simply Page) is a high-school age teen serving the United States Senate in Washington, D.C. Pages are nominated by senators, usually from their home state, and perform a variety of tasks, such as delive ...
for
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
. In 1965, he received his bachelor's degree in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
in Evanston, where he was a member of
Acacia fraternity
Acacia Fraternity, Inc. is a Fraternities and sororities in North America, social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fraternity has 27 active chapters and 3 Colony ( ...
, and, in 1967, his
master's in business administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
.
He served in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, including a year in Vietnam in the riverine, "
Swift Boat," force. He was a special assistant to
Illinois Republican Governor Richard B. Ogilvie
Richard Buell Ogilvie (February 22, 1923 – May 10, 1988) was the 35th governor of Illinois and served from 1969 to 1973. A wounded combat veteran of World War II, he became known as the mafia-fighting sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, in t ...
. He then moved to
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, where he was a business executive.
Arizona Senate
In 1976, Kolbe ran for the
Arizona Senate
The Arizona State Senate is part of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Arizona. The Senate consists of 30 members each representing an average of 219,859 constituents (2009 figures). Members serve two-year terms w ...
in a Tucson-area district and defeated a one-term
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
who had been elected in the national Democratic wave of 1974. He served three terms in that body, and was majority whip from 1979 to 1982.
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1982, Kolbe ran for 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 ...
in the newly created . He lost to Democrat
Jim McNulty, a member of the
Arizona Board of Regents, by one percent. However, Kolbe sought a rematch in 1984. Buoyed by
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
's massive national landslide that year (Reagan carried the 5th with 60 percent of the vote), Kolbe won, becoming the first—and until the 2014 elections, only—Republican to represent the Arizona-Mexico border region in the House. He was reelected 10 times, often facing only token opposition. In 1998, former Tucson mayor
Tom Volgy
Thomas John Volgy (born March 19, 1946) is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, where he has been on faculty since 1971. He is also the Executive Director (since 1995) of the International Studies Association.
He is a f ...
challenged Kolbe, holding Kolbe to only 51 percent of the vote.
Kolbe was a
moderate Republican. This served him well; although his district included most of Tucson's Republican-leaning suburbs, the brand of Republican politics practiced in Southeast Arizona has traditionally been a centrist and independently-minded one. Like his mentor, Goldwater, Kolbe supported
abortion rights
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
. He was generally more supportive of environmental legislation than most Republicans, especially those from the West. He was a member of various moderate Republican groups such as the
Log Cabin Republicans
The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) is an organization within the Republican Party which advocates for equal rights for LGBT+ Americans.
History
Log Cabin Republicans was founded in 1977 in California as a rallying point for Republicans opposed ...
, the
Republican Main Street Partnership
The Republican Main Street Partnership is a 501(c)(4) organization that was allied with the congressional Republican Main Street Caucus. The Partnership continues to exist, while the Caucus was dissolved by its members in February 2019.
Hist ...
, the
Republican Majority For Choice
The Republican Majority for Choice (RMC) was a Republican organization in the United States dedicated to preserving legal access to abortion. The group also supported federal funding for all kinds of stem cell research, including embryonic stem cel ...
,
Republicans for Choice
Republicans for Choice is an American political action committee (PAC) composed of members of the United States Republican Party who support abortion rights.
History
Republicans for Choice was founded in 1989 by conservative fundraiser and acti ...
,
Republicans For Environmental Protection
ConservAmerica, formerly known as Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), is a national nonprofit organization formed in 1995. REP's stated purpose is to strengthen the Republican Party's stance on environmental issues and support effor ...
, and
It's My Party Too. He was one of the four Republicans who voted against the
which was passed by the House of Representatives with 281–142 votes on October 2, 2003.
In 2001, Kolbe introduced the
Legal Tender Modernization Act The Legal Tender Modernization Act () was a bill proposed by United States Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona in 2002. Its main goal was to stop the continual production of pennies. The bill also mentions other provisions including:
* Allows the Bu ...
which would have ceased production of the U.S.
one-cent piece (penny). In July 2006, Kolbe introduced the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (COIN) Act, which would round cash transactions to the nearest five cents. This act would effectively remove the penny from circulation. Kolbe argued that, because of inflation, the penny is virtually worthless, and that the U.S. should stop using the penny now that the costs of penny production exceed its value. Kolbe had received some media attention as one of the foremost promoters of
eliminating the penny from circulation.
In 2004,
State House Majority Whip
Randy Graf
Randy J. Graf (born 1957) is a former member of the Arizona State House. He was the Republican nominee for in 2006.
Background
Graf grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin and graduated from Southwest High School in 1977. Graf has worked as a club ...
challenged Kolbe for the Republican nomination. It was the first substantive primary challenge Kolbe had faced since his initial run for the seat in 1982. Graf ran well to Kolbe's right, but was best known for his hardline approach to illegal immigration. In contrast, Kolbe was a strong supporter of
guest worker program A guest worker program allows foreign workers to temporarily reside and work in a host country until a next round of workers is readily available to switch. Guest workers typically perform low or semi-skilled agricultural, industrial, or domesti ...
s for immigrants. Kolbe defeated Graf. He easily won an 11th term in November. Also in 2004, Kolbe was among the 27 Republicans who voted against the
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), also referred to by proponents as the Marriage Protection Amendment, was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would legally define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The FMA ...
, a constitutional amendment intended to ban gay marriage. He voted against banning gay marriage again in 2006.
On November 23, 2005, Kolbe announced that he would not seek a 12th term in 2006. While Kolbe had usually coasted to reelection, it had been expected to be very competitive if he ever retired. (
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
had narrowly won the district 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 ...
narrowly edged out
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
and
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
in both of his presidential bids.) Graf won the five-candidate primary on September 12, 2006. Kolbe refused to endorse Graf, who lost to Democrat
Gabby Giffords
Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned ...
in the November 2006 election.
Kolbe endorsed State Senate President
Tim Bee
Timothy S. Bee is a Republican politician and business owner who served in the Arizona State Senate from 2001 through 2008. He was first elected to the Arizona Senate in 2001 and left in 2009 due to term limits. In 2008, he was the Republican ca ...
's bid to unseat Giffords in 2008. However, he withdrew his endorsement in July 2008.
Mark Foley scandal
In 2000, when Kolbe found out about former Congressman
Mark Foley
Mark Adam Foley (born September 8, 1954) is an American former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republic ...
's "Internet communications with teenagers" who were subordinate to Foley, he informed the office that oversaw the page program. He assumed the matter had been taken care of, although this was not brought to the public's attention until September 29, 2006,
when it became public that Foley had sent sexually explicit and solicitative e-mails and
instant messages
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
to young adult male pages. Republican leaders had claimed that they had only recently been made aware of Foley's actions, despite Kolbe's actions.
In January 2007, the
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...
committee ruled that Kolbe could use campaign funds for legal expenses associated with the Foley scandal.
Former Senator
Larry Craig
Lawrence Edwin Craig (born July 20, 1945) is an American retired politician from the state of Idaho. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, he served 18 years in the United States Senate (1991–2009), preceded by 10 years in the U.S. ...
cited this ruling in 2012 in defense against a lawsuit by the FEC regarding Craig's use of campaign funds in his own legal defense.
In October 2006, federal prosecutors in Arizona opened a preliminary investigation into a camping trip that Kolbe took in July 1996 that included two teenage former congressional pages, as well as National Park officials, then-current staff, and Kolbe's sister. During that trip to the Grand Canyon, he was accused of "acting inappropriately";
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
interviewed several people who were on the trip, and their accounts vary. On June 5, 2007, federal investigators absolved Kolbe of any wrongdoing in the case. In a statement released by the Justice Department, "investigators have completed their work on the preliminary inquiry opened by federal prosecutors last fall, and see no reason to pursue it further."
After Congress
Following his career in elected office, Kolbe became a fellow at the
German Marshall Fund
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a nonpartisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union.
Founded in 1972 through a gift from the We ...
think tank and a consultant at
Kissinger McLarty Associates. He focused on issues that were his priorities while he was in Congress—trade, aid, and migration. During the fall semesters from 2007 to 2009, he taught a class on trade and
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
James E. Rogers College of Law
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law is the law school at the University of Arizona located in Tucson, Arizona and was the first law school founded in the State of Arizona, opening its doors in 1915. Also known as University of Ar ...
in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. He was a member of the board of directors of the
International Republican Institute
The International Republican Institute (IRI) is an American nonprofit organization. Most of its board is drawn from the Republican Party. It is committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide by helping political parties to become more iss ...
. During the 2010 election he broke from the Republican Party to endorse the candidacy of Democrat
Andrei Cherny
Andrei Hugo Cherny (born August 4, 1975) is an American lawyer, author, former government official, and the founder and President of '' Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.'' Cherny serves as the CEO of Aspiration, Inc., a financial firm based in Ma ...
for state treasurer. He was also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank the
Inter-American Dialogue.
In September 2010, President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
appointed Kolbe to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Kolbe served on the Board of Advisors for
International Relief and Development Inc. He was also a Co-Chairman of the dollar coin alliance. Kolbe served on the board of directors of the
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. that addresses federal budget and fiscal issues. It was founded in 1981 by former United States Representatives Robert Gia ...
.
In 2018, Kolbe left the
Republican Party. He endorsed Democrat
Joe Biden for president in the
2020 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
**C ...
.
Kolbe sat on the Executive Advisory Board for autonomous trucking company TuSimple. He joined nine other former members of Congress to co-author a 2021 opinion editorial advocating reforms of Congress.
Personal life
Kolbe was married to Sarah Dinham, a professor of educational psychology at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
, from 1977 to 1992. He and his wife were divorced in that year. He was a member of Catalina
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...
.
Kolbe
came out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
as gay in August 1996 after his vote in favor of the
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marr ...
spurred efforts by some gay rights activists to
out him.
He won re-election that year. In 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address the
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
, although his speech did not address
gay rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 3 ...
. He was the second openly gay Republican to serve in Congress, the first being
Steve Gunderson of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
.
In 2013, Kolbe married his partner, Hector Alfonso. That year, Kolbe was a signatory to an
amicus curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
brief submitted to the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in support of
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
during the ''
Hollingsworth v. Perry'' case.
On December 3, 2022, Kolbe died from a stroke at age 80. Arizona Governor
Doug Ducey
Douglas Anthony Ducey (, né Roscoe Jr.; born April 9, 1964) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 23rd governor of Arizona since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Ducey was previously the CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, a c ...
ordered flags in the state to be lowered until the evening of December 4 in honor of Kolbe.
See also
*
List of LGBT members of the United States Congress
This is a list of lesbian, gay, and bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans who have served in the United States Congress.
26 members of the LGBT community are known to have held office in the U.S. Congress. In the House, 25 LGBT people he ...
References
External links
Jim Kolbeat th
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress*
Salon: A gay Republican talks about tradeThe Reluctant WarriorVoting record maintained by the Washington PostArticle on the COIN ActLog Cabin RepublicansJim Kolbe Papers at the University of Arizona
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolbe, Jim
1942 births
2022 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American politicians
21st-century American politicians
American LGBT military personnel
Arizona Independents
Businesspeople from Arizona
Candidates in the 1982 United States elections
Gay military personnel
Gay politicians
International Republican Institute
LGBT Christians
LGBT conservatism in the United States
LGBT members of the United States Congress
LGBT people from Illinois
LGBT state legislators in Arizona
Members of the Inter-American Dialogue
Military personnel from Arizona
Military personnel from Illinois
Northwestern University alumni
People from Evanston, Illinois
People from Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Place of death missing
Politicians from Tucson, Arizona
Republican Party Arizona state senators
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona
Stanford University alumni
United States Navy officers