James Elroy Risch is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Idaho since 2009.
44 Facts About Jim Risch
2.
In 1995, Governor Phil Batt appointed Jim Risch to represent the 18th legislative district in the state Senate; he held the position until 2002.
3.
Jim Risch ran for lieutenant governor of Idaho in 2002, defeating incumbent Jack Riggs in the primary.
4.
Jim Risch served under Governor Dirk Kempthorne from 2003 to 2006.
5.
Jim Risch chose not to run for governor in the 2006 gubernatorial election and instead ran for reelection as lieutenant governor.
6.
Jim Risch ran for the US Senate seat held by the retiring Larry Craig in the 2008 election.
7.
Jim Risch won the election, defeating Democratic nominee Larry LaRocco.
8.
Jim Risch's father is of German descent and his mother is of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry.
9.
Jim Risch served on the Law Review and the College of Law Advisory Committee before receiving a JD degree in 1968.
10.
Jim Risch entered politics in 1970 in Boise at age 27, winning election as Ada County Prosecuting Attorney.
11.
Concurrent with his service in the Idaho Senate, Jim Risch became a millionaire as one of Idaho's most successful trial lawyers.
12.
Jim Risch was first elected to the Idaho Senate from Ada County in 1974.
13.
Jim Risch entered the state senate leadership in 1976, serving as majority leader and later as president pro tempore.
14.
Jim Risch returned to the state senate in 1995, as an appointee of Governor Phil Batt, who had named Madsen as the director of the Department of Labor, then known as the Department of Employment.
15.
In January 2001, Jim Risch had his eye on the lieutenant governor's seat vacated by Butch Otter, who resigned after being elected to Congress, but Governor Dirk Kempthorne appointed state Senator Jack Riggs of Coeur d'Alene to the post instead.
16.
The next year, Jim Risch defeated Riggs in the Republican primary and won the general election, spending $360,000 of his own money on the campaign.
17.
On May 26,2006, Jim Risch became governor of Idaho when Kempthorne resigned to become US secretary of the interior.
18.
Jim Risch appointed Mark Ricks to serve as his lieutenant governor.
19.
Jim Risch served out the remaining seven months of Kempthorne's term, which ended in January 2007.
20.
Jim Risch was expected to enter the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Kempthorne, who was completing his second term at this time of his federal appointment.
21.
In November 2005, Jim Risch announced his intention to seek election again as lieutenant governor.
22.
Jim Risch was unopposed for the 2006 Republican nomination for lieutenant governor and defeated former Democratic US representative Larry LaRocco in the general election.
23.
Jim Risch resigned as lieutenant governor to take his seat in the Senate on January 3,2009.
24.
In May 2008, Jim Risch was nominated as the Republican candidate for US Senate.
25.
Jim Risch was one of four freshmen Republican senators in the 111th Congress of 2009, with Mike Johanns of Nebraska, George LeMieux of Florida and Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
26.
In 2017, Jim Risch was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
27.
On March 22,2018, the day before a potential federal government shutdown, Jim Risch threatened to block a government spending bill because it included changing the name of the White Clouds Wilderness protected area to honor a deceased political rival, former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus.
28.
In January 2019, Jim Risch joined Marco Rubio, Cory Gardner, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in introducing legislation that would impose sanctions on the government of President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and bolster American cooperation with Israel and Jordan.
29.
On January 21,2020, during the first day of opening arguments in Trump's Senate impeachment trial, Jim Risch was the first senator to fall asleep.
30.
In 2020, while Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch decided not to press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify at the annual budget hearing.
31.
Jim Risch was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol.
32.
In 2021, Jim Risch blocked the confirmation of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt to the position of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
33.
Jim Risch told his fellow Republican senators and Politico that the Trump administration was in compliance with the Magnitsky Act, but the administration had said that it refused to comply with the Act.
34.
On October 18,2022, Jim Risch criticized the Biden administration for hesitating to impose sanctions on the government of Ethiopia, where many atrocities and war crimes were committed in the Tigray War.
35.
Jim Risch believes that Roe v Wade was wrongly decided.
36.
The National Rifle Association endorsed Jim Risch and gave him an A+ grade for his voting record on gun issues.
37.
In 2013, along with 12 other Republican Senators, Jim Risch threatened to filibuster any bills Democrats introduced that Republicans perceived as a threat to gun rights, including expanded background checks.
38.
In 2016, Jim Risch voted against the Feinstein Amendment, which would have blocked the sale of guns to people on the terrorist watch list, and Democrat Chris Murphy's proposal to expand background checks for sales at gun shows and online.
39.
Jim Risch voted for both Republican-backed bills, John Cornyn's proposal to create a 72-hour delay for anyone on the terrorist watchlist buying a gun and Charles Grassley and Ted Cruz's proposal to alert authorities if a someone on the list tries to buy a firearm.
40.
Jim Risch opposed the FIRST STEP Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill.
41.
Jim Risch supports repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
42.
On May 21,2020, Risch introduced S 3829, the Global Health Security and Diplomacy Act, but it did not receive a vote.
43.
In opening the confirmation hearings for Secretary Antony Blinken, Jim Risch emphasized it as a legislative and foreign policy priority, given the "catastrophic failure at every level" of global health security infrastructure.
44.
On May 28,2021, Jim Risch abstained from voting on the creation of an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.