93 Facts About Greg Gianforte

Gregory Richard Gianforte is an American businessman, politician, software engineer, and writer serving as the 25th governor of Montana since 2021.

Greg Gianforte went public in 2004; by that time, it employed over 1,000 workers.

In 2016, Greg Gianforte ran for governor of Montana as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent governor Steve Bullock.

In May 2017, Greg Gianforte defeated Democratic nominee Rob Quist in a special election for Montana's at-large congressional seat to fill a vacancy created by the appointment of Ryan Zinke as US Secretary of the Interior.

Greg Gianforte was convicted of assault in state court in June 2017 stemming from his election-eve body-slamming attack on The Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs in May 2017.

Greg Gianforte was fined and sentenced to community service and anger management therapy.

Greg Gianforte was reelected in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Kathleen Williams.

Greg Gianforte did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2020 and instead was a candidate in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election.

Greg Gianforte is the first Republican to serve as governor of Montana since Judy Martz left office in 2005.

Gregory Richard Gianforte was born on April 17,1961, in San Diego, California.

Greg Gianforte is the oldest son of Frank Richard Gianforte, who had a career as an aerospace engineer and, later, as a landlord.

Greg Gianforte's mother, Dale Douglass, worked for General Dynamics in San Diego, and later was a school math teacher.

Greg Gianforte attended Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where he was elected class president during his junior and senior years.

Greg Gianforte was captain of his school football team, where he played left offensive guard.

Greg Gianforte graduated in 1983 from his father's alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, with a BS in electrical engineering and a master's degree in computer science.

Greg Gianforte was a member of the Delta Tau Delta men's fraternity, and enjoyed playing squash.

Greg Gianforte began his career in 1983 at Bell Laboratories, working in product acquisition.

Frustrated by the bureaucratic corporate hierarchy at Bell Labs, Greg Gianforte departed to co-found Brightwork Development Inc.

Greg Gianforte then began working for McAfee as head of North American sales.

Part of Greg Gianforte's strategy was to leverage the internet as a means to overcome geographic barriers to building a globalized business.

Greg Gianforte was acquired by Oracle Corporation for $1.5 billion in 2011.

In 2012, Greg Gianforte sued the Montana Democratic Party for defamation, alleging the House campaign ads it aired critical of then House candidate Daines were libelous.

Greg Gianforte alleged the party aired television ads that claimed that Right Now Technologies capitalized itself with public contracts, and then offshored jobs.

Greg Gianforte has offered business lectures on entrepreneurship and building a global business.

Greg Gianforte has donated to the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, which advocate for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, as well as the Montana Family Foundation, which is "the state's primary advocate against LGBT policies".

Greg Gianforte served on the board of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an education reform organization founded by economist Milton Friedman which advocates for school vouchers.

Greg Gianforte has had a variety of business interests and investments.

Greg Gianforte is a partner in MGRR No 1, a limited liability company that has received grain subsidies since 1995.

Greg Gianforte was the founding board chair of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance.

Greg Gianforte resigned as chair in June 2017, when he was sworn into Congress.

In financial disclosure forms filed in 2017, Greg Gianforte indicated that he owned $150,000 worth of shares in VanEck Vectors Russia ETF and $92,400 in the IShares MSCF Russia ETF, totaling just under $250,000 in two exchange-traded funds focused on investments in Russia.

Greg Gianforte made the aircraft available to others in his congressional caucus to travel back to Washington for important votes.

Greg Gianforte faced Democratic musician and former Montana Arts Council member Rob Quist and Libertarian nominee Mark Wicks in the general election.

Greg Gianforte's campaign began accepting contributions from political party and leadership PACs.

Greg Gianforte distanced himself from Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary and did not attend Trump's sole rally in Montana, citing a scheduling conflict.

Greg Gianforte's campaign was supported by Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr.

Greg Gianforte declined to say whether he supported the American Health Care Act, the House Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

On May 4,2017, Greg Gianforte held a private conference call with Republican-leaning lobbyists in Washington in which he offered a more supportive view of the AHCA.

Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter in response to questions about how the AHCA would make health insurance too expensive for people with preexisting conditions.

Greg Gianforte opposed the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, comparing marijuana to more addictive drugs.

Greg Gianforte opposes abortion except in cases where a woman's life is in danger.

Greg Gianforte has said that he supports government enforcement of nondiscrimination for workers, but not for customers.

Greg Gianforte supported Executive Order 13769, to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Greg Gianforte blamed the Obama administration for "the situation with Russia" and favored a multilateral strategy to stand against Russian aggression.

Greg Gianforte supported Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.

Greg Gianforte opposed efforts to transfer federal lands to the states.

Greg Gianforte called for changes to the Endangered Species Act.

Greg Gianforte supported amending the Equal Access to Justice Act to reduce environmental litigation, saying that "environmental extremists" had abused the act.

Greg Gianforte acknowledged human-caused climate change but "did not have specific ideas on how to address climate change".

Greg Gianforte has said that "the climate is always changing" and believes that closing coal-fired power plants would not help mitigate climate change.

Greg Gianforte supported Trump's repeal of the Clean Power Plan and has called for investments in clean coal technology.

Greg Gianforte has criticized the length of time the Department of Interior spends to evaluate applications to drill and frack for shale gas.

Greg Gianforte outlined his position on retirement by using the Biblical example of Noah.

On May 24,2017, the day before the House special election, Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for The Guardian newspaper who was covering the election, reported to the Gallatin County, Montana Sheriff's Office that Greg Gianforte had assaulted him at Greg Gianforte's Bozeman campaign office after Jacobs asked him a question about health care policy.

Jacobs said that Greg Gianforte "bodyslammed" him to the floor and broke his glasses.

On October 10,2017, Greg Gianforte's mugshot was released publicly by a Gallatin County court order.

The Helena Independent Record editorial board rescinded its endorsement of Greg Gianforte and noted that before the attack, Greg Gianforte had encouraged his supporters to boycott certain newspapers, singled out a reporter in a room to point out that he was outnumbered, and joked about choking a news writer.

Greg Gianforte subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in Gallatin County District Court, acknowledging that Jacobs "did not initiate any physical contact with me" and writing a letter to Jacobs saying that Jacobs did not start the physical altercation.

Greg Gianforte was originally sentenced to four days in jail, to be completed in part through a work program, but he was ineligible for the work program due to the assault conviction.

Greg Gianforte said in court to Jacobs, "I am sorry, and if and when you are ready, I look forward to sitting down with you in DC" As of October 2017, Greg Gianforte had not sat down with Jacobs for an interview, and the issue was not pursued further.

Greg Gianforte met with the Missoulian newspaper editorial board in October 2018, and, when asked about the assault, maintained that his original false statement to sheriff's deputies in the immediate aftermath of the incident was his best recollection of events, a statement that Greg Gianforte later contradicted under oath in court with an admission of guilt connected to his guilty plea.

In 2018, Greg Gianforte ran against Democratic nominee Kathleen Williams, a state legislator and natural resources expert from Bozeman, and Libertarian Party candidate Elinor Swanson, a lawyer from Billings.

Greg Gianforte opposed Williams's proposal to allow those 55 and older to buy into Medicare, remarking, "Medicare for all is Medicare for none", and cautioned that Medicare would be at risk of spending cuts if Democrats won a majority in the House.

Williams criticized Greg Gianforte for introducing a bill to remove federal protections from several wilderness study areas in Montana without holding any public meetings on the issue.

Exit polling data indicated that Greg Gianforte had his strongest support at the polls from men older than 44 and from those with annual incomes above $50,000.

Greg Gianforte was sworn into the House of Representatives on June 21,2017.

Greg Gianforte touted refundable tax credits for low income parents as an achievement of the Republican Caucus in the 115th Congress.

In 2018, Greg Gianforte expressed opposition to the aluminum and steel tariffs imposed by President Trump, expressing fears about the impact of retaliatory tariffs on Montana agricultural exports.

Greg Gianforte chaired the Interior Subcommittee of the Oversight Committee through the end of the 115th Congress in 2018.

Greg Gianforte introduced legislation to nullify Wilderness Study Area designations from more than 800,000 acres of land in Montana under the stewardship of the federal Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service.

Greg Gianforte voted with Trump's position more often than Montana US Senator Steve Daines, a fellow Republican.

Greg Gianforte opposed the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump over the Trump-Ukraine scandal, calling it a "sham", and voted against both articles of impeachment against Trump.

Greg Gianforte voted against legislation in 2019 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Greg Gianforte voted against legislation to overturn Trump's emergency declaration to divert federal appropriations for construction of a border wall.

Greg Gianforte opposed federal action to combat climate change and supported Trump's withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change, voting against legislation to block Trump from withdrawing from the agreement.

Greg Gianforte is one of the few tech executives to be elected to political office in the US After Representative Darrell Issa left office in 2019, Greg Gianforte became the wealthiest member of Congress, a distinction he held until the January 2020 appointment of Kelly Loeffler to represent Georgia in the Senate.

In December 2020, Gianforte was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump.

On January 20,2016, Greg Gianforte announced his candidacy for the Republican Party's nomination for governor of Montana in the 2016 election.

Greg Gianforte stood by his statement, saying he had spoken with a Facebook executive the previous fall.

Greg Gianforte came under scrutiny when an audio tape surfaced revealing his past advocacy to replace state income tax and state business tax revenue with a state sales tax.

In 2009, Greg Gianforte's LLC filed a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks about the boundaries of an easement for public access to the East Gallatin River adjacent to his property.

Greg Gianforte consistently denied the allegations and called the issue a misunderstanding, noting the suit was never served, though the lawsuit was settled outside of court.

Greg Gianforte contended with Attorney General Tim Fox and State Senator Al Olszewski for the Republican nomination in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election.

Greg Gianforte drew parallels between his experience building a large technology company in Bozeman and Trump's business background, and shared anecdotes of visits to the White House meant to illustrate their ties.

Greg Gianforte was sworn in as governor on January 4,2021.

On February 12,2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Greg Gianforte lifted Montana's statewide mask mandate.

In May 2021, Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law that limited the ability of hospitals and other businesses to require that their staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 and prohibited businesses from requiring that customers be vaccinated in order to access facilities.

On February 18,2021, Greg Gianforte signed a constitutional carry bill into law.

On March 16,2021, Greg Gianforte signed a bill changing Montana's system of choosing judges, giving the governor, with the state senate's approval, more control over the process.

Greg Gianforte signed a bill making it easier for individuals to challenge government regulations for violating their religious beliefs, and signed three bills restricting abortion.

Greg Gianforte received an honorary doctorate from Stevens Institute of Technology and gave the commencement speech in 2012.

In 2007, Greg Gianforte was inducted into the CRM Hall of Fame.

Greg Gianforte received the 2003 Stevens Institute of Technology's Stevens Honor Award.