Christopher Shays

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Christopher Shays

Christopher H. "Chris" Shays (born October 18, 1945 in Stamford , Connecticut ) is an American politician . Between 1987 and 2009 he represented the state of Connecticut in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Chris Shays attended Darien High School in Connecticut until 1964 and then until 1968 the Principia College in Elsa ( Illinois ). He then studied at New York University until 1978 . Politically, he became a member of the Republican Party . From 1968 to 1970 he was a member of the Peace Corps . Between 1975 and 1987 he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives .

After the death of longtime Congressman Stewart McKinney in May 1987, Shays was elected in the by-elections in Connecticut's fourth constituency as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC . After ten re-elections, he was able to exercise his mandate in Congress between August 18, 1987 and January 3, 2009. In the 2008 elections he was defeated by Democrat Jim Himes . He resigned as the last remaining Republican MP from New England from the House of Representatives.

During his tenure in Congress, Shays served intermittently on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee , the Financial Services Committee, and the Homeland Security Committee . Within these committees he was still a member of a total of five sub-committees. In Congress, Shays was considered a moderate Republican who also voted with the Democrats a few times. He also failed to fully endorse the indictment in the attempted impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton . This brought him, among other things, sharp criticism from the conservative columnist Ann Coulter , who then considered running in the next election for the Libertarian Party in order to take Shay's votes and thus prevent his re-election. Shays also advocated better environmental laws. On the other hand, he has supported the Iraq war from the start and only moved away from it in his last term in Congress by calling for an early troop withdrawal. However, his position on this question remained contradictory. During his time as a member of parliament he has visited Iraq a total of 21 times.

Since May 2009 Chris Shays has served on the board of directors of the CIT Group , a New Jersey- based financial services company. He is married to Betsi DeRaismes and lives in Bridgeport.

Web links

Commons : Christopher Shays  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
  • Christopher Shays in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)