Robert Jones Portman was born on December 19,1955 and is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from 2011 to 2023.
88 Facts About Rob Portman
2.
In 1993, Rob Portman won a special election to represent in the United States House of Representatives.
3.
Rob Portman was reelected six times before resigning upon his appointment by President George W Bush as the US trade representative in May 2005.
4.
In 2010, Rob Portman announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat being vacated by George Voinovich.
5.
Rob Portman easily defeated then-Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and was reelected in 2016.
6.
When Rob Portman was young, his father started the Rob Portman Equipment Company, a forklift dealership where he and his siblings worked growing up.
7.
From his mother Joan, a liberal Republican, Rob Portman inherited his sympathy for the Republican Party.
8.
Rob Portman graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School in 1974 and attended Dartmouth College, where he started leaning to the right, and majored in anthropology and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1978.
9.
In Cincinnati, Rob Portman worked on Bill Gradison's Congressional campaign, and Gradison soon became a mentor to Rob Portman.
10.
Rob Portman next entered the University of Michigan Law School, earning his Juris Doctor degree in 1984 and serving as vice president of the student senate.
11.
In 1993, Rob Portman entered a special election to fill the seat of Congressman Bill Gradison of Ohio's second congressional district, who had stepped down to become president of the Health Insurance Association of America.
12.
Largely on the strength of his victory in Hamilton, Rob Portman took 17,531 votes overall, making him the winner.
13.
Rob Portman was known for his willingness to work with Democrats to enact important legislation.
14.
Rob Portman sponsored an unfair-trading claim to the World Trade Organization against Airbus because American allies in the European Union were providing subsidies that arguably helped Airbus compete against Boeing.
15.
Rob Portman spent significant time out of the United States negotiating trade agreements with roughly 30 countries, visiting Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
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Rob Portman used a network of former House colleagues to get support for the treaty to lift trade barriers between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras.
17.
Rob Portman then sponsored a claim against China for extra charges it levied on American auto parts.
18.
Rob Portman reasoned the American homebuilding industry used the pipe and wanted to maintain a cheap supply and that other cheap exporters would step in to fill China's void if Chinese exports were curtailed.
19.
China next lobbied Rob Portman to leave matters alone, meeting with his office twice and threatening in a letter that restrictions and what it called "discrimination against Chinese products" would bring "serious adverse impact" to the US-China economic and trade relationship.
20.
On June 19,2007, Rob Portman resigned as OMB director, citing a desire to spend more time with his family and three children.
21.
On November 8,2007, Rob Portman joined the law firm Squire Sanders as part of its transactional and international trade practice in Cincinnati, Ohio.
22.
Rob Portman remained critical of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed while he was out of office.
23.
On January 14,2009, two days after George Voinovich announced he would not be running for re-election, Rob Portman publicly declared his candidacy for the open US Senate seat.
24.
Rob Portman campaigned on the issue of jobs and job growth.
25.
Rob Portman possessed the most campaign funds of any Republican during 2010, at $5.1 million, raising $1.3 million in his third quarter of fundraising.
26.
Rob Portman won the election by a margin of 57 to 39 percent, winning 82 of Ohio's 88 counties.
27.
Polls showed the race even as of June 2016; afterwards, Rob Portman led Democratic ex-Gov.
28.
Rob Portman took a seemingly competitive race in a swing state and put it out of reach by Labor Day, allowing money that was ticketed for his state to be in other races, such as North Carolina and Missouri.
29.
However, in the 114th United States Congress, Rob Portman was ranked as the third most bipartisan member of the US Senate by the Bipartisan Index, a metric created jointly by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy to reflect Congressional bipartisanship.
30.
In March 2013, Rob Portman was one of several Republican senators invited to have dinner with President Obama at The Jefferson Hotel in an attempt by the administration to court perceived moderate members of the upper chamber for building consensual motivation in Congress; however, Rob Portman did not attend and instead had dinner with an unnamed Democratic senator.
31.
Rob Portman delivered the eulogy at the August 2012 funeral of Neil Armstrong, and the commencement address at the University of Cincinnati's December 2012 graduation ceremony.
32.
Rob Portman spoke at the May 7,2011 Michigan Law School commencement ceremonies, which was the subject of criticism by some who opposed his stance on same-sex marriage.
33.
On January 25,2021, Rob Portman announced that he would not run for a third term in 2022.
34.
Rob Portman belonged to the following caucuses in the United States Senate:.
35.
In 2013, Rob Portman was several times described as staunchly conservative.
36.
Rob Portman was one of five Senate Republicans who voted with Obama's position more than half the time.
37.
Rob Portman was considered a possible pick for Vice President on the Republican presidential ticket in 2012.
38.
Rob Portman portrayed President Obama in Romney's mock debate sessions for the general election, reprising a role that he played in the debate preparations of Republican presidential nominee John McCain in 2008.
39.
In March 2014, Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics speculated that Rob Portman might run for president in 2016.
40.
However, Rob Portman announced in December 2014 that he would not run for president and would instead seek a second term in the United States Senate.
41.
Rob Portman initially endorsed his fellow Ohioan, Governor John Kasich, during the Republican primaries.
42.
Rob Portman said that it was "wrong and inappropriate" for Trump to ask a foreign government to investigate a political rival, and that he accepted that there was quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine in which US aid to Ukraine was on the line, but that he did not consider it to be an impeachable offense.
43.
Rob Portman was the Ohio state co-chair of Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.
44.
Rob Portman opposed Trump's attempt to overturn the election results, and did not back a last-ditch effort by Trump's Republican allies in Congress to object to the formal counting of the electoral votes from swing states in which Biden defeated Trump.
45.
Rob Portman said, "I cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters" and voted against the objections.
46.
Congress's counting of the electoral votes was interrupted by a pro-Trump mob that attempted an insurrection at the Capitol; Rob Portman said Trump "bears some responsibility" for the attack.
47.
On February 13,2021, Rob Portman voted to acquit Trump on charges of inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
48.
On May 27,2021, along with five other Republicans and all present Democrats, Rob Portman voted to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
49.
Rob Portman voted in favor of banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
50.
In 2013, Rob Portman sponsored a bill that would have made it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion if doing so would circumvent state parental consent or notification laws.
51.
In July 2022, Portman voted for the SFC Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, which would provide care for veterans suffering from diseases caused by burn pit exposure while serving overseas.
52.
Rob Portman put out a press release celebrating his vote, but changed his position when the House returned the final version of the bill to the Senate, and voted against it.
53.
Rob Portman is a leading advocate for a balanced budget amendment.
54.
Rob Portman worked with Democratic Senator Jon Tester in 2012 to end the practice of government shutdowns and partnered with Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill on an inquiry into the Obama administration's public relations spending.
55.
Rob Portman unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to the surface transportation reauthorization bill to allow states to keep the gas tax money they collect, instead of sending it to Washington with some returned later.
56.
In October 2021, Rob Portman voted with 10 other Republicans and every member of the Democratic caucus to end the filibuster on raising the debt ceiling, but voted against the bill to raise the debt ceiling.
57.
On March 14,2013, Rob Portman publicly announced that he had changed his stance on same-sex marriage, and now supported its legalization, becoming the first sitting Republican US senator to do so.
58.
In November 2013, Rob Portman was one of 10 Republican senators to vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, after the Senate adopted an amendment he proposed to expand religious protections.
59.
Rob Portman was one of 12 Republicans in the Senate voting to advance and pass the Respect for Marriage Act, the legislation codifying same-sex marriage rights into federal law.
60.
Rob Portman voted for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013.
61.
In 2011, Rob Portman voted to limit the government's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and in 2015, he voted to block the Clean Power Plan.
62.
In 2012, Rob Portman said he wanted more oil drilling on public lands.
63.
In 2013, Rob Portman co-sponsored a bill that would reauthorize and modify the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 and would authorize the appropriation of $20.5 million annually through 2018 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to mitigate the harmful effects of algal blooms and hypoxia.
64.
Rob Portman opposes US ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
65.
In March 2016, Rob Portman authored the bipartisan bill Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, along with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
66.
Rob Portman has repeatedly supported legislation to treat currency manipulation by countries as an unfair trade practice and to impose duties on Chinese imports if China does not stop the practice.
67.
In 2016, Rob Portman opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement because he said it does not address currency manipulation and includes less-strict country-of-origin rules for auto parts.
68.
In January 2018, Rob Portman was one of 36 Republican senators who asked Trump to preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement.
69.
In November 2018, Rob Portman was one of 12 Republican senators to sign a letter to 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; the letter-writers cited concerns that "passage of the USMCA as negotiated will become significantly more difficult" if it had to be approved through the incoming 116th Congress, in which there was a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
70.
Rob Portman has an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, which has endorsed Rob Portman in past elections.
71.
In 2019, Rob Portman was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced by Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that would allow persons concealed carry privileges in their home state to carry concealed weapons in other states.
72.
In 2022, Rob Portman became one of ten Republican senators to support a bipartisan agreement on gun control, which included a red flag provision, a support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, stronger background checks for buyers under the age of 21, and penalties for straw purchases.
73.
Rob Portman has worked to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
74.
Rob Portman opposed steep cuts to Medicaid because the expansion of the program had allowed some Ohioans to gain coverage, including some impacted by Ohio's opioid crisis.
75.
In June 2018, Rob Portman was one of 13 Republican senators to sign a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting a moratorium on the Trump administration family separation policy while Congress drafted legislation.
76.
Rob Portman later co-sponsored a bill to provide for congressional approval of national emergency declarations.
77.
Rob Portman opposed Trump's Muslim ban, saying the executive order was not "properly vetted" and that he supported the federal judges who blocked its implementation.
78.
In 2014, Rob Portman voted against reauthorizing long-term unemployment benefits to 1.7 million jobless Americans.
79.
Rob Portman expressed concern about the inclusion of a provision in the bill that would allow companies to make smaller contributions to employee pension funds.
80.
In 2014, Rob Portman opposed the Minimum Wage Fairness Act, a bill to phase in, over two years, an increase in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
81.
In 2015, Rob Portman voted for an amendment to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow employees to earn paid sick time.
82.
In September 2018, Rob Portman said he would support Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, saying, "The Brett Kavanaugh I know is a man of integrity and humility".
83.
In September 2020, Rob Portman supported a vote on Trump's nominee to fill the US Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than six weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
84.
Rob Portman has been involved in efforts to end human trafficking.
85.
When Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Rob Portman was one of the few Republicans to say that he would certify the electoral college vote.
86.
Rob Portman ultimately voted not guilty, but said, "Trump's comments leading up to the Capitol attack were partly responsible for the violence".
87.
Rob Portman was one of the main senators involved in crafting the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan that passed the Senate in August 2021.
88.
Rob Portman is an avid kayaker, is fluent in Spanish, and enjoys bike rides.