Richard Louis Hanna (January 25, 1951 – March 15, 2020) was an American politician who served as a
U.S. Representative from
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
from 2011 to 2017. A member of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
* Republican Party (Liberia)
*Republican Party ...
, his district was numbered the
24th during his first term in Congress; from 2013 to 2017, it was numbered as the .
Early life, education and business career
Hanna was born in
Utica and raised in
Marcy. His grandparents owned a
dairy farm in
Herkimer County. He graduated from Whitesboro High School in Marcy. Then, he graduated from
Reed College
Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
with a bachelor's degree in
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...
and
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 ...
. After college, Hanna returned to New York to start his own construction business called Hanna Construction. Hanna was of
Lebanese descent.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2008
In 2008, Hanna ran against incumbent Democrat
Mike Arcuri
Michael Angelo Arcuri (born June 11, 1959) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He lost re-election on November 2, 2010, to Republican Richard L. Hanna.
Ar ...
and narrowly lost.
2010
In 2010, he ran in a rematch and won.
2012
Due to redistricting, Hanna ran in the new
22nd district in 2012.
In his 2012 campaign for re-election against Democrat
Dan Lamb, television stations
WUTR in
Utica and
WSYR in
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
* Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
* Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
** North Syracuse, New York
* Syracuse, Indiana
*Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, M ...
announced they would jointly air a debate between Hanna and Lamb. Hanna declined to participate, citing another scheduled televised debate and five that would not be televised. The stations said that if Hanna did not appear, they would air a 30-minute question-and-answer session with Lamb. According to Steve Merren, the vice president and general manager of WUTR's parent company,
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Hanna then contacted Merren. In an email to staff, Merren stated, "He indicated to me that we would not be considered for his ad dollars and our level of cooperation in the future could be affected." Merren then directed that WUTR not go ahead with the broadcast. Both Merren and a Hanna spokeswoman denied that threats had been made. After the inadvertent disclosure of the internal email, Merren told the press that Hanna "did not say he would pull his ad dollars." The Hanna campaign said that his conversation with Merren had been "nothing more than a courtesy call". The Lamb campaign said that Hanna was "using his money to influence the journalistic decisions of a local news agency."
2014
In 2014, Hanna received a primary challenge from a considerably more conservative Republican, State Assemblywoman
Claudia Tenney
Claudia L. Tenney (born February 4, 1961) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 22nd congressional district since 2021, having previously represented the district from 2017 to 2019. Her distric ...
. Described as a "Tea Party favorite," Tenney reportedly challenged Hanna because "she believed he had abandoned his conservative principles during two terms in Congress. Tenney called Hanna a RINO (Republican in Name Only) who had become the third-most liberal Republican in the House of Representatives, based on his voting record." Hanna defeated Tenney by a margin of 53% to 47%; when asked about the message sent by his win, he said, "I hope it's a message that you could be thoughtful and inclusive and still be elected." Hanna went on to win re-election in November, when he had no Democratic challenger.
Tenure
Hanna was a member of the conservative
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 prima ...
and the centrist
Republican Main Street Partnership. He was a member of the
LGBT Equality Caucus. Hanna stated his opposition to the
Patient Protection and 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 Pres ...
. He was one of only six House Republicans in the
112th Congress
The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...
who did not sign
Grover Norquist's "
Taxpayer Protection Pledge," with a spokesman explaining that "Rep. Hanna is focusing on the pledges he has made to his wife, the Constitution of the United States and the people of upstate New York."
According to the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
s congressional votes database, Hanna voted with the House Republicans 85% of the time in his first year in office; only 11 Republicans (out of 244) had a lower percentage at the time. Hanna was ranked as the 2nd most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the
114th United States Congress
The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from ...
(after
Peter T. King) in
The Lugar Center and
McCourt School of Public Policy's Bipartisan Index.
In February 2011, Hanna published an op-ed opposing the extension of the
USA PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...
. Editors from the ''
Syracuse Post-Standard
''The Post-Standard'' is a newspaper serving the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Published by Advance Publications, it and sister website Syracuse.com are among the consumer brands of Advance Media New York, alongside NYUp.com and ''The ...
'', which published the piece, later reprimanded Hanna for plagiarizing content from a report by Julian Sanchez of the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...
in his editorial. Sanchez indicated that Hanna had his permission to use the content, although he was not referenced in the piece.
The first bill Hanna co-sponsored was H.R. 4 which repealed the 1099 tax reporting provision of the
Patient Protection and 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 Pres ...
. President Obama signed the bill into law in April 2011. In early 2011 Congressman Hanna voted to repeal health care reform. Hanna voted to support the
Energy Tax Prevention Act which would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gasses and implementing a "cap-and-trade" system through regulation. Hanna voted against cuts to
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
and
Planned Parenthood
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
. Hanna voted in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
At a rally in support of the
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
in March 2012, Hanna urged women to donate to Democratic candidates, saying: "I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault... Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side -- my side -- has a lot of it."
In the
2012 presidential election, he endorsed former
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.
Jon Meade Huntsman Jr. (born March 26, 1960) is an American businessman, diplomat and politician who served as the 16th Governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Ambassador of the United States t ...
Hanna supported reauthorization of the
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investi ...
.
In 2013, he supported
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, becoming the second Republican member of the House to do so (the first being
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (; born Ileana Carmen Ros y Adato, July 15, 1952) is a politician and lobbyist from Miami, Florida, who represented from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She w ...
).
In June 2013, Hanna was the only Republican congressman to vote against proposed legislation to ban
abortions
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of preg ...
after 20 weeks of pregnancy except for victims of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
or
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity ( marriage or stepfamily), ado ...
who have reported the crime to authorities. He opposes partial birth abortions, but stated that he was unable to support this legislation because it would cast aside exception for the health of the mother, and it fails to adequately account for unique circumstances that can arise after 20 weeks because every pregnancy is specific.
In December 2015, Hanna—citing family responsibilities—announced that he did not plan to run for re-election in 2016. Hanna indicated that a potential primary rematch with Claudia Tenney did not influence his decision not to seek re-election. He endorsed businessman Steve Wells as his successor, but Wells lost the primary to Tenney, who won the seat in the general election.
On August 2, 2016, Hanna became the first sitting Republican member of Congress to say that he would vote for
Hillary 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 sen ...
for president over
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 P ...
in the
2016 presidential election, referring to the Republican nominee as "a national embarrassment".
In December 2016, Hanna said in an interview that the Republican Party had "gone to the far extremes on social issues. They've become judgmental and sanctimonious and authoritarian on their approach to people."
Committee assignments
*
Committee on Education and the Workforce
**
Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
**
Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training
*
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives.
History
The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works a ...
**
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
**
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit (Vice Chair)
**
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materialsbr>
United States House Transportation Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment*
Committee on Small Business
Caucus memberships
*
United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus
Personal life and death
Hanna lived in
Barneveld, New York. He and his wife Kim had two children. He died from cancer at a hospital in
Oneida County, New York
Oneida County is a county in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 232,125. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or ''Haudenos ...
on March 15, 2020, aged 69.
See also
*
List of Arab and Middle-Eastern Americans in the United States Congress
References
External links
*
*
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, Richard
1951 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American politicians
American construction businesspeople
American politicians of Lebanese descent
Businesspeople from New York (state)
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Politicians from Utica, New York
Reed College alumni
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)