Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms as the U.S. representative for , from 1999 to 2005.
Of mixed Irish Catholics and Azores descent, Toomey graduated from Harvard College. A former Wall Street banker, Toomey narrowly lost the Republican primary for United States Senate in 2004. From 2005 to 2009, he served as president of the Club for Growth. Toomey won the Republican primary for the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, and was elected to the seat after defeating the Democratic nominee, former U.S. Navy Three-star rank and congressman Joe Sestak, in the general election. He was reelected to the Senate in 2016, defeating Democratic nominee Katie McGinty.Pennsylvania Elections – Summary Results
On October 5, 2020, Toomey announced that he would not run for reelection to a third Senate term in 2022. On February 13, 2021, Toomey was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of Sedition in his second impeachment trial. After leaving office, Toomey joined the board of Apollo Global Management.
Toomey was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and attained the organization's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He attended La Salle Academy on a scholarship,Keith Herbert Only change in 15th District: Stakes higher ** Toomey, O'Brien debating same issues as two years ago.SECOND The Morning Call – Allentown, Pa October 29, 2002 Page B-1 where he participated in the Close Up Washington civic education program and graduated as valedictorian. He then attended Harvard College, where he graduated with a B.A. in government in 1984.
In 1991, Toomey resigned from Morgan, Grenfell after it was acquired by Deutsche Bank. He later said he resigned out of concern that Deutsche Bank would impose a less flexible and entrepreneurial work environment. The same year, Toomey and two younger brothers, Steven and Michael opened Rookie's Restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
In 1994, Toomey was elected to Allentown's newly established Government Study Commission. During his term, he drafted a new charter for the commission requiring a supermajority for any tax increase and established a split-roll tax system that levied taxes on land at higher rate than taxes on buildings. Allentown voters approved the charter on April 23, 1996.
In the general election, Toomey faced state Senator Roy Afflerbach, a former Pennsylvania State Representative. During the campaign, Toomey criticized the agenda of the Clinton-Gore administration, especially its plans to modify the Internal Revenue Service. He said the plan did not "address the real fundamental problems plaguing American taxpayers" and said the IRS should be abolished.
Later in the campaign, Toomey and Afflerbach debated the effectiveness of a flat tax-based system, an issue on which they sharply disagreed. Toomey promised to serve no more than three terms if elected. Almanac of American Politics 2014, p. 1406. He defeated Afflerbach, 55%–45%.
In 2001, Toomey proposed a budget that would cut taxes worth $2.2 trillion over ten years, exceeding Bush's $1.6 trillion plan.
In 2002, Toomey voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution which authorized military action against Iraq.
Toomey strongly opposed Bush's plan for comprehensive immigration reform, saying "I think it's a slap in the face for the millions of people throughout the world who decide to take the effort to legally enter our country." He was a longtime supporter of creating Medicare Part D, but said he would not vote for it unless it lowered costs and guaranteed competition between government and private insurers.
In January 1999, Toomey was named to the House Budget Committee.
On April 28, 2009, Specter announced he would switch parties and run as a Democrat, after polls showed him losing to Toomey in the primary. Specter's withdrawal left Toomey as the front-runner for the 2010 Republican nomination. Both primaries were held on May 18, 2010.
Toomey defeated Peg Luksik in the Republican primary, 81%–19%, and Specter lost the Democratic primary, 54%–46% to U.S. Representative Joe Sestak of Delaware County. The general election was spiteful and cost over $50 million including spending by the candidates, political parties, and outside groups. Toomey won 51%–49%, carrying most of the state's counties.
On August 11, 2011, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell named Toomey to the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The committee's duties included composing a package of spending cuts for submission to both Houses of Congress.
On April 26, 2012, Toomey was selected to chair the United States Senate Steering Committee, a caucus of several Republican senators who collaborate on legislation. He succeeded Senator Jim DeMint, who had previously expressed his intention to transfer the committee's chairmanship to a member of the Republican 2010 Senate class.
On October 6, 2018, Toomey was one of 50 senators (49 Republicans, 1 Democrat) to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Toomey and Senator Bob Casey disagreed on how evidence of sexual assault against Kavanaugh should be handled.
Some activists have criticized Toomey for not meeting frequently enough with his constituents, including never having held an in-person town hall in Philadelphia despite having held at least 47 "teleconference town-hall meetings" with his constituents. These "teleconference town-hall meetings" could have as many as 10,000 people on a single call, and when he has held in-person town-hall meetings Toomey has been accused of having selected the audience.
In February 2019, Toomey was one of 16 senators to vote against legislation preventing a partial government shutdown and containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border which included 55 miles of fencing.
In March 2019, Toomey was one of 12 Republican senators to cosponsor a resolution that would impose a constitutional amendment limiting the Supreme Court to nine justices. The resolution was introduced after multiple Democratic presidential candidates expressed openness to the idea of expanding the Supreme Court.
On June 5, 2019, Toomey recognized the 20th Anniversary of the SMART Congressional Initiative.Pat Toomey 20th SMART Memo .
On April 17, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Toomey to the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission to oversee the implementation of the CARES Act.
On October 4, 2020, Toomey was reported to be retiring at the conclusion of his term, forgoing a reelection campaign or a run for governor in 2022. He confirmed the report the next day.
Committee assignments
Toomey has a consistent record of voting against environmental interests or supporting them only with limiting provisions. In 2000, he opposed implementing the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to curb greenhouse gases. In 2001, he voted against raising corporate average fuel economy standards and providing incentives for alternative fuels. In 2003, he supported the Healthy Forests Initiative, which aimed to combat wildfires by allowing timber harvests in protected forests. In 2014, he supported protecting the Allegheny National Forest, saying, "Congress should ensure that the Forest Service prioritize limited resources to adequately manage the lands for which it is currently responsible, rather continue to acquire additional property." In 2017, he opposed restricting oil drilling and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In a series of roll-call votes attached to debate over the Keystone pipeline on January 21, 2015, Toomey voted against an amendment offered by Brian Schatz expressing the sense of Congress regarding climate change but in favor of a similar amendment offered by John Hoeven.
In July 2021, Toomey said that the data on global warming is not clear enough to justify imposing new regulatory burdens on consumers.
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) 2021 National Environmental Scorecard gave Toomey a 18% score, with a lifetime score of 7%.
Regarding deregulation of the financial services industry, Toomey said in 1999, "The trend in deregulation, beginning in the early 1980s, is one of the biggest reasons for the sustained economic expansion. I would like to see us continue to deregulate on many fronts, including the financial services industry."
While serving on the House Banking Committee, in 1999 Toomey helped write House Resolution 10, which led to the repeal of parts of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act. The repeal of the Act which had regulated the separation of banks and investment firms, allowed for companies that combined banking and investment operations.
Toomey was also a supporter of the deregulation of the derivatives market, an area in which he had professional experience, stating that he believed the market to be adequately regulated by banking supervisors and state-level regulators. He pressed the House to pass the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 because it would "eliminate most of the cloud of legal and regulatory uncertainty that has shadowed" derivatives since their invention. He stated that he hoped that the Senate would modify the bill to "allow greater flexibility in the electronic trading" of over-the-counter derivatives.
Toomey was a leading sponsor of the JOBS Act which passed the Senate in March 2012. The Act would reduce costs for businesses that go public by phasing in SEC regulations for "emerging growth companies" over a five-year period. It would also help startup companies raise capital by reducing some SEC regulations.
Toomey orchestrated legislation to repeal consumer protection measures enacted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which had been intended to prevent auto lenders from discriminating on the basis of race.
Toomey opposed President Obama's executive orders on gun control as contrary to the constitutional system of checks and balances, but believes Congress should pass background checks. He received nearly $93,000 from gun-rights groups, including the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), who endorsed his 2010 election campaign. His "A" rating fell to a "C" ("poor") in 2016 after he started championing background check legislation.
In a 2022 interview with Face the Nation, Toomey said that Republicans can stay consistent on Second Amendment rights while still supporting gun-control measures like background checks and state red flag laws (with respect to due process), and addressing school safety and mental health issues.
In 2010, Toomey supported the repeal of Don't ask, don't tell, a policy that banned openly gay or bisexual persons from serving in the military, in a statement made while he was Senator-elect. "Toomey supports repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell" , Politicspa.com; accessed November 10, 2016.
In November 2013, Toomey proposed an amendment exempting private religious entities from following the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The amendment failed. After the bill received the 60 votes required for cloture, Toomey cast his vote in support.
Following the cloture vote, Toomey said he had long believed that more legal protections are appropriate to prevent employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, but planned to modify the bill to offer religious groups more "leeway".
Toomey opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and has supported multiple efforts to dismantle, repeal or defund it.
Toomey intervened to have Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old girl dying of cystic fibrosis at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, moved ahead of other recipients in obtaining a lung transplant, on the grounds that the existing policy reduced access for children. Sen. Toomey's Press Release On Organ Network Policy Changes , Toomey.senate.gov, June 11, 2013. As a 10-year-old, Murnaghan was eligible for transplants only from other children, not from adults leading to a longer waiting time than adult patients. Some doctors said this decision privileged Murnaghan and another child over other recipients, and privileged them above a national policy of allocating organs according to well-established rules.Scott D. Halpern, Turning Wrong Into Right: The 2013 Lung Allocation Controversy , Annals of Internal Medicine, September 3, 2013. Murnaghan's case resulted in a permanent organ transplant policy change for pediatric patients.
In 2017, as Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare, Toomey said the independent insurance market was in a "death spiral" because of the ACA. Toomey helped write the Republican bill to repeal Obamacare.
On August 7, 2022, Toomey was one of 43 votes against a failed amendment in the Senate that would cap insulin costs at $35 per month.
Toomey publicly opposed the 2009 federal stimulus package. He opposes government-run or subsidized healthcare and farm subsidies.
In 2011, Toomey sponsored a federal balanced budget amendment. He supported extending unemployment benefits and offsetting the cost with reduced government spending in other areas.
In his first term in Congress, Toomey took credit for getting $12 million in earmark spending for businesses in his district. In 2010 he claimed but provided no proof that he eventually ceased getting earmarks as a congressman, when as a Senate candidate he signed the "No Pork" pledge. In December 2011, Toomey and Senator Claire McCaskill introduced the Earmark Elimination Act of 2011. The bill failed and failed again when it was reintroduced in 2014.
In September 2018, Toomey was among six Republican senators who voted against a $854 billion spending bill meant to avoid another government shutdown. The bill included funding for the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor and Education.
Toomey voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2013.
In March 2015, Toomey voted for an amendment to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow employees to earn paid sick time.
In July 2020, Toomey joined fellow Republican Senator Mitt Romney in condemning Trump's decision to commute Roger Stone's sentence, saying that while Trump "clearly has the legal and constitutional authority to grant clemency for federal crimes," commuting Stone's sentence was a "mistake" due in part to the severity of the charges against him and that "Attorney General Bill Barr stated he thought Mr. Stone's prosecution was 'righteous' and 'appropriate' and the sentence he received was 'fair.'"
In February 2019, Toomey was one of 16 senators to vote against legislation preventing a partial government shutdown and containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border that included 55 miles of fencing. In March 2019, Toomey was one of 12 Republican senators to vote to block Trump's national emergency declaration that would have granted him access to $3.6 billion in military construction funding to build border barriers.
Later that month, the House impeached Trump on multiple charges, including abuse of power in the attempted extortion of Zelenskyy. Even after Trump was impeached, Toomey continued to insist that his offenses were "not impeachable" and opposed hearing from any witnesses at Trump's trial. "We should move as quickly as we can to get this thing over with, get this behind us," Toomey said, adding, "Even if someone believes that everything John Bolton says is going to confirm what's charged in these articles, it's still not impeachable." (The New York Times reported Bolton had written in his forthcoming book that Trump had told him in August 2019 that he wanted to continue freezing the Ukraine aid until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens.) Along with all but one of the other Republican senators, Toomey voted against convicting Trump on the two articles for which he had been impeached by the House.
On January 9, 2021, Toomey said he thought Trump had performed an impeachable offense for his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, but he did not say if he would vote to convict in the Senate. On February 13, 2021, he joined all Democratic senators and six Republicans in voting to convict.
In November 2017, Toomey co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (s. 720), which made it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government.
In March 2018, Toomey voted to table a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee which would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.
In April 2018, Toomey was one of eight Republican senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and acting Secretary of State John Sullivan expressing "deep concern" over a report by the United Nations exposing "North Korean sanctions evasion involving Russia and China" and asserting that the findings "demonstrate an elaborate and alarming military-venture between rogue, tyrannical states to avoid United States and international sanctions and inflict terror and death upon thousands of innocent people" while calling it "imperative that the United States provides a swift and appropriate response to the continued use of chemical weapons used by Bashar al-Assad and his forces, and works to address the shortcomings in sanctions enforcement."
On August 10, 2020, Toomey, along with 10 other U.S. individuals, was sanctioned by the Chinese government for "behaving badly on Hong Kong-related issues".
In November 2018, Toomey was one of 12 Republican senators to sign a letter to Trump requesting that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement be submitted to Congress by the end of the month to allow a vote before the end of the year; they were concerned that "passage of the USMCA as negotiated will become significantly more difficult" in the incoming 116th United States Congress.
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U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 1998, Toomey ran for the Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district, based in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, after Democratic incumbent U.S. Representative Paul McHale decided to retire. Toomey won the six-candidate Republican primary with 27% of the vote.
Toomey was reelected to a second term, defeating Ed O'Brien, president of the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based United Steelworkers Local 2598, Steelworkers union hall heavy on history, mcall.com; accessed November 9, 2016. 53%–47%. He won Lehigh County with 54% and Northampton County with 51%.
Toomey was reelected to a third term, defeating O'Brien again, 57%–43%. He won Lehigh County with 58% and Northampton County, with 54%.
In accordance with his 1998 pledge not to serve more than three terms in the House, Toomey did not run for reelection in 2004. He decided to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in the primary instead. He lost the primary by a narrow margin.
Tenure
U.S. Senate
Elections
2004
2010
2016
Tenure
Political positions
Education
Environment
Government shutdown
Deregulation
Gun policy
LGBT rights
Healthcare
Taxes and government spending
Social issues
Immigration
Impeachment
Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices
President Donald Trump
Foreign policy
Trade
January 6 United States Capitol attack
Veterans
Personal life
Electoral history
External links
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