Sheldon Whitehouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States Senator fromRhode Island | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office January 3, 2007 Serving with Jack Reed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lincoln Chafee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 71stAttorney General of Rhode Island | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 2, 1999 – January 7, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Governor | Lincoln Almond | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jeffrey B. Pine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Patrick Lynch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States Attorney for theDistrict of Rhode Island | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 20, 1993 – June 8, 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Bill Clinton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lincoln Almond | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Margaret Curran | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1955-10-20)October 20, 1955 (age 70) New York City,New York, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Democratic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent(s) | Mary Rand Charles Whitehouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Rufus Rand (grandfather) Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse (grandfather) See theCrocker family | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Yale University (BA) University of Virginia (JD) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Senate website Campaign website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sheldon Whitehouse questions witnesses onGuantanamo Bay detainees andtorture during thewar on terror Recorded December 7, 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American politician and attorney serving as thejuniorUnited States senator fromRhode Island, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of theDemocratic Party, he served as theUnited States Attorney for theDistrict of Rhode Island from 1993 to 1998, and as the 71stattorney general of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003. He was elected to the Senate In2006, defeatingRepublican incumbentLincoln Chafee. He was reelected in2012,2018, and2024.
A politicalprogressive and climate hawk, Whitehouse became chair of theUnited States Senate Committee on the Budget in 2023. He has given hundreds of Senate floor speeches aboutclimate change and asserted that politically conservative "dark money" groups are conducting a campaign to take control of the U.S. government, specifically theSupreme Court of the United States, to preventclimate action, among other reasons.[1][2][3][4]
Whitehouse was born on October 20, 1955, in New York City,[5] the son of Mary Celine (née Rand) and career diplomatCharles Sheldon Whitehouse, and grandson of diplomatEdwin Sheldon Whitehouse (1883–1965). Whitehouse's father served as the U.S. Ambassador toThailand andLaos.[1] Among his great-great-grandfathers were Episcopal bishopHenry John Whitehouse and railroad executive[6]Charles Crocker, who was among the founders of theCentral Pacific Railroad. Whitehouse graduated fromSt. Paul's School inConcord, New Hampshire, and in 1978 fromYale College. He received hisJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law in 1982.[1]
Whitehouse worked as a clerk for JusticeRichard Neely of theSupreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1982 to 1983. He also worked in theRhode Island Attorney General's office as a special assistant attorney general from 1985 to 1990, chief of the Regulatory Unit (which oversaw utilities) from 1988 to 1990, and as an assistant attorney general from 1989 to 1990.[citation needed]
Whitehouse worked as Rhode Island GovernorBruce Sundlun's executive counsel beginning in 1991, and was later tapped to serve as director of policy. He oversaw the state's response to theRhode Island banking crisis that took place soon after Sundlun took office.[7] In 1992, Sundlun appointed Whitehouse the state's Director of Business Regulation, where he oversaw the state's workers' compensation insurance system.[citation needed]
PresidentBill Clinton appointed WhitehouseUnited States Attorney for Rhode Island in 1994. Whitehouse held the position for four years. With the 1996 extortion conviction of mobsterGerard Ouimette, he was the first prosecutor to convict a member of organized crime under Clinton's "three strikes law". Ouimette was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[8]
In 1998, Whitehouse was electedRhode Island Attorney General. He initiated a lawsuit against thelead paint industry that ended in a mistrial; the state later won a second lawsuit against former lead paint manufacturersSherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings, and NL Industries that found them responsible for creating a public nuisance.[9] This decision, however, was unanimously overturned by theRhode Island Supreme Court on July 1, 2008. The court found that under Rhode Island law it is the responsibility of property owners to abate and mitigate lead hazards.[10]
When African-American Providence police officerCornel Young Jr. was shot and killed by two fellow officers while he was off duty in January 2000,[11] Whitehouse was criticized for not appointing anindependent prosecutor to investigate the shooting.[12] Later that year, 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.[13]
Whitehouse ran for the Democratic nomination forgovernor of Rhode Island in 2002. He lost theprimary election to former State SenatorMyrth York, who was unsuccessful in the general election against RepublicanDonald Carcieri.[14]
Whitehouse launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held byLincoln Chafee, aRepublican, on April 4, 2005.[15] By September 30, he had raised over $600,000 for his campaign, including $360,000 of his own, more than doubling Chafee's fundraising.[16] Whitehouse campaigned heavily against theIraq War and the United States's dependence on foreign oil.[17] After winning the Democratic primary by a large margin, he defeated Chafee with 53% of the vote in the 2006 general election.[18] With his victory, Whitehouse became the first Democrat to win this Senate seat sinceJohn Pastore in1970.
On November 6, 2012, Whitehouse won reelection to a second term in office, defeating Republican nomineeBarry Hinckley by 30 points, with 64.9% of the vote.[19]
On November 6, 2018, Whitehouse was reelected to a third term, defeating Republican nomineeRobert Flanders by 23 points.[20]
On November 5, 2024, Whitehouse was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Republican nomineePatricia Morgan by 20 points.[21]
.jpg)
In 2007, theNational Journal ranked Whitehouse the second-most liberal senator.[22]
He voted to confirmElena Kagan andSonia Sotomayor to theSupreme Court.[23][24]
In the spring of 2007, Whitehouse joined other senators in calling forAttorney GeneralAlberto Gonzales's resignation.[25] After Gonzales's first appearance before theSenate Judiciary Committee related to thecontroversy, Whitehouse toldNPR, "[Gonzales] had a hard sell to make to me, and he didn't make it."[26] He continued to question Gonzales's service in theNSA warrantless surveillance controversy.[27]
Upon Attorney GeneralEric Holder's announcement in September 2014 of his intention to step down, some speculated that Whitehouse could be nominated as Holder's replacement.[28][29]
In February 2016, after the death of U.S. Supreme Court Associate JusticeAntonin Scalia,USA Today named Whitehouse as a possible nominee to fill the vacancy. Whitehouse's service as a U.S. Attorney and as Attorney General of Rhode Island gives him both legislative experience and experience as a legal official, though not as a judge.[30] Whitehouse was ultimately not nominated.
In August 2024, Whitehouse said that if Democrats won control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives in the2024 elections, they would be "virtually certain" to pass a Supreme Court reform bill by a simple majority, which would evade the 60-vote requirement forcloture. 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 also include a bill creating a national right to abortion.[31]
In February 2025, the ethics watchdog groupFoundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a complaint accusing Whitehouse of violating ethics policies by advocating for legislation to award his wife Sandra's nonprofit, Ocean Conservancy, $7 million in federal funding.[32][33] The ethics complaint seeks to clarify whether it is a conflict of interest for Sandra to earn money from a group that has benefited from legislation Whitehouse supported.[34]
Whitehouse has faced some criticism for allegedinsider trading, avoiding big losses by trading stocks after top federal officials warned congressional leaders of "the coming economic cataclysm" on September 16, 2008.[35] After meeting withFederal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke andTreasury SecretaryHenry Paulson on September 16, and being briefed on the unfolding financial crisis, Whitehouse sold a number of positions, valued between $250,000 and $600,000, over the next six days.[36][37][38] After coming under scrutiny due to possible insider trading, a spokesperson for his office denied it, saying Whitehouse "is not actively involved in the management" of the implicated accounts and that he "neither directed his financial advisor to undertake any transaction during that time, nor ever took advantage of any exclusive or secret information".[39]
In March 2022,Business Insider reported that Whitehouse had violated theSTOCK 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 theTarget Corporation andTesla, Inc. Whitehouse's office acknowledged that he missed the disclosure deadline, blaming it on a staff transition in his office.[40][41][42][43]
In September 2022, an investigation byThe New York Times found that 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.[44][45]
According toPolitico, during Whitehouse's chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee, he turned the committee into a de facto climate panel. He has sought to subpoena the executives of leading oil companies and to impose a carbon tax.[50]
In a 2018 interview with theProvidence Journal, Whitehouse expressed opposition toD.C. statehood. He was dismissive of efforts to give District residents representation in Congress, suggesting they should be satisfied with the amount of federal activity nearby.[51][52] In July 2020, he cosponsored a Senate bill to grant D.C. statehood.[53]
In November 2011, Whitehouse introduced the Safeguarding America's Future and Environment (SAFE) 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".[54]
Of a proposed action on mandatory emissions curbs, Whitehouse toldThe Hill, "I am not hearing anybody on our side, even the people who are more economically concerned about the climate legislation who come from coal states, that sort of thing, saying, 'What are we going to say about this, is this a problem?'"[55]
Whitehouse dismissed theClimatic Research Unit conspiracy theory: "Climategate should properly be known as Climategate-gate because it was the scandal that was phony."[56]
Whitehouse has said that the development ofalternate energy sources, includingsolar power, will eliminate U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He 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".PolitiFact investigated the economics ofrenewable energy and determined that solar and wind investments would not have a large effect on oil consumption, calling Whitehouse's comments "mostly false" due to "this misimpression—and because of the other inaccuracies in Whitehouse's speech".[57]
In a May 29, 2015,Washington Post editorial, Whitehouse advocated prosecution of members of the fossil fuel industry under theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).[58]
In April 2019, Whitehouse was one of 12 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to top senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advocating that the Energy Department be granted maximum funding forcarbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), arguing that American job growth could be stimulated by investment in capturing carbon emissions and expressing disagreement with President Trump's 2020 budget request to combine the two federal programs that do carbon capture research.[59]
In July 2024, Whitehouse authored legislation to prohibit thecommercial farming of octopuses nationwide, afterWashington andCalifornia enacted octopus farming bans. He cited environmental andanimal welfare concerns, tellingNPR: "Octopuses are among the mostintelligent creatures in the oceans. And they belong at sea, not suffering on afactory farm."[60] Whitehouse reintroduced the legislation in 2025.[61]
Since 2012, 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.[62]
Whitehouse supported a vote that would limit continuing U.S. support for the War inYemen. Initially, he was one of the two Democratic holdouts in the Senate, but an activist effort, including mobilizing fans of the Rhode Island bandDowntown Boys, contributed to changing his position.[63][64]
Whitehouse supportsgun control.[65] In 2022, he voted for theBipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun reform bill introduced following adeadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School inUvalde, Texas. The bill enhanced background checks for firearm purchasers under the age of 21, provided funding for school-based mental health services, and partially closed thegun show loophole andboyfriend loophole.[66][67]
Whitehouse voted for thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).[68] During its passage, he cautioned that conservative opposition to the bill was moving toward historical instances of mob violence.[69]
In December 2009, Whitehouse said "birthers", "fanatics", and "people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups" opposed Obamacare.[70]
In January 2025,Talking Points Memo reported that Whitehouse was "actively considering" voting to confirmanti-vaccine activistRobert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee forSecretary of Health and Human Services.[71] 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 theHealth and Human Services Department.[71] During Kennedy's confirmation hearing on January 29, Whitehouse said that he supports mandatory vaccinations, telling Kennedy: "If you want to move from advocacy to public responsibility, Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations, including a promise from you never to say vaccines aren't medically safe when they in fact are, and making indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe."[72] Whitehouse ultimately voted not to confirm Kennedy.[73]
In September 2014, Whitehouse was one of 69 Congress members to sign a letter toFood and Drugs CommissionerSylvia Burwell requesting that theFood and Drug Administration revise its policy banning donation ofcorneas and other tissues by men who have had sex with another man in the preceding five years.[74][75] He has publicly supported reintroducing theEqual Rights Amendment.
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.[76] According toRoll Call, "Whitehouse hasn't been as convincing as he'd hoped in his campaign to curb conservative anonymous donors and their influence on the Supreme Court—even as that 'dark money' now floods in to support the judicial nomination process his party controls."Roll Call wrote that when talking about undisclosed political spending, Whitehouse "can sound conspiratorial". Ilya Shapiro of theCato Institute, serving as a witness at one of Whitehouse's congressional hearings about political spending, said Whitehouse was on a "quixotic crusade".[77]The New York Times andThe Wall Street Journal have complained that, while positioning himself as someone opposed to dark money, Whitehouse has a history of accepting dark money and overlooking it when such contributions flow to his Democratic colleagues.[78][79]
Whitehouse critiqued conservative dark money groups who backed Supreme Court JusticeBrett Kavanaugh's nomination.The Washington Post criticized him for not addressing anti-Kavanaugh groups with the same scrutiny.[80]
In 2019, Whitehouse announced that he intended to introduce legislation that would require groups that fileamicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court to disclose their donors.[81]
Whitehouse has received over $175,000 in campaign donations from theLeague of Conservation Voters. BillionaireTom Steyer has donated $17,300 directly to Whitehouse since 2006. Other donors to Whitehouse include theSierra Club and theNatural Resources Defense Council.[82]
In March 2021, Whitehouse convened a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled "What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary". He alleged that a "multi-hundred million dollar covert operation" influences the U.S. Supreme Court.[83]
Also in March 2021, Whitehouse wrote U.S. Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland a letter asking him to investigate "what appears to have been a politically constrained and perhaps fake FBI investigation into alleged misconduct by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh."[84] SenatorBen Sasse critiqued Whitehouse's allegation that the FBI investigation of Kavanaugh had been "fake", saying "This kind of paranoid obsession is Nixonian poison to public trust."[85]
On July 9, 2024, it was reported that Whitehouse and SenatorRon Wyden sent an official letter the previous week to U.S. Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland requesting him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas for possible tax and ethics violations.[86]
In 1986, Whitehouse married Sandra Thornton, amarine biologist and granddaughter ofJames Worth Thornton and Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson. Her step-grandfather was prominent essayist and criticEdmund Wilson. They live inRhode Island with their two children. Whitehouse isEpiscopalian.[87]
Whitehouse is a great-great-grandson of Episcopal BishopHenry John Whitehouse,Minneapolis MayorAlonzo Cooper Rand, and businessmenTobias Mealey andCharles Crocker. Among his distant ancestors areWilliam Bradford, governor ofPlymouth Colony, and theologianArchibald Alexander.[88][89]
Whitehouse's longtime ties to the elite private clubBailey's Beach have attracted scrutiny.The New York Times called the club a haven for members of America's "ruling class" and various media outlets have said it has an all-white membership.[90][91] In June 2021, Whitehouse defended his family's membership in the club.[92] Asked whether the club had any nonwhite members, he replied, "I think the people who are running the place are still working on that, and I'm sorry it hasn't happened yet." Asked whether such clubs should continue to exist, he said, "It's a long tradition in Rhode Island." A spokesperson for Whitehouse said the club did not have any restrictive racial policies and that it had members of color. Whitehouse declined to provide details of the club's membership, and the club initially refused to answer questions about its policies or membership.[93][94][95] The club ultimately put out a statement saying reports that all its members were white were "inaccurate and false". The club's president urged members to use "restraint" when speaking to the media. 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".[96]
Whitehouse later acknowledged belonging to theIda Lewis Yacht Club, which he said lacked diversity, saying, "Failing to address the sailing club's lack of diversity is squarely on me, and something for which I am sorry."[97]
John Rothman portrayed Whitehouse in the 2019 filmThe Report.[98]
Pete Davidson portrayed Whitehouse in thecold open of theseason 44 premiere ofSaturday Night Live.[99]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Myrth York | 46,806 | 39.16 | |
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse | 45,880 | 38.39 | |
| Democratic | Antonio J. Pires | 26,838 | 22.45 | |
| Total votes | 119,524 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse | 69,290 | 81.53 | |
| Democratic | Christopher F. Young | 8,939 | 10.52 | |
| Democratic | Carl Sheeler | 6,755 | 7.95 | |
| Total votes | 84,984 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse | 206,043 | 53.52% | +12.37% | |
| Republican | Lincoln Chafee (incumbent) | 178,950 | 46.48% | −10.40% | |
| Majority | 27,093 | 7.04% | −8.69% | ||
| Turnout | 384,993 | ||||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 60,223 | 100 | |
| Total votes | 60,223 | 100 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 271,034 | 64.81% | +11.29% | |
| Republican | Barry Hinckley | 146,222 | 34.97% | −11.51% | |
| n/a | Write-ins | 933 | 0.22% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 418,189 | 100.0% | N/A | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 89,140 | 76.79% | |
| Democratic | Patricia J. Fontes | 26,947 | 23.21% | |
| Total votes | 116,087 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 231,477 | 61.45% | −3.36% | |
| Republican | Robert Flanders | 144,421 | 38.33% | +3.36% | |
| Write-in | 840 | 0.22% | N/A | ||
| Total votes | 376,738 | 100% | N/A | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 49,401 | 83.77% | |
| Democratic | Michael Costa | 9,572 | 16.23% | |
| Total votes | 58,973 | 100.0% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sheldon Whitehouse (incumbent) | 294,665 | 59.90% | −1.54% | |
| Republican | Patricia Morgan | 196,039 | 39.85% | +1.52% | |
| Write-in | 1,244 | 0.25% | +0.03% | ||
| Total votes | 491,948 | 100% | N/A | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Data from Wikidata| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Attorney for theDistrict of Rhode Island 1993–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Rhode Island 1999–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Sara Quinn | Democratic nominee forAttorney General of Rhode Island 1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromRhode Island (Class 1) 2006,2012,2018,2024 | Most recent |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Rhode Island 2007–present Served alongside:Jack Reed | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Narcotics Caucus 2021–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Budget Committee 2023–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Environment Committee 2025–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States senators by seniority 17th | Succeeded by |
 | ||
| ||
| Class 1 | | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 2 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
