87 Facts About Jeff Flake

1.

Jeffry Lane Flake was born on December 31,1962 and is an American politician and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Turkey.

2.

Jeff Flake was nominated by Democratic president Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate for his ambassador post on October 26,2021.

3.

Jeff Flake presented his credentials to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Complex of Turkey in Ankara on January 26,2022.

4.

Jeff Flake served as the representative for the 1st district until renumbering following the 2000 census redefined the district to be Arizona's 6th congressional district, which he then represented until he entered the Senate in 2013.

5.

Jeff Flake sought the Republican nomination for the 2012 Senate election after incumbent Jon Kyl announced his retirement.

6.

Jeff Flake defeated Democratic candidate and former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona in the general election.

7.

Jeff Flake was one of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" US senators that pushed an immigration reform bill through the Senate in 2013.

8.

Jeff Flake is known as a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, but generally voted in line with Trump's positions.

9.

On October 24,2017, Jeff Flake announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018.

10.

On January 29,2019, Jeff Flake was hired by CBS as a contributor for CBS News.

11.

Jeffry Lane Flake was born in Snowflake, Arizona, the son of Nerita and Dean Maeser Flake.

12.

Jeff Flake obtained a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and a Master of Arts in political science from Brigham Young University.

13.

Jeff Flake took a two-year leave of absence to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the early 1980s.

14.

Jeff Flake worked in the public affairs sector after college and was the executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia and executive director of the Goldwater Institute before entering the House of Representatives.

15.

Jeff Flake opposed economic sanctions on South Africa in the 1980s, arguing that sanctions would harm the black population who were already suffering under apartheid policies.

16.

Jeff Flake was first elected to Congress in 2000 from what was then the 1st District, after Republican incumbent Matt Salmon stepped down to honor a self-imposed term limit.

17.

Shortly after being elected for a third time, Jeff Flake announced in early 2005 that he had changed his mind on pledging term limits and was planning to run for reelection in 2006.

18.

Jeff Flake was a member of the Liberty Caucus, a group of libertarian-leaning Republican congressmen.

19.

Jeff Flake was a member of the Republican Study Committee.

20.

In February 2011, Jeff Flake announced that he was running for the US Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl in 2012.

21.

Jeff Flake easily won the Republican nomination against real estate businessman Wil Cardon.

22.

Jeff Flake faced former United States' surgeon general Richard Carmona, who sought office for the first time in the general election.

23.

In May 2012, Jeff Flake led Carmona by 13 points in the polls.

24.

Jeff Flake won mainly on the strength of carrying Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and 60 percent of the state's population, by 77,200 votes, more than the overall margin of 67,900 votes.

25.

Jeff Flake benefited from Mitt Romney, whom Flake considers a friend, carrying the state by 10 points in the presidential election.

26.

Jeff Flake succeeded retiring Republican US Senator Jon Kyl on January 3,2013.

27.

Jeff Flake used his experience surviving in the wild for six days with a Democratic Senator to develop an idea to end partisan gridlock in Washington.

28.

Jeff Flake later joked during a speech at the National Press Club that sending both Senate leaders to a remote island together might reduce partisanship and allow more legislation to move forward.

29.

Jeff Flake was on the field during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game when the Congressional baseball shooting happened on June 14,2017.

30.

Jeff Flake said the attendees were like "sitting ducks" and that it was likely that the Capitol Police saved their lives:.

31.

Jeff Flake had flown with Obama from Washington, DC, to Arizona in 2011 after the shooting of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

32.

On October 24,2017, Jeff Flake announced in a speech that he would not seek a second term in the Senate.

33.

In May 2018, Jeff Flake stated that he would donate to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin's campaign if Don Blankenship won the West Virginia Republican Senate primary.

34.

Jeff Flake was officially nominated by Biden to be the United States Ambassador to Turkey on July 13,2021.

35.

On October 26,2021, Jeff Flake was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote.

36.

Jeff Flake has used the phrase "traditionally conservative Republican" to describe his political preference.

37.

Jeff Flake is a fiscal conservative, and a critic of government waste and advocates reducing federal spending.

38.

Jeff Flake was described by columnist Robert Novak as an "insistent reformer".

39.

Until September 2010, Jeff Flake issued a press release listing an "egregious earmark of the week" every Friday.

40.

The earmark was usually followed by Jeff Flake making a humorous comment; as an example, Rep.

41.

In September 2018, Jeff Flake was among six Republican senators, Mike Lee, Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, David Perdue, and Ben Sasse, as well as Bernie Sanders, that voted against a $854 billion spending bill, meant to avoid another government shutdown.

42.

In 2012, it was reported that Jeff Flake had on at least five occasions voted against legislation intended to prevent natural disasters and provide aid to those harmed by natural disasters.

43.

In 2005, Jeff Flake was one of only 11 House representatives to vote against a bill providing supplemental emergency funds to handle damage from Hurricane Katrina.

44.

Jeff Flake is known as a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.

45.

Trump was "furious" that Jeff Flake called on him to withdraw from the presidential race after the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape.

46.

In October 2017, upon announcing that he would not seek re-election in 2018, Jeff Flake delivered a speech on the Senate floor where he denounced the Trump Administration.

47.

Jeff Flake was one of two Republicans to vote against the confirmation of Trump's nominee to be CIA Director, Gina Haspel.

48.

Jeff Flake refused to push Trump to take a firmer stance on Russia.

49.

In November 2018, Jeff Flake announced that he would vote to hold up Trump's nominees to the judiciary until the Senate voted on a bill to protect the independence of Robert Mueller's FBI investigation.

50.

Jeff Flake was one of two Republicans to oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal judiciary; his opposition was crucial to the derailing of Trump's nominee.

51.

Jeff Flake was censured by the Arizona Republican Party on January 23,2021 for his lack of loyalty to the party leadership.

52.

Jeff Flake introduced the Senate version of the bill along with Senator John McCain.

53.

Jeff Flake wrote that the EPA proposed rule did not make a distinction between waterways that flow all year or just part of the year.

54.

Jeff Flake said that 94 percent of Arizona's waterways do not flow continuously year-round, and argued that the lack of distinction in the rule would affect most of Arizona's waterways.

55.

Jeff Flake voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution in the House of Representatives in October 2002.

56.

Jeff Flake supported ending the Cuba Trade Embargo and otherwise normalizing relations with Cuba.

57.

Jeff Flake supported President Barack Obama's 2014 decision to begin the process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, despite opposition to the policy change from other Republican senators.

58.

Jeff Flake joined Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Patrick Leahy on a trip to Cuba to return Alan Gross to the United States.

59.

In 2007, Jeff Flake introduced legislation that would have provided a path to legalization for illegal immigrants, granted temporary legal status to illegal immigrants who paid a fine and passed background checks, and created a guest worker program.

60.

Also in 2007, Jeff Flake was removed from the House Judiciary Committee by Republican Minority Leader John Boehner for "bad behavior", which Boehner said was criticism of party leaders, though Jeff Flake himself attributed it to his support of comprehensive immigration reform.

61.

In 2010, Jeff Flake voted against the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrant minors provided that they join the military or go to university.

62.

In late October 2012, Jeff Flake stated that he may support it in the future.

63.

When in November 2014, Obama announced on TV that he would use his executive powers to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States, Jeff Flake said that the best response would be not to shut down the government, but to pass a bill that addresses immigration problems.

64.

Jeff Flake opposed using a government funding bill to stop Obama's executive action, but Jeff Flake said that he believed that both parties' strategies would make it more difficult to pass immigration reform legislation.

65.

Jeff Flake has publicly said that he believes that the reason so many children in recent years have come across the US border illegally without parents is because parents believe their children will be able to stay in the United States if they do so.

66.

Jeff Flake has said that the Republican Party needs to take a rational approach to solving immigration problems, and if it does not, the party will have a difficult time winning national elections.

67.

Jeff Flake said that Jeb Bush's support of an immigration system reform makes Bush more electable in a general election.

68.

Jeff Flake spoke out against President Donald Trump's January 2017 executive order to prohibit immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

69.

In October 2017, Jeff Flake refused to support Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in the December 2017 Senate special election in Alabama.

70.

Jeff Flake said that he could not support a candidate who believed that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress.

71.

On December 5,2017, one week before the election, Jeff Flake donated $100 to the Jones campaign and posted a tweet which said "Country over Party".

72.

Jones ultimately won the election, with Jeff Flake tweeting out "Decency wins".

73.

On February 8,2011, Jeff Flake voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

74.

On February 10,2011, Jeff Flake again voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

75.

On March 7,2017, Jeff Flake introduced a bill to eliminate FCC Internet privacy rules that were passed under President Barack Obama.

76.

Jeff Flake's proposed bill would allow Internet service providers to share and sell consumers' browsing history without consent.

77.

In 2010, Jeff Flake was one of fifteen Republican House members to vote in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which repealed the US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned openly gay service members.

78.

Jeff Flake had voted to amend the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage with a Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006.

79.

In 2017, Jeff Flake voted three times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

80.

Jeff Flake cosponsored the bipartisan STATES Act proposed in the 115th US Congress by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Colorado Senator Cory Gardner that would exempt individuals or corporations in compliance with state cannabis laws from federal enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act.

81.

In March 2016, Jeff Flake said that Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia, should not be confirmed unless Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election.

82.

Jeff Flake argued that should Clinton win, Garland should be confirmed in the Senate's lame-duck session because he was less liberal than any nominee Clinton might put forward.

83.

Jeff Flake voted for the "nuclear option," ending the ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees.

84.

On September 28,2018, Jeff Flake announced his intention to vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

85.

In November 2018, Jeff Flake was one of twelve Republican senators to sign a letter to President Trump requesting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement be submitted to Congress by the end of the month to allow a vote on it before the end of the year as they were concerned "passage of the USMCA as negotiated will become significantly more difficult" if having to be approved through the incoming 116th United States Congress.

86.

Jeff Flake spent time in Zimbabwe and South Africa as a missionary.

87.

In 2009, while serving as a Representative, Jeff Flake spent a week alone on the island of Jabonwod, one of the Marshall Islands, as a survivalist venture.