Jim Comer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Chair of theHouse Oversight Committee | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Carolyn Maloney |
| Ranking Member of theHouse Oversight Committee | |
| In office June 29, 2020 – January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Jordan |
| Succeeded by | Jamie Raskin |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromKentucky's1st district | |
| Assumed office November 8, 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Ed Whitfield |
| 34thAgriculture Commissioner of Kentucky | |
| In office January 2, 2012 – January 4, 2016 | |
| Governor | |
| Preceded by | Richie Farmer |
| Succeeded by | Ryan Quarles |
| Member of theKentucky House of Representatives from the 53rd district | |
| In office January 1, 2001 – January 2, 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Billy Polston |
| Succeeded by | Bart Rowland |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Richardson Comer Jr. (1972-08-19)August 19, 1972 (age 53) Carthage, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Western Kentucky University (BS) |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
James Richardson Comer Jr.[1] (/ˈkoʊmər/KOH-mər; born August 19, 1972) is an American politician fromKentucky who represents the state's1st congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives. A member of theRepublican Party, he has served in Congress since 2016, during the114th United States Congress. He previously served in theKentucky House of Representatives and also served as theagriculture commissioner of Kentucky.
As the chair of theOversight Committee from 2023, Comer has declined or stopped investigations into former presidentDonald Trump, while starting an investigation on PresidentJoe Biden and his family. As of August 2024, Comer's investigation has yet to unearth evidence that Biden was directly involved in or profited from his family's business activities.[2] After Biden ended his 2024 presidential re-election campaign, Comer began an investigation into the new Democratic presidential nominee, Vice PresidentKamala Harris, and also began an investigation into the new Democratic vice-presidential nominee, GovernorTim Walz.
Comer served as Kentucky's agriculture commissioner from 2012 to 2016 and in theKentucky House of Representatives from 2000 to 2012. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination forgovernor of Kentucky in the2015 election. A year later, he won the Republican nomination forKentucky's 1st congressional district to succeedEd Whitfield. On November 8, 2016, Comer won both a full term to the seat for the next Congress and a special election that allowed him to serve the remainder of Whitfield's term.
Comer is a native ofCarthage, Tennessee. His parents were Dr. James R. Comer Sr. (a dentist) and Sandra Witcher Comer.[3] He grew up inMonroe County, Kentucky, graduating from Monroe County High School,Tompkinsville, Kentucky, in 1990.[4] He received a BS in Agriculture fromWestern Kentucky University in 1993.[5][6][7] In college he served as president of the KentuckyFuture Farmers of America.[8] After college, he and his family started James Comer, Jr. Farms,[9] a 2,300 acres (950 ha) farm,[10] and he also co-owns Comer Land & Cattle Co.[11] He served as a director of the South Central Bank for 12 years.[6] Comer served as president of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce from 1999 to 2000.[6]
In 2000, Comer was elected to theKentucky House of Representatives at the age of 27 following the retirement of incumbentBilly Polston. Comer defeated Donnie Polston, Billy's wife, for the Republican nomination.[12][13]
In 2011, Comer ran for agriculture commissioner. The incumbent,Richie Farmer, wasterm-limited.[14] In the election, Comer was the only Republican to win election to a statewide executive office,[15] and worked with a team of Democratic officials and under a Democratic governor.[16] He had the highest percentage of the vote of any candidate on the ballot, and raised $606,766 to his opponent's $204,287.[17] He took office in January 2012. One of Comer's first actions in office was to work with Democratic auditorAdam Edelen to investigate his Republican predecessor's ethics while in office.[18]
That year Comer, became chair of the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission,[19] and shortly after taking office, he called the legalization of industrialized hemp his top priority,[20][21] and was "instrumental in getting the hemp industry up and running",[22] including by founding several pilot programs[23] in an effort to restart Kentucky's industrial hemp industry. He also filed suit against the DEA, which resulted in the DEA allowing hemp seeds to be delivered to Kentucky farmers for the first new crops.[24] Between 2014 and 2015, Kentucky's hemp crops grew from 33 to 1,700 acres.[25] Comer also advocated for national hemp deregulation.[26]
Comer founded the Kentucky Proud Farm to Campus program,[27] and created a mobile science centers program for primary and secondary school students to learn about agricultural sciences.[28]
On August 2, 2014, during the annualFancy Farm picnic, Comer announced he would seek the Republican nomination forgovernor of Kentucky in the2015 election.[29] His running mate was state senatorChristian McDaniel.[30] At the conclusion of voting in the May 19 election, Comer was 83 votes behind businessmanMatt Bevin. TheAssociated Press, calling the race a "virtual tie", did not call it for either candidate. Comer refused to concede and said he would request a recanvass.[31] The request was filed with theKentucky secretary of state's office on May 20, with Secretary of StateAlison Lundergan Grimes ordering the recanvass to begin at 9:00 a.m. on May 28.[32][33] After the recanvass, Grimes announced that Bevin remained 83 votes ahead of Comer.[34] She also said that should Comer want a fullrecount, it would require a court order from theFranklinCircuit Court.[35] On May 29, Comer announced he would not request a recount and conceded the nomination to Bevin.[36]
In 2016, Comer entered the Republican primary election for the 1st congressional district of Kentucky against two other competitors. Before the primary, he was endorsed by theNRA Political Victory Fund[37] and theUS Chamber of Commerce.[38] He won the primary with 60.6% of the vote; the real contest in this heavily Republican district.[34] Since Whitfield had resigned in September, Comer ran in two elections on November 8–a special election for the last two months of Whitfield's 11th term, and a regular election for a full two-year term. Comer won both elections over Democratic nominee Samuel L. Gaskins with over 72% of the vote.[39] Comer was elected to the House with 72.6% of the vote.[22] He was sworn in soon after the results were certified, giving him two months' more seniority over the rest of the 2017 freshman class.
During his first few months in office, Comer held several town hall meetings, where he discussed the Congress's early platform.[40] He partnered withMurray State University to form the Congressman James Comer Congressional Agriculture Fellowship program,[41] and advocated for agricultural legislation reform.[42] He criticized the regulatory policies ofBarack Obama,[43] and supported the early domestic policies and actions ofPresident Donald Trump. Comer is a social conservative on same-sex marriage and abortion, which means he is in opposition to both.[44] He believes the trade embargo on Cuba should be lifted.[45]
Comer voted for theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[46] After the bill passed, he said: "I am proud to support this critical part of President Trump's pro-growth agenda that will fulfill this promise to the American people who have struggled under the weight of Washington bureaucrats for far too long."[47]
Comer was an original cosponsor of the Hemp Farming Act, which legalized hemp nationwide and removed federal regulations on the crop.[48] The bill was later included in theAgriculture Improvement Act of 2018 and signed into law by President Trump on December 20, 2018.[49] Comer was a member of the conference committee that negotiated its final version.[50]
At the outset of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Comer and RepresentativeSuzanne Bonamici introduced legislation that would protect access to school lunches for school districts throughout the country that had to close because of the pandemic.[51] The COVID-19 Child Nutrition Response Act allows the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to waive requirements for children to gather at schools for school officials and food service personnel to distribute reimbursable, nutritious meals. It also gives local school officials discretion over substitutions for meal components if supply or procurement is disrupted.[52] When introducing the bill, Comer said, "this bill is a critical step toward ensuring that our students maintain access to the school meals they rely on for their health and well-being".[51] After it cleared the House and Senate, President Trump signed the legislation into law on March 18.[52]
After the2022 United States House of Representatives election resulted in a House Republican majority, Comer said that the House Oversight Committee's "focus in this next Congress" would be to investigate PresidentJoe Biden, particularly his "relationship with his family's foreign partners and whether he is a president who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence".[53]
After Comer became chair of the Oversight Committee, he responded in January 2023 to theJoe Biden classified documents incident by calling for visitor logs for Biden's residence, where Biden's lawyers found some classified documents from his vice presidency; the same day, Comer said that he would not call for visitor logs for Trump's residenceMar-a-Lago, wherean FBI search found classified documents from Trump's presidency despite Trump's lawyers' claim that no such documents were there.[54] Comer declared he would investigate Biden because Biden "hasn't been investigated", adding: "there have been so many investigations of President Trump. I don't feel like we need to spend a whole lot of time investigating President Trump".[55]When Comer told Fox TV'sSean Hannity, "You look at how Donald Trump is treated. He had documents in one location behind a locked door," Florida Democratic congressmanJared Moskowitz aired previously publicly widely distributed footage of large quantities boxes of classified and confidential documents inMar-a-Lago were haphazardly stored in various places including an unlocked bathroom and on a theater stage.[56] In March 2023, Comer confirmed that he had ended a House investigation into Trump's financial dealings, in which Trump's former accounting company,Mazars USA, had been turning over documents as part of a court-supervised settlement; the documents provided information on how foreign governments patronized the Trump International Hotel. Comer said he "didn’t even know who or what Mazars was" and that he was instead investigating "money the Bidens received from China".[57]
When CNN asked Comer in April 2023 whether his investigation had found "anything illegal while [Joe Biden] was actually in office", he replied: "we found a lot that's certainly unethical … We found a lot that should be illegal. The line is blurry as to what is legal and not legal with respect to family influence-peddling."[58][59] On September 12, 2023, SpeakerKevin McCarthy announced animpeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, and announced that he had chosen Comer to head the inquiry.[60]
Comer discussed the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in October 2023, stating that "because we have so many documents, and we can bring these people in for [private] depositions or [public] committee hearings, whichever they choose".[61] After Biden's son Hunter was subpoenaed to testify, Hunter preferred to testify publicly instead of privately, to avoid misrepresentations of the proceedings, stated Hunter's lawyer; Comer responded that the subpoenas for a private deposition were "not mere suggestions open to [Hunter] Biden's interpretation or preference".[61]
In March 2024, Comer declared: "I am preparing criminal referrals as the culmination of my investigation" for the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.[62] In June 2024, Comer made criminal referrals of Hunter Biden and James Biden to the Justice Department, over alleged refusal to provide information thatThe Hill reported had "limited connection" to Joe Biden.[63] Later that month Comer insisted that "this is an investigation of Joe Biden … This was always about Joe Biden … the next step will be accountability for Joe Biden."[64] In August 2024,The Washington Post reported that Comer's "investigation quietly sputtered out after no evidence or testimony obtained by congressional Republicans showed that the president was a direct participant in or beneficiary of his family’s business dealings … Comer himself also promised multiple criminal referrals against [Joe] Biden that never materialized."[2]
After Joe Biden ended his 2024 presidential re-election campaign and Vice PresidentKamala Harris became the Democratic Party presidential nominee, Comer in August 2024 announced an investigation into Harris' actions in regard toU.S. Customs and Border Protection and theUnited States-Mexico border, with Comer declaring that it was "unclear what actions, if any, Vice President Harris has taken to fix the border crisis".[65] Later in August 2024, Comer announced another investigation, this time on the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nominee,Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as Comer asked theFederal Bureau of Investigation to provide information on Walz in relation to China.[66]
For the118th Congress:[67]
Comer supports the repeal of theAffordable Care Act ("Obamacare").[73]
In 2016 Comer called the Obama administration's final budget a "disaster in the making".[citation needed] In 2017, he voted for theTax Cuts and Jobs Act, also denoted as the "Trump tax cuts", which was estimated to add $1.49 trillion to the national debt.[74]
Comer opposes paidparental leave for federal workers.[75]
Comer opposesamnesty andsanctuary cities. He supportsExecutive Order 13767, the building of a wall along theMexico–U.S. border.[73]
Comer is anti-abortion.[73]
Comer supports declassifyingmarijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic and growinghemp. In December 2017, he said there is "simply not enough support for medical marijuana legalization across the board".[76]
Comer opposessame-sex marriage.[73] He also opposes banningdiscrimination based onsexual orientation andgender identity, and voted against theEquality Act in 2019.[77][78] Comer voted against theRespect for Marriage Act in 2022.[79]
In June 2021, Comer was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal theAUMF against Iraq.[80][81]
In 2023, Comer was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21 which directed PresidentJoe Biden to remove U.S. troops fromSyria within 180 days.[82][83]
Comer voted to provide Israel with support following2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[84][85]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 3,969 | 81.33 | |
| Republican | Donnie Mayfield Polston | 911 | 18.67 | |
| Total votes | 4,880 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 11,051 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 11,051 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 9,361 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 9,361 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 12,247 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 12,247 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 10,876 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 10,876 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 12,482 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 12,482 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 12,040 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 12,040 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 86,316 | 66.67 | |
| Republican | Rob Rothenburger | 43,150 | 33.33 | |
| Total votes | 129,466 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 519,183 | 63.79 | |
| Democratic | Robert "Bob" Farmer | 294,663 | 36.21 | |
| Total votes | 813,846 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Matt Bevin (Jenean Hampton) | 70,480 | 32.90 | |
| Republican | James R. Comer (Chris McDaniel) | 70,397 | 32.87 | |
| Republican | Hal Heiner (K.C. Crosbie) | 57,951 | 27.06 | |
| Republican | Will T. Scott (Rodney Coffey) | 15,365 | 7.17 | |
| Total votes | 214,193 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 24,342 | 60.59 | |
| Republican | Mike Pape | 9,357 | 23.29 | |
| Republican | Jason Batts | 5,578 | 13.88 | |
| Republican | Miles A. Caughey Jr. | 896 | 2.23 | |
| Total votes | 40,173 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 209,810 | 72.19 | |
| Democratic | Samuel L. Gaskins | 80,813 | 27.81 | |
| Total votes | 290,623 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer | 216,959 | 72.56 | |
| Democratic | Samuel L. Gaskins | 81,710 | 27.33 | |
| Write-in | Terry McIntosh | 332 | 0.11 | |
| Total votes | 299,001 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Comer (incumbent) | 172,167 | 68.59 | |
| Democratic | Paul Walker | 78,849 | 31.41 | |
| Total votes | 251,016 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James Comer (incumbent) | 246,329 | 75.0 | |
| Democratic | James Rhodes | 82,141 | 25.0 | |
| Total votes | 328,470 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James Comer (incumbent) | 184,157 | 74.9 | |
| Democratic | Jimmy Ausbrooks | 61,701 | 25.1 | |
| Total votes | 245,858 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James Comer (incumbent) | 252,729 | 74.7 | |
| Democratic | Erin Marshall | 85,524 | 25.3 | |
| Total votes | 338,253 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
Comer is married to Tamara Jo "TJ" Comer and has three children. He was baptized at First Baptist Church of Tompkinsville and is a member of Elkhorn Baptist Church in Midway, Kentucky.[1][103]
In 2015, just before Comer started publicly running for Congress, he bought a 50% stake in six acres of Kentucky land for $128,000 from landowner Darren Cleary, a major donor to Comer's political campaigns.[104] In 2017, Comer transferred this stake to ashell company, Farm Team Properties, that Comer owns with his wife.[104]
Comer reported that Farm Team Companies was worth at least $500,000 in 2022, but it was "not clear" if the shell company owned any other assets, reported the Associated Press in 2023.[104] In 2020, Comer was criticized for stock trading ahead of theCOVID-19 pandemic-related2020 stock market crash: Comer reportedly dumped shares inBank of America and purchased shares of online workplace messaging companySlack.[105]
By 2023, Comer has reported owning around 1,600 acres of land.[104]
On May 5, 2015, Comer was accused of physical and mental abuse by Marilyn Thomas, a woman he dated while attending Western Kentucky University in 1993.[106] He has said he believes the accusation was a political stunt to hinder his gubernatorial campaign.[34]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forAgriculture Commissioner of Kentucky 2011 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Agriculture Commissioner of Kentucky 2012–2016 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromKentucky's 1st congressional district 2016–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Raking Member of theHouse Oversight Committee 2020–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Oversight Committee 2023–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 154th | Succeeded by |
 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
