Mike Gallagher | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2018 | |
| Chair of theHouse Committee on the Chinese Communist Party | |
| In office January 10, 2023 – April 24, 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | John Moolenaar |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's8th district | |
| In office January 3, 2017 – April 24, 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Reid Ribble |
| Succeeded by | Tony Wied |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael John Gallagher (1984-03-03)March 3, 1984 (age 41) Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Princeton University (BA) National Intelligence University (MS) Georgetown University (MA,PhD) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 2006–2013 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | 1st Intelligence Battalion |
| Battles/wars | Iraq War |
Gallagher supporting the establishment of theHouse Select Committee on the CCP. Recorded January 10, 2023 | |
Michael John Gallagher (born March 3, 1984) is an American foreign policy advisor andRepublican politician fromBrown County, Wisconsin. He served four terms in theUnited States House of Representatives, representingWisconsin's 8th congressional district from 2017 until his resignation in April 2024.[a]
While serving in the118th United States Congress, Gallagher was the chairman of theHouse Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party.[2] He was a decisive vote against theimpeachment of Homeland Security secretaryAlejandro Mayorkas in February 2024, resulting in outrage directed against him from some members of his party. Days later, Gallagher announced he would not run for a fifth term in Congress.[3] A month later, he announced he would not finish his term, and would resign effective April 19, 2024.[4] He later moved his resignation to April 20, 2024, so he could vote in favor of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.[a][5] Regional press reported that Gallagher would be taking a role with TitletownTech, a venture capital firm backed byMicrosoft and theGreen Bay Packers.[6][7]
Before his election to Congress, Gallagher served as a military intelligence officer for seven years, including overseas deployments in theIraq War, and worked as committee staff on theU.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is married toBroadway actressAnne Horak Gallagher.
Gallagher lived in Green Bay through middle school. After his parents' divorce, he moved to California and studied atMater Dei High School inSanta Ana, while spending summers in Wisconsin. Gallagher later said his teachers "endowed me with a love for history and set me on a path to earning a Ph.D. focusing onCold War history."[8] He graduated in 2002 asvaledictorian.[9]
Gallagher earned his B.A. in 2006 from theWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. With a growing interest in global security, he changed his major from Spanish to Arabic.[9][10] Gallagher completed a 117-page senior thesis, "New Approaches to Asymmetric Threats in the Middle East: From Fighting to Winning", under the supervision ofFrederick Hitz.[11] At this time he completed a summer internship abroad with theRAND Europe (UK) CIC[12] inCambridge, United Kingdom, working on a strategic study of terrorist groups such asBasque separatists.
Gallagher served his first tour of duty in theIraq War with theUnited States Marine Corps. Subsequently, Gallagher began a MSSI (Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence) atNational Intelligence University and graduated in 2010.
Gallagher completed a second M.A. in security studies atGeorgetown University in 2012. He then began doctoral studies, writing a dissertation on the administrations ofHarry S. Truman andDwight D. Eisenhower and theCold War,[13] receiving his Ph.D. in government and international relations in 2015.[14] His dissertation committee was chaired by Andy Bennett and included Keir A Lieber and Colin Dueck.[15]
Gallagher was anintelligence officer in theUnited States Marine Corps, serving seven years (2006–13) on active duty.[16] He twice deployed to theAl Anbar Province, Iraq, serving on GeneralDavid Petraeus'sCENTCOM Assessment Team, both as a commander of intelligence teams inAl-Qa'im near the Syrian border.
His first deployment was in November 2007 to lead a counterintelligence and human intelligence team, a time where al-Qaeda appeared to have been defeated by theIraq War troop surge of 2007; giving "some semblance of stability in the town."[17][18] He made a back-to-back deployment from 2008, taking over from a team led byMatt Pottinger.[17] He assessed American military strategy in the Middle East and Central Asia in his role as a counterintelligence officer, and as a member of the CENTCOM assessment team.[19]
In an interview withThe American Interest, Gallagher was very critical of the Obama administration's subsequentdrawdown of United States troops from Iraq, because:
"... all the predictions we made at the time about creating a vacuum and how dangerous that was proved to be true. And I think the broader regional policy in the Obama Administration of seeking accommodation with the Iranian regime in the hopes that this would produce what the President referred to as a new equilibrium in the region produced exactly the opposite: disequilibrium.[18]
Gallagher served as a Republican staffer on theUnited States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.Governor of WisconsinScott Walker hired him as a foreign policy advisor in February 2015, in preparation for his2016 presidential campaign.[20]
After Walker dropped out of the presidential race, Gallagher worked as a senior marketing strategist for Breakthrough Fuel, a supply-chain management company. He then ran for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district seat, to whichReid Ribble was not seeking reelection.[21][22] Hailing fromBrown County, Wisconsin, he won the district which comprises much of the northeast quadrant of the state of Wisconsin, including the city ofGreen Bay, having contended againstWisconsinstate senatorFrank Lasee andForestville village president Terry McNulty.[23]
In the general election, Gallagher defeatedOutagamie County ExecutiveTom Nelson,[24] 63% to 36%.[25] He was reelected in 2018 overBrown County assistant district attorney Beau Liegeois.[26]
Gallagher voted in line with PresidentDonald Trump's position 93.8% of the time in the115th Congress and 84.2% of the time in the116th Congress,[27] but broke with the White House on issues such as the Trump's firing of FBI DirectorJames Comey and Trump's denial ofRussian interference in the 2016 elections.[28] He voted against the majority of his party about 8.7% of the time.[29]
In 2018, Gallagher argued that power in the House of Representatives was too concentrated in the leadership; he proposed allowing committee members to choose their own chairs and ranking members, rather than having these positions be selected by the parties'steering committees. This proposal was rejected in a House Republican vote. Gallagher also argued for consolidating theappropriating and authorizing House committees and a reform of the House calendar that would have the chamber sit "at least five days a week for three consecutive weeks, then spend a full week back in their districts" (a change from the current congressional practice of very short legislative workweeks and frequent long weekends allowing members more time in their districts).[30] His unsuccessful reform proposals were praised byNorm Ornstein, a scholar of Congress, as "constructive" although unlikely to be adopted.[30]
Gallagher voted for the2017 Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).[27] In 2017, he called the ACA "unsustainable".[31] In 2018, Gallagher voted to expand eligibility forhealth savings accounts; in 2019, he voted against a proposal to allow the federal government to negotiate lowerprices for prescription drugs.[27]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, Gallagher's district had some of the nation's highest infection rates. He did not take a position on theWisconsin state legislature's lawsuit seeking to invalidate GovernorTony Evers's directive to mandate the wearing of masks in public as a way to combat the transmission ofthe virus.[32]
In a 2016 profile in theGreen Bay Press Gazette, Gallagher blamed PresidentBarack Obama and former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton for the success ofISIS in Iraq.[33] In 2019, he wrote it would be "a smart geopolitical move" for the U.S. to buyGreenland, a notion that Trump floated.[34] In 2020, Gallagher voted against a measure to block Trump from taking military action againstIran without Congress's consent.[27] In 2017, he supported aU.S. airstrike in Syria in retaliation for theKhan Shaykhun chemical attack,[35] and in 2020 he supported theU.S. drone strike that targeted Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.[36] In 2019, Gallagher voted for a measure opposing Trump's decision to withdrawU.S. forces from Syria.[27]
In 2019, after American video game companyActivision Blizzard punished aHong Kong-based professional gamer for supporting pro-democracyHong Kong protests, Gallagher accused Blizzard ofcensorship.[37] He co-signed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEOBobby Kotick that read, "As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing’s demands in order to preserve market access."[38]
In 2020, Gallagher andTom Cotton drafted a bill banning federal agencies, such as the departments of theHealth and Human Services,Veterans Affairs, andDefense, from purchasing drugs manufactured in China.[39]
In June 2021, Gallagher was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal theAUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) against Iraq.[40][41]
During theRusso-Ukrainian War, Gallagher signed a letter advocating for President Biden to giveF-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.[42]
In February 2023, Gallagher chaired the first public hearing of theSelect Committee on China[43] which exposed trade, industrial and security issues such as military arsenal needs for additionalJoint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs),Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs),Harpoon anti-ship missiles,Tomahawk cruise missiles, andother readiness deficits which require urgent attention in order to deter Chinese aggression in East Asia.[44]
In February 2024, Gallagher led a bipartisanSelect Committee on China delegation to Taiwan and met with PresidentTsai Ing-wen and President-electLai Ching-te.[45][46]
In June 2025, Gallagher spoke at theWORLD.MINDS meeting in Washington DC about China, AI and the transatlantic relationship.[47]
In 2017, Gallagher voted to dismantle theDodd-Frank financial regulations.[27] In 2019, he voted against increasing thefederal minimum wage to $15 an hour.[27] He voted in favor of the 2017Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.[27] He voted to repeal a federal regulation barring some companies in the financial sector from includingmandatory arbitration clauses in contracts.[27] He supported the2018 farm bill.[27]
Gallagher has supported bipartisan proposals to useindustrial policy to counter Chinese economic power; in 2020, he joined Democrats in favor of a proposal to grant $10 billion "to establish regional tech hubs that would aim to create new companies and boost manufacturing."[48] Gallagher has sponsored legislation to bar federal agencies from purchasing Chinese-manufactureddrones.[49] In December 2022, he co-sponsored a bill withMarco Rubio to prohibit Chinese and Russian-ownedsocial networking services from conducting business transactions in the U.S. under security grounds.[50]
In 2019, Gallagher voted against a resolution to block Trump fromwithdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement onclimate change.[27] He voted for a measure to bandrilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but against a measure to bandrilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.[27] He voted for a measure opposing acarbon tax, and for a delay inozone protection regulations.[27] In 2017, he voted to repeal theStream Protection Rule and to repeal federal regulations to require energy companies to reduce emissions and waste and to disclose payments made to foreign governments.[27] TheLeague of Conservation Voters gave Gallagher a lifetime score of 5%.[51]
He voted for the 2018First Step Act.[27]
Gallagher has voted for variousanti-abortion measures.
He voted against a 2019 resolution which "strongly oppose[d] Trump's ban on transgender members of the Armed Forces."[27][52] Gallagher voted for theRespect for Marriage Act on December 8, 2022.[53]
Gallagher has been an outspoken critic of thesocial media platformTikTok, which he describes as "digitalfentanyl" because of its allegedly harmful and addictive characteristics.[54][55] Furthermore, he asserts that TikTok's ties to theChinese Communist Party may result in the promotion andcensorship of various content forpropaganda purposes, and he has joined other lawmakers attempting to ban TikTok in the United States.[56][57] In the wake of the2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, Gallagher accused TikTok of "intentionally brainwashing" American youth into supporting Hamas, citing the spike in pro-Palestinian content on the platform following the outbreak of hostilities.[58][59]
Gallagher voted against theimpeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, and later voted against adopting twoarticles ofimpeachment against Trump, on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.[27]
In 2018, Gallagher voted against a House resolution condemning Trump for his comments attacking four Democratic congresswomen and saying that they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came". He declined to call Trump's comments racist, but earlier rebuked Trump supporters for "send her back" chants.[60] Gallagher spoke at a Trump rally in Wisconsin in 2019.[61]
Gallagher voted against restoring part of theVoting Rights Act.[27] He voted against a 2020 bill forDistrict of Columbia statehood.[27] In 2018, he voted to reauthorize the warrantless surveillance program as part of theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[27]
In May 2018, after a meeting at the White House, Trump endorsed Gallagher's proposal for congressionalterm limits; the proposal also received support fromBrian Fitzpatrick,Jodey Arrington, andVicente González. Gallagher's plan consists of limiting senators to two terms and representatives to six terms (12 years each). It would be grandfathered in order not to apply to sitting members of Congress, except the so-called "freshman class".[62]
On January 6, 2021, Gallagher was one of seven Republicans who did not support their colleagues' efforts to challenge the results of the2020 presidential election. These seven signed a letter that, while giving credence to election fraud allegations made by Trump, said Congress did not have the authority to influence the election's outcome.[63]
During the2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Gallagher said, "We are witnessing absolutebanana republic crap in the United States Capitol right now", and told Trump, "you need to call this off".[64] In May 2021, Gallagher and 174 other House Republicans voted against creating a commission to investigate the storming. He attributed his opposition to a desire to have non-public investigations and wanting "key language preventing interference in the over 400 ongoing criminal prosecutions".[65] As a result, he was given a C− by theRepublican Accountability Project.[66]
On January 9, 2021, Gallagher joined a group of other Republican legislators led byKen Buck of Colorado in signing a letter to President-electJoe Biden, asking him to formally request that House SpeakerNancy Pelosi halt efforts to impeach Trump.[67]
Gallagher voted to provide Israel with support following2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[68][69]
Gallagher was a surprise vote against the first impeachment vote against Alejandro Mayorkas; the vote was tied for minutes before another Republican changed to allow a reintroduction of the bill in the future.[70]
Asked whether he was worried about backlash in his district for his vote, Gallagher told a small group of reporters: "That can’t be the North Star that guides your votes and guides your principles.”
"I don't live online, guys," he replied when asked if he'd seen feedback on aWall Street Journal op-ed explaining his vote. "Get offline. It's not healthy for you. I talk to human beings."[71]
Gallagher announced in February 2024 that he would not run for re-election to the House of Representatives. His announcement came amid his outspoken criticism of the House Republican majority's impeachment of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He later clarified that he would leave Congress in April.[72]
After his resignation, Gallagher joined the defense contractorPalantir as head of defense.[73][74] In May 2024, the venture capital group TitletownTech, a joint venture of Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers, announced Gallagher had begun a job at their firm.[6][7] In his position as strategic advisor, Gallagher is said to identify tech investment opportunities in theUpper Midwest.[6][7]
On May 21, 2024, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced sanctions over Gallagher, alleging his frequent interference in China's "internal affairs."[75]
Gallagher marriedBroadway actressAnne Horak in September 2019.[82] They have two daughters, born in June 2020 and August 2022.[83][84][85]
Gallagher has won the title of "fastest man in Congress" in theACLI Capital Challenge (athree-mile race for individuals working in all branches of government and the media) every year since first taking part in 2017, most recently finishing with a time of 19:57 in 2023.[87][88]
| Year | Election | Date | Elected | Defeated | Total | Plurality | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Primary[89] | Sep. 9 | Mike Gallagher | Republican | 40,322 | 74.46% | Frank Lasee | Rep. | 10,705 | 19.77% | 54,152 | 29,617 |
| Terry McNulty | Rep. | 3,109 | 5.74% | |||||||||
| General[90] | Nov. 8 | Mike Gallagher | Republican | 227,892 | 62.65% | Tom Nelson | Dem. | 135,682 | 37.30% | 363,780 | 92,210 | |
| 2018 | General[91] | Nov. 6 | Mike Gallagher (inc) | Republican | 209,410 | 63.69% | Beau Liegeois | Dem. | 119,265 | 36.28% | 328,774 | 90,145 |
| 2020 | General[92] | Nov. 3 | Mike Gallagher (inc) | Republican | 268,173 | 64.18% | Amanda Stuck | Dem. | 149,558 | 35.79% | 417,838 | 118,615 |
| 2022 | Primary[93] | Aug. 9 | Mike Gallagher (inc) | Republican | 79,096 | 84.55% | Shaun Clarmont | Rep. | 14,377 | 15.37% | 93,549 | 64,719 |
| General[94] | Nov. 8 | Mike Gallagher (inc) | Republican | 223,981 | 72.21% | Paul David Boucher | Ind. | 48,896 | 15.76% | 310,196 | 175,085 | |
| Jacob J. VandenPlas | Lib. | 32,057 | 10.33% | |||||||||
| Julie Hancock (write-in) | Dem. | 3,160 | 1.02% | |||||||||
| Robbie Hoffman (write-in) | Dem. | 135 | 0.04% | |||||||||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's 8th congressional district 2017–2024 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of theHouse Chinese Communist Party Committee 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
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