Jason Lewis (Minnesota politician)
Jason Mark Lewis is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 2nd congressional district from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was a radio talk show host, political commentator and writer before entering Congress. He worked in Denver, Charlotte and Minneapolis–Saint Paul before hosting the nationally syndicated Jason Lewis Show from 2009 to 2014. Lewis was defeated for reelection in 2018 by Democrat Angie Craig. He is a candidate in the 2020 United States Senate election in Minnesota.
Education
Lewis was born in 1955 in Waterloo, Iowa. He has a master's degree in political science from the University of Colorado at Denver as well as a Bachelor of Arts in education/business from the University of Northern Iowa.Radio career
Lewis's show was syndicated nationally by the Premiere Radio Networks and the Genesis Communications Network. Before that, he broadcast locally for ten years on KSTP in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area and then on WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina for three years. In 2006 Lewis moved back to Minnesota to the newly established KTLK-FM.On the February 17, 2009, episode of his show, Lewis announced that his show would be syndicated nationally, effective February 23, 2009. Since 2007 Lewis had been one of the most frequently used and most popular guest hosts of Rush Limbaugh's radio program, allowing him to reach a nationwide audience.
On August 8, 2011, The Jason Lewis Show was picked up for national syndication by the Genesis Communications Network. On the July 31, 2014, episode, Lewis announced he was leaving the show to devote more time to a website he helped co-found.
Writing
Lewis is the author of the 2011 book Power Divided is Power Checked: The Argument for States Rights. In bonus commentary added to the 2016 audiobook version, Lewis said that many state laws prohibit consensual conduct and most of those laws are decided by the states. In the book he writes, "slavery was mercifully conquered", and suggests that "emancipated compensation" was rejected by the Lincoln Administration—raising the question whether Abraham Lincoln "exploited the issue" of slavery to justify the "War Between the States." The book is a defense of federalism and calls for a constitutional amendment allowing "any state to peaceably leave the union."Political campaigns
1990 U.S. House campaign
In 1990 Lewis ran for Congress in Colorado's 2nd congressional district. He was defeated by incumbent Democrat David Skaggs.2016 U.S. House campaign
In October 2015 Lewis filed to run for U.S. Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, and was endorsed at the Minnesota Republican Party's convention on the 6th ballot on May 7, 2016. He won the four-way August primary with 46% of the vote.The race was widely considered one of 2016's most competitive congressional elections. Roll Call journalist Alex Roarty wrote that Lewis had not openly embraced Donald Trump, but that he had been "unafraid to embrace many of the presumptive presidential nominee's trademarks: tough talk, an aversion to political correctness, and a focus on border security."
During the campaign, a number of Lewis's opinions from his radio and internet career were publicized by the news media, including comments he made about women and slavery. Lewis said on his radio show: "You've got a vast majority of young single women who couldn't explain to you what GDP means. You know what they care about? They care about abortion. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about 'The View.' They are non-thinking."
In an update to his book on states' rights just before the campaign, Lewis questioned the federal government's role in outlawing slavery: "In fact, if you really want to be quite frank about it, how does somebody else owning a slave affect me? It doesn't. If I don't think it is right, I won't own one, and people always say 'well, if you don't want to marry somebody of the same sex, you don't have to, but why tell somebody else they can't?' Uh, you know, if you don't want to own a slave, don't. But don't tell other people they can't."
Lewis said, "liberal reporters and typical politicians may not like the bluntness of the way I've framed some issues in my career as a voice in the conservative movement" and that his comments were "taken out of context by his opponents and the media".
On November 8, 2016, Lewis was elected to the United States House of Representatives, defeating Democratic nominee Angie Craig and independent Paula Overby.
2018 U.S. House campaign
In 2018 Angie Craig ran against Lewis again and defeated him in the November 6 general election with 52.8% of the vote to Lewis's 47.2%.U.S. Senate campaign
Lewis was mentioned as a possible candidate against Senator Al Franken in 2014, but did not run. In August 2019 Lewis launched a campaign for that seat, now held by Tina Smith. Lewis pledged not to distance himself from Trump or his policies. Lewis has become connected to the Trump–Ukraine scandal through donations he received during the 2016 election. One of Rudy Giuliani's associates, Igor Fruman, who has been arrested on campaign finance charges, made two donations to Lewis's campaign committee, "Jason Lewis for Congress," totaling $2,445.34.Personal life
Jason and his spouse, Leigh Lewis, reside in Woodbury, Minnesota, near the congressional district where he was elected in 2016.Electoral history
Political positions
As of October 2018 Lewis had voted with his party in 96.3% of votes in the 115th United States Congress and in line with Trump's position in 91%.According to Project Vote Smart's 2016 analysis, Lewis generally supported pro-life legislation, opposed income tax increases, opposed mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, opposed federal spending, supported lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth, opposed requiring states to adopt federal education standards, supported the building of the Keystone Pipeline, opposed federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, opposed gun-control legislation, supported repealing the Affordable Care Act, supported requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, and opposed American intervention in Iraq and Syria beyond air support.
Criminal justice reform
Lewis authored a bill that would provide education and vocational training resources to at-risk youth and young criminal offenders instead of levying penalties against them for petty offenses. He reintroduced the SAFE Justice Act, a criminal justice reform bill supported by FAMM, the American Conservative Union, the NAACP, the ACLU, and Freedomworks.Lewis was a critic of the war on drugs, which he compared to failed policy of alcohol prohibition in America. He cosponsored legislation to let states set their own policy on cannabis and to remove cannabis from the list of Schedule I drugs.
Health care
Lewis supported the March 2017 version of the American Health Care Act. On May 4, 2017, he voted to repeal the ACA and pass the American Health Care Act.LGBT rights
In 2011 Lewis said that prohibitions on same-sex marriage were not discriminatory against gay people, because they would still be free to marry those of the opposite sex. In 2013 he argued against same-sex marriage, comparing gay people to rapists, speeders and polygamists. Lewis said that prohibitions against same-sex marriage could not be legally challenged on the basis of discrimination, because rapists and speeders could not reasonably argue that they were being discriminated against by prohibitions on rape and speeding. "The gay-rights lobby is playing underhanded to get their will and in the process they are shredding the Constitution of this country", Lewis said.Lewis suggested that households headed by gay parents might be harming their children and that more research was needed to confirm that they were not:
I'm still not convinced that it's a great idea for children to grow up with two moms or two dads. Call me a Neanderthal. I'm not saying it's bad. I don't know. There hasn't been some longitudinal long-term studies on this. But we've rushed to this judgment that growing up with two mommies is a wonderful experience. I don't know. Maybe it's not so wonderful. Maybe it could harm the kid.
He called the decision of school boards to allow transgender restrooms and locker rooms in public schools an "abomination".
Taxes and spending
Lewis voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.He voted against the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, a bill that increased discretionary spending by $300 billion. After his vote he said, "I ran for Congress to get the economy going again by reducing taxes, regulations, deficits and debt. A $300 billion increase in discretionary spending along with hiking the debt ceiling fails on all accounts."
Lewis authored a bill that would mandate an audit of the Department of Defense. He later praised the department's decision to undergo an audit in 2018.
Women's issues
In 2018 CNN reviewed many hours of audiotape recorded during the years when Lewis served as a substitute host for Rush Limbaugh. The network focused broad public attention upon those remarks for the first time. About women, he said:Lewis defended his comments by saying that he was paid to be provocative. "There's a difference between a politician and a pundit", he added.
In 2011 Lewis decried laws prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace, claiming such laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with free speech. That same year he mocked women who claimed to have been traumatized by unwanted sexual touching and kissing.