47 Facts About Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse was born on October 20,1955 and is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2007 as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island.

Sheldon Whitehouse has given hundreds of Senate floor speeches about climate change and asserted that politically conservative "dark money" groups are conducting a campaign to take control of the US government, specifically the Supreme Court of the United States, to prevent climate action, among other reasons.

Sheldon Whitehouse's father served as the US Ambassador to Thailand and Laos.

Sheldon Whitehouse graduated from St Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and in 1978 from Yale College.

Sheldon Whitehouse received his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982, where he became friends with Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Sheldon Whitehouse worked as a clerk for Justice Richard Neely of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1982 to 1983.

Sheldon Whitehouse worked in the Rhode Island Attorney General's office as a special assistant attorney general from 1985 to 1990, chief of the Regulatory Unit from 1988 to 1990, and as an assistant attorney general from 1989 to 1990.

Sheldon Whitehouse worked as Rhode Island Governor Bruce Sundlun's executive counsel beginning in 1991, and was later tapped to serve as director of policy.

Sheldon Whitehouse oversaw the state's response to the Rhode Island banking crisis that took place soon after Sundlun took office.

President Bill Clinton appointed Sheldon Whitehouse United States Attorney for Rhode Island in 1994.

Sheldon Whitehouse initiated a lawsuit against the lead paint industry that ended in a mistrial; the state later won a second lawsuit against former lead paint manufacturers Sherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings, and NL Industries that found them responsible for creating a public nuisance.

Later that year, Sheldon Whitehouse was criticized when 15-year-old Jennifer Rivera, a witness in a murder case, was shot by a relative of the man she was to testify against later that year.

Sheldon Whitehouse ran for the Democratic nomination for governor of Rhode Island in 2002.

Sheldon Whitehouse lost the primary election to former State Senator Myrth York, who was unsuccessful in the general election against Republican Donald Carcieri.

Sheldon Whitehouse launched his campaign for the US Senate seat held by Lincoln Chafee, a Republican, on April 4,2005.

Sheldon Whitehouse campaigned heavily against the Iraq War and the United States's dependence on foreign oil.

On November 6,2012, Sheldon Whitehouse won reelection to a second term in office, defeating Republican challenger Barry Hinckley by 30 points, with 64.9 percent of the total vote.

On November 6,2018, Sheldon Whitehouse was reelected to a third term, defeating Republican Robert Flanders by 23 points.

Sheldon Whitehouse said Democrats would include 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices and establish ethics and recusal rules in an omnibus package that would include a bill creating a national right to abortion.

Sheldon Whitehouse has faced some criticism for alleged insider trading, avoiding big losses by trading stocks after top federal officials warned congressional leaders of "the coming economic cataclysm" on September 16,2008.

In March 2022, Business Insider reported that Sheldon Whitehouse had violated the STOCK Act, which is designed to combat insider trading, by failing to disclose two personal stock purchases by the federal deadline.

The stocks in question were for the Target Corporation and Tesla, Inc Sheldon Whitehouse's office acknowledged that he missed the disclosure deadline, blaming it on a staff transition in his office.

In September 2022, an investigation by The New York Times found that Sheldon Whitehouse was among the members of Congress who had bought or sold stock that intersected with his congressional work, including trading stock in public companies that came before the committees on which he serves.

Sheldon Whitehouse has sought to subpoena the executives of leading oil companies and to impose a carbon tax.

Sheldon Whitehouse was dismissive of efforts to give District residents representation in Congress, suggesting they should be satisfied with the amount of federal activity nearby.

In November 2011, Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the Safeguarding America's Future and Environment Act, a bill that would require federal natural resource agencies to be concerned with the long-term effects of climate change, encourage states to prepare natural resource adaptation plans, and "create a science advisory board to ensure that the planning uses the best available science".

Sheldon Whitehouse has said that the development of alternate energy sources, including solar power, will eliminate US dependence on foreign oil.

Sheldon Whitehouse has cited the installation of new solar panels on three new bank branches in Rhode Island, saying that the projects "created jobs, they put people to work, they lowered the cost for these banks of their electrical energy, and they get us off foreign oil and away, step by step, from these foreign entanglements that we have to get into to defend our oil supply".

Since 2012, Sheldon Whitehouse has spoken on the Senate floor about climate change every week the Senate has been in session, giving his 250th speech on the issue on July 24,2019.

Sheldon Whitehouse supported a vote that would limit continuing US support for the War in Yemen.

In 2022, Sheldon Whitehouse voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun reform bill introduced following a deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Sheldon Whitehouse voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In January 2025, Talking Points Memo reported that Whitehouse was "actively considering" voting to confirm anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Sheldon Whitehouse's reported reasons for considering Kennedy's nomination were his lifelong friendship with Kennedy and specific issues with Rhode Island's healthcare system that needed regulatory flexibility from HHS.

Sheldon Whitehouse has publicly supported reintroducing the Equal Rights Amendment.

Sheldon Whitehouse has been a staunch critic of so-called "dark money", or political spending by nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have complained that, while positioning himself as someone opposed to dark money, Sheldon Whitehouse has a history of accepting dark money and overlooking it when such contributions flow to his Democratic colleagues.

Sheldon Whitehouse critiqued conservative dark money groups who backed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination.

In 2019, Sheldon Whitehouse announced that he intended to introduce legislation that would require groups that file amicus curiae briefs with the US Supreme Court to disclose their donors.

Sheldon Whitehouse has received over $175,000 in campaign donations from the League of Conservation Voters.

In March 2021, Sheldon Whitehouse convened a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled "What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary".

Sheldon Whitehouse alleged that a "multi-hundred million dollar covert operation" influences the US Supreme Court.

In 1986, Sheldon Whitehouse married Sandra Thornton, a marine biologist and granddaughter of James Worth Thornton and Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson.

Sheldon Whitehouse's step-grandfather was prominent essayist and critic Edmund Wilson.

In June 2021, Sheldon Whitehouse defended his family's membership in the club.

Sheldon Whitehouse declined to provide details of the club's membership, and the club initially refused to answer questions about its policies or membership.

Sheldon Whitehouse said he would not ask his family members to resign from the club because "they are on the right side of pushing for improvements" and "my relationship with my family is not one in which I tell them what to do".