Ben Quayle | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2011 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | John Shadegg |
| Succeeded by | David Schweikert (redistricted) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Benjamin Eugene Quayle (1976-11-05)November 5, 1976 (age 49) Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Dan Quayle (father) Marilyn Quayle (mother) |
| Education | Duke University (BA) Vanderbilt University (JD) |
Benjamin Eugene Quayle (born November 5, 1976)[1] is an American lawyer and politician who is a formerU.S. Representative forArizona's 3rd congressional district. A member of theRepublican Party, he is the son of the 44th vice president of the United States,Dan Quayle.
Before serving inCongress, Quayle worked as an associate lawyer and founded a security company. In the 2010 Republican primary he defeated 10 other candidates before winning the general election. In his first bid for reelection, two years later and afterredistricting, he faced aRepublican challenge from fellow RepresentativeDavid Schweikert and narrowly lost the seat in the primary.
After leaving Congress, Quayle joined the lobbying firm Clark Hill inWashington D.C.[2] He now works for advocacy firm Venture Government Strategies (formerly Hobart Hallaway Quayle).[3]
Quayle was born inFort Wayne, Indiana on November 5, 1976, three days after his father was first elected to theUnited States House of Representatives.[4] As a child, Quayle occasionally visited theWhite House with his family during theReagan administration while his father served as a U.S. senator.[5]
Quayle moved to thePhoenix, Arizona area with his family in 1996. He graduated fromDuke University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and earned hisJuris Doctor fromVanderbilt University Law School in 2002.[1] Quayle has been admitted to the Arizona, New York, and California bar.
Quayle worked as an associate lawyer atSchulte Roth & Zabel from 2004 to 2005, andSnell & Wilmer from 2006 to 2007. In 2007 Quayle founded Tynwald Capital, a firm specializing in the acquisition and nurturing of small businesses.[6] He was a founding member of APG-Southwest, a full-service provider of security services for businesses, for which he served as the managing partner of its Arizona branch.
In 2022 Politico reported that he was lobbying forLIV Golf, a golf tour backed bySaudi Arabia.[7]
Quayle was a member of theTea Party movement, which had many of its members swept into office during the2010 elections.[8] After Republican CongressmanJohn Shadegg decided to retire, Quayle launched his campaign following his father's announcement onAmerica Live with Megyn Kelly that Ben was a candidate forArizona's 3rd congressional district.[9] On August 11, 2010, Quayle released an advertisement in which he calledBarack Obama the "worst President in history".[10][11][12][13][14]
Quayle's prior involvement with the controversial rumor and gossip website "DirtyScottsdale.com" complicated his run for office. According to the site's founder, Quayle was one of the "original contributors" to the site, which covered Scottsdale nightlife with features including sexy photos of women, and was the predecessor to the gossip website TheDirty.com.[15] Quayle initially denied the rumors,[16] before admitting several weeks later that he did, in fact, write material for the site under the pen name Brock Landers.[15][17][18][19]
Quayle won the 10-candidate Republican primary on August 24, 2010, with a plurality of 23% of the vote.[20] In the general election in November, Quayle defeatedDemocratic candidate Jon Hulburd 52–41%.[21]
After redistricting, Quayle's district was renumbered the6th district, while his home in Phoenix was drawn into the9th district. But Quayle's home was just a few yards outside the 6th, leading a source close to Quayle to tellNational Journal that Quayle would run in his original district.[22] While the 6th is as heavily Republican as its predecessor, the 9th was drawn as a fair-fight district.
On February 6, 2012, Quayle confirmed that he would run in the 6th. He faced fellow freshman Republican CongressmanDavid Schweikert in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district. In an unusual twist, Schweikert's home inFountain Hills had been drawn into the 6th, while Quayle's home had been drawn into the 9th, the geographic successor to Schweikert's 5th.[23][24]
During the bitter primary campaign, Schweikert was widely criticized for a mailer that accused Quayle of "going both ways", suggesting that he wasbisexual. On the reverse, the mailer listed issues on which it claimed Quayle had taken both liberal and conservative positions. SenatorJon Kyl, who represented what is now the 6th from 1987 to 1995 (when it was numbered as the 4th district) said that "such campaign tactics insult the voters, degrade politics and expose those who stoop to them as unworthy of high office" and SenatorJohn McCain said the mailer was one of the "worst that I have seen" and that it "crosses the boundary of decent political dialogue and discourse". Quayle's spokeswoman called the mailer "utterly false" and "a sleazy smear tactic". Schweikert's spokesman responded that people "should get their minds out of the gutter" because the mailer was "obviously" referring to "both ways—as in liberal and conservative".The Arizona Republic asked two political scientists to review the mailer, who both said that they had "never seen anybody accuse someone of flip-flopping [on political issues] that way" and said it was "difficult to believe" that the sexual suggestion was unintentional.[25][26][27][28]
Although the 6th contained almost two-thirds of Quayle's constituents, Schweikert defeated Quayle in the Republican primary with 51% of the vote.[29] Matt Jette, a business professor at theThunderbird School of Global Management who ran forgovernor of Arizona as a Republican in2010, won the Democratic nomination.[30] Schweikert defeated Jette in the November 6 general election with 62% of the vote.[31]
After being elected to Congress, Quayle announced that he would opt out of the taxpayer-funded congressional health care and pension plan.[32]
In 2012 Quayle was named "The Most Conservative Member of the House of Representatives" by theNational Journal.[33] He was awarded the 2011 "National Taxpayers’ Friend Award"[34] by theNational Taxpayers Union, the "Spirit of Enterprise Award"[35] by theU.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was given a 98% scorecard[36] by theClub for Growth.
Controversy arose after a bill to increase combat pay for military personnel was rejected, and Quayle andDavid Schweikerthigh-fived, happy about the bill's failure. After the incident, Maria Meacham, the mother of an active-duty soldier upset about the vote, began shouting from the gallery, and was removed bysecurity.[37]
Quayle introduced legislation related to border security, guns, small business, government transparency, and health care[38] and successfully sponsored H.R. 3862, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act "to impose certain limitations on consent decrees and settlement agreements by agencies that require the agencies to take regulatory action in accordance with the terms thereof, and for other purposes".[39] According to theCongressional Budget Office, "Under the bill, complaints against federal agencies, the terms of the consent decrees or settlement agreements, and the award of attorneys’ fees would need to be published in an accessible manner, including electronically. The legislation would require that any proposed consent decree or settlement agreement be published in the Federal Register for 60 days of public comment prior to filing with the court."[40]
Quayle served on the following committees during his tenure.[41]
Quayle married his wife, Tiffany Crane, in 2010.[42][43][44] The couple has two children.[45][failed verification]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's 3rd congressional district 2011–2013 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
| Territorial (1863–1912) |
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| Oneat-large seat (1912–1943) |
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| Two at-large seats (1943–1949) |
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| Districts (1949–present) (3rd district established in 1963) (4th district established in 1973) (5th district established in 1983) (6th district established in 1993) (7th and 8th districts established in 2003) (9th district established in 2013) |
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