Jon Llewellyn Kyl is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator for Arizona from 1995 to 2013 and again in 2018.
39 Facts About Jon Kyl
2.
The son of US Representative John Henry Kyl and Arlene Kyl, Kyl was born and raised in Nebraska and lived for some time in Iowa.
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Jon Kyl received his bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Arizona.
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Jon Kyl worked in Phoenix, Arizona as an attorney and lobbyist before winning election to the United States House of Representatives, where he served from 1987 to 1995.
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Jon Kyl was elected to the US Senate in 1994 and continued to be re-elected by comfortable margins until his retirement in January 2013.
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Jon Kyl was ranked by National Journal in 2007 as the fourth-most conservative US Senator.
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Jon Kyl has been a fixture of Republican policy leadership posts, chairing the Republican Policy Committee and the Republican Conference.
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Jon Kyl was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 for his persuasive role in the Senate.
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Jon Kyl did not seek re-election to the Senate in 2012 and retired at the end of his third term.
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Jon Kyl expressly ruled out running for further office except, if offered, the Vice Presidency.
11.
In September 2018, Jon Kyl was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey to serve in the Senate seat left vacant by the death of John McCain.
12.
At a press conference accepting the appointment, Jon Kyl stated that he would not run for the remainder of the term following the 2020 special election.
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Jon Kyl is the first person to return to the Senate via appointment since New Hampshire Republican Norris Cotton in 1975.
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Jon Kyl resigned from the Senate effective December 31,2018, and was succeeded by Martha McSally.
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Jon Kyl was born in Oakland, Nebraska, the son of Arlene and John Henry Jon Kyl, a teacher at Nebraska State Teachers College.
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Jon Kyl's father served as a Congressman from Iowa after moving his family to Bloomfield, Iowa.
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Jon Kyl is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, as is Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona.
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Jon Kyl then earned a law degree in 1966 at the University of Arizona's James E Rogers College of Law, and served as editor-in-chief of the Arizona Law Review.
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Jon Kyl worked as an attorney at Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver, Colorado, prior to running for office.
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Jon Kyl is married to Caryll Collins, with whom he has had two children.
21.
Jon Kyl served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995.
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Jon Kyl was elected by his fellow Senate Republicans to a succession of leadership posts: Policy Committee chairman, Conference chairman, and most recently, Senate Minority Whip.
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Jon Kyl is the only Arizona Republican to hold that leadership position.
24.
On September 4,2018, Jon Kyl was appointed by Republican Arizona governor Doug Ducey to the US Senate seat that had been vacated due to John McCain's death.
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Jon Kyl is only the sixth person to return to the Senate via appointment since the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.
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Jon Kyl voted in favor of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
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Jon Kyl resigned from the Senate effective December 31,2018, and was succeeded by former congresswoman Martha McSally, a Republican.
28.
Jon Kyl is a signer of Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
29.
Jon Kyl was one of the original sponsors, along with Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, of an effort to amend the United States Constitution to protect crime victims' rights in the criminal justice system.
30.
In November 2010, Jon Kyl opposed the New START arms control treaty's ratification in the lame-duck session.
31.
The bill by Jon Kyl, known as the Jon Kyl bill, was not passed in the end due to certain loopholes.
32.
In September 2006, working with then-Congressman Jim Leach, Jon Kyl was a major Senate supporter of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
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When publication of the associated regulations was delayed until June 2010, Jon Kyl responded by denying unanimous consent to confirm the appointment of 6 nominees to the US Treasury Department, none of whom specialized on gambling issues.
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Jon Kyl voted against the Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
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In February 2006, Kyl joined Senator Lindsey Graham in an amicus brief in the Hamdan v Rumsfeld case.
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In 2011, Jon Kyl said that the GOP had abandoned opposition to defense cuts.
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In 2012, Jon Kyl voted against ratification of the UN Treaty Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
38.
On November 7,2006, Jon Kyl defeated real estate developer and former Arizona Democratic Party chairman Jim Pederson to win his third term in the Senate.
39.
The race was one of the most expensive in Arizona history, with Jon Kyl raising more than $15 million and Pederson raising just shy of that amount.