James Comer (politician)
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James Richardson Comer Jr. (born August 19, 1972) is an American politician from the Commonwealth of
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
who represents the commonwealth's 1st congressional district in 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
. He served as Kentucky's agriculture commissioner from 2012 to 2016 and in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 2000 to 2012. Comer unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for
governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-e ...
in the 2015 election. A year later, he won the Republican nomination for to succeed
Ed Whitfield Wayne Edward Whitfield (born May 25, 1943) is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative of from January 1995, until his resignation in September 2016. He is a member of the Republican Party, and the first to repr ...
. On November 8, 2016, Comer won both a full term to the seat for the next Congress and a special election that allowed him to serve the remainder of Whitfield's term.


Early life and education

Comer is a native of
Carthage, Tennessee Carthage is a town in and the county seat of Smith County, Tennessee, United States; it is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,306 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Cumberland River, which was importan ...
. He grew up in
Monroe County, Kentucky Monroe County is a county located in the Eastern Pennyroyal Plateau region of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Tompkinsville. The county is named for President James Monroe. It is a prohibition or dry county. History Monroe Coun ...
, graduating from Monroe County High School,
Tompkinsville, Kentucky Tompkinsville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,402 at the 2010 census, down from 2,660 in 2000. The city was named after Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins who served ...
, in 1990. He received a BS in Agriculture from
Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...
in 1993. In college he served as president of the Kentucky
Future Farmers of America National FFA Organization is an American 501(c)(3) youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. It was founded in 1925 at Vi ...
. After college, he and his family started James Comer, Jr. Farms, a farm, and he also co-owns Comer Land & Cattle Co. He served as a director of the South Central Bank for 12 years. Comer served as president of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce from 1999 to 2000.


Kentucky politics


Kentucky House of Representatives

In 2000, Comer was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives at the age of 27.


Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture

In 2011, Comer ran for agriculture commissioner. The incumbent,
Richie Farmer Richard Dwight Farmer (born August 25, 1969) is an American former collegiate basketball player and Republican Party politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served as the Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner from 2004 to 2012 and was the ...
, was
term-limited A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...
. In the election, Comer was the only Republican to win election to a statewide executive office, and worked with a team of Democratic officials and under a Democratic governor. He had the highest percentage of the vote of any candidate on the ballot, and raised $606,766 to his opponent's $204,287. He took office in January 2012. One of Comer's first actions in office was to team up with Democratic Auditor Adam Edelen to investigate his Republican predecessor's ethics while in office. That year Comer, became chair of the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission, and shortly after taking office, he called the legalization of industrialized hemp his top priority, and was "instrumental in getting the hemp industry up and running", including by founding several pilot programs in an effort to restart Kentucky's industrial hemp industry. He also filed suit against the DEA, which resulted in the DEA allowing hemp seeds to be delivered to Kentucky farmers for the first new crops. Between 2014 and 2015, Kentucky's hemp crops grew from 33 to 1,700 acres. Comer also advocated for national hemp deregulation. Comer founded the Kentucky Proud Farm to Campus program, and created a mobile science centers program for primary and secondary school students to learn about agricultural sciences.


2015 gubernatorial election

On August 2, 2014, during the annual Fancy Farm picnic, Comer announced he would seek the Republican nomination for
governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-e ...
in the 2015 election. His running mate was State Senator
Christian McDaniel Christian 'Chris' McDaniel (born July 19, 1977, in Covington, Kentucky) is an American politician and a Republican member of the Kentucky Senate representing District 23 since January 8, 2013. He was the running mate of Republican gubernatori ...
. At the conclusion of voting in the May 19 election, Comer was 83 votes behind businessman
Matt Bevin Matthew Griswold Bevin (; born January 9, 1967) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Kentucky, from 2015 to 2019. He was the third Republican Party (United States), Republican elected Kentucky governor sin ...
. The
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
, calling the race a "virtual tie", did not call it for either candidate. Comer refused to concede and said he would request a recanvass. The request was filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office on May 20, with Secretary of State
Alison Lundergan Grimes Alison Case Lundergan Grimes (born November 23, 1978) is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who was the secretary of state of Kentucky from 2012 until 2020. Grimes was elected in 2011 after defeating incumbent Elaine Walker in the D ...
ordering the recanvass to begin at 9:00 a.m. on May 28. After the recanvass, Grimes announced that Bevin remained 83 votes ahead of Comer. She also said that should Comer want a full
recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...
, it would require a court order from the
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
Circuit Court. On May 29, Comer announced he would not request a recount and conceded the nomination to Bevin.


U.S. House of Representatives


Elections


2016

In 2016, Comer entered the Republican primary election for the 1st congressional district of Kentucky against two other competitors. Before the primary, he was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the
US Chamber of Commerce The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the largest lobbying group in the United States, representing over three million businesses and organizations. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urgin ...
. He won the primary with 60.6% of the vote. Comer was elected to the House with 72.6% of the vote. Since Whitfield had resigned in September, Comer actually ran in two elections on November 8–a special election for the last two months of Whitfield's 11th term, and a regular election for a full two-year term. Comer won both elections over Democratic nominee Samuel L. Gaskins with over 72% of the vote. He was sworn in soon after the results were certified, giving him two months' more seniority over the rest of the 2017 freshman class.


Tenure

During his first few months in office, Comer held several town hall meetings, where he discussed the Congress's early platform. He partnered with
Murray State University Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper level and graduate courses in Paducah, H ...
to form the Congressman James Comer Congressional Agriculture Fellowship program, and advocated for agricultural legislation reform. He criticized the regulatory policies of
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 ...
, and supported the early domestic policies and actions 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 ...
. Comer is a social conservative on same-sex marriage and abortion. He believes the trade embargo on Cuba should be lifted. Comer voted for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs A ...
. After the bill passed, he said: "I am proud to support this critical part of President Trump's pro-growth agenda that will fulfill this promise to the American people who have struggled under the weight of Washington bureaucrats for far too long." Comer was an original cosponsor of the Hemp Farming Act, which legalized hemp nationwide and removed federal regulations on the crop. The bill was later included in the
Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 The 2018 farm bill or Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is an enacted United States farm bill that reauthorized $867 billion for many expenditures approved in the prior farm bill (the Agricultural Act of 2014). The bill was passed by the Senat ...
and signed into law by Trump on December 20, 2018. Comer was a member of the conference committee that negotiated its final version. At the outset of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Comer and Representative
Suzanne Bonamici Suzanne Marie Bonamici ( ; born October 14, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 1st congressional district, a seat she was first elected to in a 2012 special election. The district includes m ...
introduced legislation that would protect access to school lunches for school districts throughout the country that had to close because of the pandemic. The COVID–19 Child Nutrition Response Act allows the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to waive requirements for children to gather at schools in order for school officials and food service personnel to distribute reimbursable, nutritious meals. It also gives local school officials discretion over substitutions for meal components if supply or procurement is disrupted. When introducing the bill, Comer said, "this bill is a critical step toward ensuring that our students maintain access to the school meals they rely on for their health and well-being". After it cleared the House and Senate, Trump signed the legislation into law on March 18. When the 2022 United States House of Representatives election resulted in Republicans winning a majority in the House for 2023, Comer said in November 2022 that the House Oversight Committee's "focus in this next Congress" was investigating President Joe Biden, particularly his "relationship with his family's foreign partners and whether he is a president who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence". After Comer became the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he responded in January 2023 to the
Joe Biden classified documents incident Between November 2022 and January 2023, approximately 25 to 30 Classified information, classified government documents were discovered by President Joe Biden's attorneys in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and in ...
by calling for visitor logs for Joe Biden's residence, where some classified documents from Biden's past vice-presidency were found by Biden's lawyers; on the same day, Comer said that he would not call for visitor logs for Donald Trump's residence in Mar-a-Lago, where an FBI search found classified documents from Trump's past presidency despite Trump's lawyers' claim that no such documents remained there. Comer declared he would investigate Biden because Biden "hasn’t been investigated", while also declaring: "there have been so many investigations of President Trump. I don’t feel like we need to spend a whole lot of time investigating President Trump".


Committee assignments

*
Committee on Education and Labor The Committee on Education and Labor is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. There are 50 members in this committee. Since 2019, the chair of the Education and Labor committee is Robert Cortez Scott of Virginia. Hi ...
** Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services (Ranking Member) ** Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment *
Committee on Oversight and Reform The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...
(Chair) * Committee on Agriculture ** Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research ** Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture


Caucus memberships

*
Second Amendment Caucus The Second Amendment Caucus, also known as the House Second Amendment Caucus, is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative and libertarian Republican members of the United States House of Representatives who support Second Amendment right ...
*
Republican Study Committee The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is a study group of conservative members of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives. As of 2021, the Chairman of the RSC is Representative Jim Banks of Indiana. Although the prim ...


Political positions


Health care

Comer supports the repeal of the
Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
("Obamacare").


Economic issues

In 2016 Comer called the Obama administration's final budget a "disaster in the making". In 2017, he voted for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs A ...
, which was estimated to add $1.49 trillion to the national debt. Comer opposes paid
parental leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" an ...
for federal workers.


Immigration

Comer opposes
amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
and
sanctuary cities Sanctuary city (; ) refers to municipal jurisdictions, typically in North America, that limit their cooperation with the national government's effort to enforce immigration law. Leaders of sanctuary cities say they want to reduce fear of deport ...
. He supports
Executive Order 13767 Executive Order 13767, titled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements, was issued by United States President Donald Trump on January 25, 2017. The order directs a wall, colloquially called the "Trump wall", to be built along the ...
, the building of a wall along the
Mexico–U.S. border The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...
.


Abortion

Comer is anti-abortion.


Marijuana

Comer supports declassifying
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
as a Schedule 1 narcotic and growing
hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...
. In December 2017, he said there is "simply not enough support for medical marijuana legalization across the board".


LGBT rights

Comer opposes
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 ...
. He also opposes banning
discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
based on
sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
and
gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
, and voted against the Equality Act in 2019. Comer voted against th
Respect for Marriage Act
in 2022.


Iraq

In June 2021, Comer was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the AUMF against Iraq.


Electoral history


Personal life

Comer is married to Tamara Jo "TJ" Comer and has three children. He has attended First Baptist Church of Tompkinsville and Elkhorn Baptist Church. On May 5, 2015, Comer was accused of physical and mental abuse by Marilyn Thomas, a woman he dated while attending Western Kentucky University in 1993. He has said he believes the accusation was a political stunt to hinder his gubernatorial campaign.


References


External links


Congressman James Comer
official U.S. House website
Campaign site
* * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Comer, James 1972 births 21st-century American politicians Kentucky Commissioners of Agriculture Living people Republican Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives People from Carthage, Tennessee People from Tompkinsville, Kentucky Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky Western Kentucky University alumni