Lacy Clay


William Lacy Clay Jr. is an American politician who is the U.S. Representative from, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The district is based in the city of St. Louis and includes most of northern St. Louis County, including the cities of Maryland Heights, University City, and Florissant.

Early life and education

Lacy Clay Jr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His family moved to Washington, D.C. when his father, Bill Clay, was elected to the U.S. Congress. His mother was Carol Ann.
In his teenage years, Clay attended public schools in Silver Spring, Maryland and graduated from Springbrook High School in 1974. He subsequently attended the University of Maryland–College Park, earning a degree in political science and a paralegal certificate. Clay is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He attended Howard University School of Law, worked as an Assistant Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives, and worked on his father's Congressional campaigns.

Missouri legislature

Clay entered the Missouri House of Representatives in 1983, winning a special election to complete the term of Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers. In 1991, he was elected to the Missouri Senate.

U.S. House of Representatives

In 2000, Congressman Bill Clay announced his retirement after 32 years in the U.S. Congress. His son, then Missouri State Senator Lacy Clay faced a three-way Democratic Primary to succeed his father. Clay Jr. prevailed by a wide margin, winning 62% of the Democratic Primary vote and breezing to victory in the November General Election. He has since been reelected nine times, winning Democratic primaries by an average margin of victory of 30 pts. In ten general elections, Clay Jr. has received and average of 73.5% of the general election vote.
For his first six terms, Clay represented the northern two-thirds of St. Louis, while the southern third was located in the 3rd district, represented by fellow Democrat Russ Carnahan. However, Missouri lost a congressional district as a result of the 2010 census. The final map resulted in the 3rd district being eliminated and the 1st district absorbing all of St. Louis, a decision in which then-U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill said Clay was involved for his self-interest. Clay beat Carnahan in the August 7, 2012 primary, 63% to 34%.

Committee assignments

In January 2017, Clay engaged an argument with Republican lawmakers over the right to hang a controversial painting in the Capitol. The winner of an art competition, the painting represents the violent Ferguson unrest of 2014 and ensuing police-community relations in Ferguson, Missouri, depicting police officers as animalistic figures while apprehending suspects. The painting is displayed near the police security checkpoint. Rep Duncan D. Hunter removed the painting and Clay re-hung it. Several Republicans, including Doug Lamborn, Dana Rohrabacher, and Brian Babin repeatedly removed the painting, and Clay re-hung it each time. Clay then attempted to file a complaint with the Capitol Police accusing Hunter of theft. After the architect of the U.S. Capitol ruled that the winning painting had violated the rules for the art competition and ordered its permanent removal, Clay sued to overturn the decision, but his suit was dismissed by a federal judge. Clay continued to assert a first amendment argument on behalf of his young constituent, asking "How is it possible that we stand for freedom of speech and freedom of expression every place across this country, except the U.S. Capitol?"

Federal legislation to curb gun violence

In the 116th Congress, Congressman Clay has introduced #HR3435 the Local Public Health and Safety Protection Act, new legislation that would, for the first time at the federal level, give local communities the freedom to enact their own regulations to curb gun violence, without seeking permission from their state legislatures. The legislation grants local control over the issue via the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and by tying the law to future public safety grant funding to states from the U.S. Department of Justice. Support across the nation for Clay's bill is growing with endorsements from Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence, Newtown Action, Giffords Courage, Brady, and many other gun safety advocates.

Environment

In his role as a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, Clay is an outspoken advocate for renewable energy, acting on Climate Change, cosponsoring the Green New Deal, protecting National Parks, national seashores, wildlife refuges, forests and rivers. He is also an outspoken champion for cleaning up hazardous waste sites in largely minority communities who are often the victim of environmental racism. Clay led the effort to successfully clean up three dangerous, hazardous sites in his district in the St. Louis area: $5 million for the former St. Louis Army Ammunition Plant in North St. Louis; $33 million for the former Carter Carburetor plant site in North St. Louis; and $266 million for the radiologically contaminated West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Northwest St. Louis County.

Political positions

During Clay's previous seventeen years in the state legislature, he authored Missouri's Hate Crimes Law which included gender, sexual orientation and sexual identity in the criteria of what constitutes a hate crime.
He was one of the 31 U.S. Representatives who voted not to count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.
Clay voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
Clay is a supporter of the Federal Reserve's program of quantitative easing and claims that it has led to economic recovery since the Financial crisis of 2007–2008.
On December 18, 2019, Clay was one of only two Missourians in the House to vote for both articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump, along with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II.

Electoral history

Personal life

Clay and his wife Patricia reside in University City, a historic community in Saint Louis County, Missouri.
He is the father of two children: Carol and Will.