John Eric Ensign was born on March 25,1958 and is an American veterinarian and former politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 2001 until his resignation in 2011 amid a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his attempts to hide an extramarital affair.
43 Facts About John Ensign
2.
John Ensign was born in 1958 in Roseville, California, to Sharon Lee Cipriani and a father whose surname was Mueller.
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John Ensign attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, becoming a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
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John Ensign graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1981.
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John Ensign received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Colorado State University in 1985 and entered veterinary practice soon after.
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John Ensign became a successful businessman, opening a 24-hour animal hospital in Las Vegas.
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In political campaigns, John Ensign frequently referred to his ancestry, noting that he is one-eighth Filipino.
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John Ensign did not learn of this grandfather's ancestry until about 1994.
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John Ensign then renewed his practice as a veterinarian and opened Boca Park Animal Hospital.
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In 1994, John Ensign won the Republican nomination for Nevada's 1st congressional district, based in Las Vegas.
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John Ensign trailed four-term incumbent Democrat James Bilbray by a wide margin for most of the campaign.
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However, John Ensign gained considerable momentum after reports surfaced that a Bilbray aide stood to make a huge profit from lands legislation sponsored by Bilbray.
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John Ensign won the election by 1,400 votes and was reelected in 1996 by seven points, although Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton carried the district by a large margin that year.
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In 1998, John Ensign ran for the Senate but was defeated by the Democratic incumbent, future Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, by 401 votes.
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John Ensign was reelected in 2006; he defeated businessman Jack Carter.
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John Ensign resigned his position as chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee on June 17,2009, in the wake of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.
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On July 14,2009, John Ensign announced his plan to run for re-election to his Nevada Senate seat in 2012, even though his polling numbers had recently decreased.
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For Sharron Angle's debate with Harry Reid on October 14,2010, John Ensign played Reid during one day of her debate preparation at the Trump Plaza in Las Vegas.
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The Las Vegas Review-Journal noted in November 2010 that John Ensign had multiple "hurdles" to re-election.
20.
John Ensign was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
21.
In September 2007, it was discovered that John Ensign had used the secret hold rule to prevent a bill requiring senators to file fund-raising reports electronically from being voted on.
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John Ensign required that they first vote on his amendment to strengthen disclosure rules.
23.
On March 7,2011, John Ensign said he would not seek re-election in 2012 because he wanted to spare his family from an "exceptionally ugly" campaign.
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John Ensign became the first United States Senator from Nevada to resign, besides Alan Bible, who resigned seventeen days before the end of his term to give his successor an advantage in seniority.
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John Ensign authored the Child Custody Protection Act in 2003, which prohibits taking minors across State lines to circumvent laws in certain jurisdictions that require parents to be involved in abortion decisions by minors.
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John Ensign was considered one of the Humane Society's biggest allies in Congress.
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Senator John Ensign was a member of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus.
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On December 18,2010, John Ensign voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 to allow gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the armed forces.
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In 2005, John Ensign introduced legislation to the Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies.
30.
John Ensign opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
31.
In 1998, after President Bill Clinton admitted to having committed adultery with Monica Lewinsky, John Ensign called on him to resign.
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In 2004, John Ensign spoke on the Senate floor in favor of the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have barred states from recognizing same-sex marriage.
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In 2011, John Ensign introduced legislation that would have required all low-security prisoners to work 50 hours per week.
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John Ensign said he thought benefits should be used for veterans in the United States.
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John Ensign is a member of the Pentecostal International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
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John Ensign moved out of the C Street house in November 2009, after disclosure of an extramarital affair and reports that he influenced others to keep quiet about it.
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John Ensign is a member of the religious and political organization The Fellowship, described by evangelical Christians as one of the most politically well-connected fundamentalist organizations in the United States.
38.
Between 2007 and 2008, Senator John Ensign had an affair with Cynthia Hampton, who worked for a PAC supporting his campaigns.
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John Ensign's husband, Doug Hampton, was a close friend of Ensign and worked as a top administrative staffer in his Washington, DC office.
40.
John Ensign was chaperoned by Coburn and other members from C Street, where John Ensign lived with Coburn, to a FedEx office to post the letter.
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John Ensign called Hampton's wife hours later to tell her to ignore the letter and flew out to spend the weekend with her in Nevada.
42.
On March 7,2011, John Ensign announced that he would not seek re-election to the Senate the following year because he wished to shield his family from the consequences of his past behavior.
43.
In late April 2011, John Ensign announced that he would resign his position as Senator on May 3.