That's a trend that continued to the 116th Congress. But there are dozens of former small-town mayors, state governors, former judges, ex-state lawmakers, former congressional staffers, sheriffs, and FBI agents, just to name a few.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, center, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., right, hold a meeting with members of the Ukrainian Parliament, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 30, 2022. From left are: Ukrainian Parliament members Yevheniya Kravchuk and Lesia Zaburanna, Ukrainian Amb.
The House of Representatives passed a bill to halt normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. Eight House Republicans voted against the bill on Thursday. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Thomas Massie were among them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As members of the Ukrainian parliament were pleading for aid on Capitol Hill, an air raid siren blared from one of their cell phones — a wrenching alert from the war-torn country back home. One of the visitors reached into her bag, pulled out the phone and let the siren wail in the halls of Congress.
In the letter, Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus, pressed Ukraine’s then-President Petro Poroshenko to take action on “entrenched corruption” within his government.
Johnson wrote a letter with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last week that, in part, called on Attorney General William Barr to investigate allegations that Biden called for Shokin’s removal to help his son.
Shokin’s office had opened an investigation into Burisma, but it was dormant by the time Biden was working on anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have cleared Biden of any wrongdoing related to Shokin’s firing.
The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Biden boasted in 2018 about withholding $1 billion in aid to Ukraine to get them to oust Shokin, which Trump has claimed amounts to a “quid pro quo.” But foreign policy experts, including a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, say Biden’s actions were an appropriate form of diplomatic pressure.
Data compiled regularly by the Washington, D.C., publication Roll Call and the Congressional Research Service have found that the most common professions held by burgeoning members of the House and Senate are in law, business and education. In the 113th Congress, for example, nearly a fifth of the 435 House members and 100 senators worked in ...
Actors and Football Players, Talk Show Hosts and Comedians. Tom Murse has been writing about politics and government for over two decades, and has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation for fairness in investigative reporting.
Author and talk-show host Al Franken was best known for his role on "Saturday Night Live" before being elected a U.S. Senator from Minnesota.
Not everyone in Congress is a lawyer, professional politician or celebrity seeking to make a serious name for themselves.
Politicians By Profession. Plenty of obvious non-politicians have made their way through Washington and various state capitals. Actor and President Ronald Reagan was never a member of Congress, but he served a governor of California before becoming commander in chief.
These dentists, stockbrokers, and astronauts didn't just jump headfirst into politics. Most were already involved in politics in some other way, whether it was through volunteering with campaigns, becoming members of local party committees, giving money to super PACs or other political action committees and serving in small, unpaid municipal positions.
Following his electoral defeat in 2004, Yanukovych led the main opposition party against the Tymoshenko government made up of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and Oleksandr Moroz 's Socialist Party. This government was marred by growing conflict between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Yanukovych's Party of Regions support allowed for the establishment of Yuriy Yekhanurov 's government in late 2005.
President Leonid Kuchma appointed Yanukovych to the post of Prime Minister following Anatoliy Kinakh 's resignation. Yanukovych began his term as Prime Minister on 21 November 2002 following a 234-vote confirmation in the Verkhovna Rada, eight more than needed.
After the election, the Ukrainian parliament passed a non-binding motion of no confidence in Yanukovych's government, urging outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to dismiss Yanukovych and appoint a caretaker government. Five days after his electoral defeat, Yanukovych declared his resignation from the post of Prime Minister. In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that he conceded defeat only to avoid violence. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed."
Parliamentary vote. On 22 February 2014, 328 of 447 members of the Ukrainian parliament (MPs)—or about 73% of the MPs—voted to "remove Viktor Yanukovych from the post of president of Ukraine" on the grounds that he was unable to fulfill his duties and to hold early presidential elections on 25 May.
On 25 June 2010, President Yanukovych criticised 2004 amendments in the Ukrainian Constitution which weakened presidential powers such as control over naming government ministers, passing those functions to parliament.
Yanukovych first ran for president in 2004: he advanced to the runoff election and was initially declared the winner against former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. However, the election was fraught with allegations of electoral fraud and voter intimidation.