Michael A. Ferguson (born July 22, 1970) is an American
Republican Party politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
who served as 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 ...
representing
New Jersey's 7th congressional district
New Jersey's 7th congressional district includes all of Hunterdon and Warren Counties; and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties. The district is represented by Republican Thomas Kean Jr., who was first elected in 2022, de ...
from 2001 to 2009. Ferguson is now executive vice president at
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...
and leader of the company's federal legislative relations team.
Life and early career
Ferguson was born in
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,[Delbarton School
Delbarton School is a private all-male Catholic Church, Catholic college-preparatory school in Morristown, New Jersey for young men in seventh grade, seventh through twelfth grades. It is an independent school directed by the Benedictine monks ...]
, the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
, and has an
MPA
MPA or mPa may refer to:
Academia
Academic degrees
* Master of Performing Arts
* Master of Professional Accountancy
* Master of Public Administration
* Master of Public Affairs
Schools
* Mesa Preparatory Academy
* Morgan Park Academy
* Mou ...
from the
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
.
Before running for Congress he worked as a teacher at a private school, and worked as a part-time as an instructor at a community college.
Congressional career
Ferguson was the Republican nominee for
6th Congressional District in 1998, but lost to Democratic incumbent
Frank Pallone
Frank Joseph Pallone Jr. (; born October 30, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 1988. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 3rd district from 1988 to ...
. In 1999, Ferguson moved to the more Republican 7th district, where incumbent
Bob Franks
Robert Douglas Franks (September 21, 1951 – April 9, 2010) was an American Republican politician who served as a U.S. Representative from New Jersey.
Early life
Franks was born on September 21, 1951, in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Nor ...
was retiring to run for the United States Senate. Ferguson defeated
Thomas Kean Jr.
Thomas Howard Kean Jr. ( ; born September 5, 1968) is an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician and the U.S. representative-elect from New Jersey's 7th congressional district. From 2001 until 2003, he was a New Jersey Ge ...
and future
West Virginia Attorney General
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
Patrick Morrisey
Patrick James Morrisey (born December 21, 1967) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 34th Attorney General of West Virginia since 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Morrisey was elected Attorney General of West Vi ...
in the primary. He faced a difficult general election campaign against the Democratic candidate, former
Fanwood mayor
Maryanne Connelly but narrowly won, receiving 50% of the vote. At 30 years old, Ferguson was the youngest member of the New Jersey Congressional delegation.
Ferguson initially was a Member of the
House Financial Services Committee
The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...
, the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the
Small Business Committee. Early in his career he played an active role in committee hearings on
corporate accounting scandals
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal ...
at
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...
and
Worldcom
MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...
, and cosponsored the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. He also served on the House–Senate
conference committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
which produced the first
terrorism risk insurance law in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
In his second term, Ferguson joined the
House Energy and Commerce Committee
The Committee on Energy and Commerce is one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives. Established in 1795, it has operated continuously—with various name changes and jurisdictional changes—for more tha ...
, where he served as Vice Chairman of the
Health Subcommittee, and also served on the
Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee and the
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. During his time on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ferguson became a key Republican Member on health care issues broadly and a champion for the life sciences industry which employed large numbers of his constituents. This included working with his colleagues to ensure passage of the
Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs. Part D was enacted as part of the Medi ...
prescription drug benefit.
In 2002 and 2004, Ferguson defeated challenges from Democrats Tim Carden and
Steve Brozak by comparatively large margins.
In 2005, citing his family's own experience in providing care to his mother as she fought cancer, Ferguson sponsored the
Lifespan Respite Care Act, which authorized $289 million in grants to states to train volunteers and provide
respite care
__NOTOC__
Respite care is planned or emergency temporary care provided to caregivers of a child or adult.
Respite programs provide planned short-term and time-limited breaks for families and other unpaid caregivers of children with a developmenta ...
services to sick and elderly family members or children with special needs. President
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 ...
signed Ferguson's legislation into law December 21, 2006.
In 2006, Ferguson won reelection in a tight race with Democratic state legislator
Linda Stender
Linda Stender (born July 25, 1951) is an American Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 2002 to 2016, where she represented the 22nd legislative district. She ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the United ...
. Stender attempted to portray him as too conservative for the district and tie him with President Bush, who was extremely unpopular at the time in New Jersey. The 7th district had a slight Republican lean, and Stender won the more liberal suburban counties of
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
and
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
. Ferguson managed to win reelection by winning large margins in the more conservative areas in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
and
Hunterdon counties, and holding Stender to only a small lead in Union. Overall, he defeated Stender by just over 3,000 votes and a margin of less than 2 percentage points.
Ferguson announced on November 19, 2007, that he would not run for re-election in 2008, stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was succeeded by fellow Republican
Leonard Lance
Leonard John Lance (born June 25, 1952) is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for , from 2009 to 2019. He ran for re-election in 2018, but was defeated by Democrat Tom Malinowski. He is a member of the ...
, a state senator. Ferguson and his wife Maureen have five children.
Ferguson was the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Legislator of the Year award from the New Jersey
Veterans of Foreign Wars, the 2006 Legislator of the Year Award from the National Visiting Nurses Association, and the 2007 Congressional Award from the
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1949, is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer in the world. The LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's l ...
.
Overall, Ferguson's voting record was moderate by national Republican standards, as is typical of Republicans from New Jersey. He was known as a social conservative and staunch advocate for
anti-abortion causes, obtaining a 100% rating by the
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide.
Since the 1980s, NRLC has influen ...
.
Post-congressional career
Upon his retirement from Congress effective January 3, 2009, Ferguson became chairman and CEO of Ferguson Strategies LLC, a government affairs and strategic business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm provided services to
Fortune 100 companies as well as start-ups, with an emphasis on health care and life sciences as well as financial services and energy.
Ferguson co-chaired
New Jersey Governor
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...
Chris Christie's victorious
2009 campaign, and after the election served as Chairman of the Treasury Subcommittee for Christie's transition team. Christie later nominated Ferguson to be a board member of the
New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) is an independent authority established by the State of New Jersey in 1971 to oversee the Meadowlands Sports Complex, but which now contains the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, a regulatory ...
; Ferguson's nomination was approved March 10, 2011, by the Democratic-controlled
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...
Judiciary Committee and March 21, 2011, by the full Senate.
Ferguson is also a senior fellow at the non-profit
Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) is a non-profit medical issues research group. It was founded by the "free-market think tank" Pacific Research Institute. CMPI's research agenda deals with clinical outcomes and econometric stu ...
.
In 2016, Ferguson joined the law firm
BakerHostetler
BakerHostetler is an American law firm founded in 1916. One of the firm's founders, Newton D. Baker, was U.S. Secretary of War during World War I, and former Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
History
, the firm was ranked the 73rd-largest law firm in ...
as a senior advisor and leader of the firm's Federal Policy team.
In 2022, Ferguson joined AT&T as executive vice president of federal legislative relations, where he is responsible for managing the team that represents AT&T before Congress, the White House, and executive branch departments.
Electoral history
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2000, Shawn Gianella received 386 votes and Mary T. Johnson received 283 votes.
References
External links
*
BakerHostetler Federal PolicyFerguson Strategies LLCThe Center for Medicine in the Public Interest , Mike Ferguson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Mike
1970 births
Living people
Delbarton School alumni
McCourt School of Public Policy alumni
People associated with BakerHostetler
People from New Providence, New Jersey
People from Ridgewood, New Jersey
People from Warren Township, New Jersey
University of Notre Dame alumni
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey
21st-century American politicians