22 Facts About Ron Lewis

Ronald Edward Lewis was born on September 14,1946 and is an American retired politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1994 to 2009, having represented the 2nd congressional district of Kentucky.

Ron Lewis was born in McKell near South Shore in Greenup County in far northeastern Kentucky.

Ron Lewis attended Morehead State University in Morehead in Rowan County from 1964 to 1967 and graduated from the University of Kentucky at Lexington in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science.

Ron Lewis returned to Morehead in 1980 to earn a master's degree in professional education in 1981.

At twenty-one, Lewis worked in the 1967 gubernatorial campaign of Louie B Nunn of Glasgow.

In 1972, Ron Lewis served briefly in the US Navy, attending the Navy Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida; a kidney ailment resulted in a quick medical discharge.

Ron Lewis worked in sales for several companies, including Ashland Oil, before teaching for five years at Watterson College in Louisville, Kentucky, having begun in 1980.

In 1985 Ron Lewis opened a religious bookstore, Alpha and Omega Bookstore, in Elizabethtown.

Ron Lewis has been married to Kayi Gambill Ron Lewis since 1966.

In 1994, Lewis filed to run against longtime Democratic Representative William H Natcher in the general election in November 1994.

Ron Lewis tied Prather to an unpopular Bill Clinton and a proposal to raise taxes on tobacco, the staple crop of the state.

Ron Lewis took advantage of the socially conservative tilt of the Second District.

Ron Lewis was one of five Republicans who signed a pledge committing themselves to a limited number of terms if elected.

Ron Lewis himself had promised to leave the House in 2003, after serving four full terms plus the last seven months of Natcher's term.

In 1998, Ron Lewis sent a letter to 3,000 constituents in 1998 informing them he had changed his mind about running in 2002 and beyond.

In 2004, Ron Lewis joined numerous Republican colleagues in sponsoring legislation that would allow lawmakers to override certain Supreme Court decisions by a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.

Ron Lewis likened his proposal to the existing right of Congress to override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority.

Ron Lewis won a second full term in 1996 with 58 percent of the vote by beating former Kentucky Senate floor leader Joe Wright with a vote total of 125,433 to 90,483.

Ron Lewis did not face another serious challenge until 2006.

On January 29,2008, Ron Lewis announced he would not seek reelection in 2008 on the same day as the filing deadline; he was hoping to ensure the GOP nomination would be won by his chief of staff, Daniel London, but State Senator Brett Guthrie filed for the race.

The decision shocked and angered many prominent Kentucky Republicans, Ron Lewis said he was tired of splitting his time between Washington and Kentucky and that serving in Congress had not been as encouraging since Democrats gained the majority in 2007.

In 2010, Ron Lewis announced his support for Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the race to fill the United States Senate seat of retiring Republican Senator Jim Bunning.