Mark Udall

Mark Udall

Mark Emery Udall (born July 18, 1950 in Tucson , Arizona ) is an American politician ( Democratic Party ). He represented the state of Colorado in the US House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009 and then in the United States Senate until 2015 .

Family and education

Mark Udall comes from a well-known American political dynasty, the Udall family . His father was Congressman Mo Udall . He is also a cousin of Tom Udall , a Senator from New Mexico , and a nephew of former US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Lee Udall .

Udall studied at Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts and was the Executive Director of the Colorado Outward Bound School .

He lives in Eldorado Springs , Colorado with his wife, lawyer and environmental activist Maggie Fox . The two have a son and a daughter.

Political career

Politically, Udall was first active in 1997 as a member of the House of Representatives of Colorado . Two years later, he succeeded the no longer-running David Skaggs in the House of Representatives in Washington, DC , after he won the 1998 election to the United States House of Representatives against the Republican Mayor of Boulder , Bob Greenlee .

After several re-elections, Udall finally ran for a seat in the US Senate in the November 2008 election . Incumbent Wayne Allard (Republican) was no longer running; a congressman , Bob Schaffer, was also an opponent . Udall won with 53:43 percent of the vote and entered the Senate on January 6, 2009.

The nomination of Ken Salazar for the post of Secretary of the Interior of the Obama administration made the second Colorado state senatorial vacancy; Udall was promoted to senior Senator after only three weeks in office. Udall was a member of the Senate Armed Forces and Energy Committees . After one term, he lost his seat in the 2014 Senate election to Republican candidate Cory Gardner , who replaced him on January 3, 2015.

In retrospect, he viewed his election campaign strategy in 2014 as a mistake of focusing on the political positions of his Republican opponent, which were marked as extreme, instead of putting his own person in the foreground. In 2015 he became a Visiting Fellow of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, founded by David Axelrod .

Political positions

Udall is considered an opponent of the death penalty and turned against the Iraq war . He also advocates stem cell research , a woman's right to abortion ( Pro-Choice ), environmental protection and increased gun controls.

He voted against the Paulson plan to stabilize the financial system. He advocated disclosure of the CIA torture report in 2014.

Web links

Commons : Mark Udall  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mark Udall in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lynn Bartels: Democrat Mark Udall Looks Back as he Begins his Next Chapter. In: The Denver Post , June 7, 2015.
2. ↑ Mark Udall at OnTheIssues.org (English).
3. ↑ Debate about torture report: George W. Bush defends the CIA , heise online on December 8, 2014