36 Facts About Mark Udall

1.

Mark Emery Udall is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2009 to 2015.

2.

Mark Udall ran for reelection in 2014 to a second term in the US Senate, but was narrowly defeated by Republican challenger Cory Gardner.

3.

Mark Udall was born in Tucson, Arizona, to Patricia J and Morris "Mo" Udall, the US representative for from 1961 to 1991, and candidate for the 1976 Democratic nomination for President.

4.

Mark Udall attended and graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in 1968, where he was elected student body president.

5.

Mark Udall won the Arizona State Golf Championship Boy's division in 1968.

6.

Mark Udall later graduated from Williams College in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts in American civilization.

7.

In 1976 Mark Udall worked as a field coordinator for his father's campaign to win the Democratic nomination against Jimmy Carter.

8.

For ten years Mark Udall worked as a course instructor, in which he would bring patrons on outdoor expeditions.

9.

In 1996, Mark Udall was encouraged to run for the Colorado House of Representatives by Peggy Lamm of the 13th district, who had decided to retire.

10.

Mark Udall chose not to run for re-election, instead decided to run for the United States Congress.

11.

Mark Udall was consecutively elected to five terms in the House, without major opposition.

12.

Mark Udall was eventually succeeded by Jared Polis, after he decided to run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Wayne Allard.

13.

In 2004, Mark Udall announced his candidacy for the Senate seat which was being vacated by Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

14.

Mark Udall became the Democratic nominee for the race after running unopposed in the primary.

15.

On January 7,2013, Mark Udall announced he was running for re-election.

16.

Mark Udall was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and faced Republican US Representative Cory Gardner in the general election.

17.

Mark Udall is trying to frighten voters rather than inspire them with a hopeful vision.

18.

Towards the end of his campaign, Mark Udall was accompanied by Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

19.

Less than one month after Mark Udall took office in the Senate, newly elected President Obama nominated senior Colorado Senator Ken Salazar to serve as his Secretary of the Interior.

20.

In February 2014, Mark Udall voted for the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, a $1 trillion bill that ended direct payments to farmers but expanded crop insurance by $7 billion over the next decade, created new subsidies for rice and peanut growers that will kick in if or when prices drop, and cut food stamp subsidies for 1.7 million people in 15 states.

21.

In 2011, Maine Senator Susan Collins and Mark Udall successfully introduced an amendment to the Senate's agriculture appropriations bill.

22.

Mark Udall is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One, a bipartisan organization dedicated to reducing the influence of money in politics.

23.

Mark Udall has been an opponent of the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs.

24.

Mark Udall subsequently voted for the Act in the joint session of Congress that passed it, and though he remained "extremely troubled" by the detainee provisions, he promised to "push Congress to conduct the maximum amount of oversight possible".

25.

Mark Udall has supported PRISM, a clandestine anti-terrorism mass electronic surveillance data mining program launched in 2007 by the National Security Agency ; however, he has expressed support for introduction of measures to reform and limit the scope of the Patriot Act; 'The Patriot Act should be reformed so Americans' phone records do not get indiscriminately swept up in a federal government database.

26.

Mark Udall voted for the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007, which would have eliminated secret ballot in voting to unionize businesses, and said that he supported the measure because the National Labor Relations Board would be the best forum to deal with concerns raised by the bill's opponents.

27.

On February 13,2009, Mark Udall voted to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

28.

Mark Udall has supported tax breaks for renewable energy and the expansion of national parks.

29.

In 2004, Mark Udall helped lead a statewide ballot initiative to adopt the Renewable Electricity Standard, a standard he originally introduced in the Colorado House of Representatives.

30.

Mark Udall has repeatedly voted against the Keystone XL pipeline, having said that he wants to wait until a technical review of the project by the State Department is complete.

31.

In December 2009, Mark Udall voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

32.

In November 2013, Mark Udall was critical of the Colorado Division of Insurance concerning the Division's estimates of the number of Colorado residents whose medical insurance was cancelled in response to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

33.

Mark Udall's office wanted the Division to lower the number from 250,000 because it believed the majority of individuals counted had received renewal options.

34.

Mark Udall is married to Maggie Fox, an environmental lawyer who previously served as CEO of The Climate Reality Project.

35.

Mark Udall has climbed Colorado's 100 tallest peaks, known as "The Colorado Centennials," as well as Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas and Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America.

36.

On July 3,2013, a body, later identified as that of Randy Mark Udall, was found approximately 80 miles southeast of Grand Teton National Park.