Matt Salmon


Matthew James Salmon is an American Republican politician, who retired from office after serving as representative for. The district is based in Mesa and includes most of the East Valley. He previously represented the district, then numbered as the 1st District, from 1995 to 2001. In 2002, he lost by less than 1% to Janet Napolitano in a highly competitive governor's race. He regained his old congressional seat in the 2012 election. Salmon and his wife Nancy have been married for 34 years. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
On February 25, 2016, Salmon announced his retirement from politics.
In June 2016, Arizona State University announced that Salmon would join his undergraduate alma mater as Vice President for Government Affairs in the Office of Government & Community Engagement. In this position, Salmon oversees the University’s local, state and federal relations teams. He also holds a faculty appointment as a Professor of Practice in Public Affairs in the ASU College of Public Service & Community Solutions.
In April 2020, Salmon was named Chairman of the American Kratom Association. The nonprofit organization "advocates to protect the freedom of consumers to safely consume natural kratom as a part of their personal health and well-being regimen."

Early life, education, and business career

Salmon was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and lived in Taiwan from 1977–1979 as a missionary.

Arizona Senate (1991–1995)

Elections

In 1990, he ran for the Arizona Senate in the 21st Senate District based in Mesa, Arizona. In the Republican primary, he defeated incumbent State Senator Jerry Gillespie, who was controversial due to his support of impeached Governor Evan Mecham and his vote against the Martin Luther King holiday. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Bill Hegarty 60%–40%. In 1992, he won re-election to a second term unopposed.

Tenure

In 1992, he was elected to a new leadership position called assistant majority leader. He served that position until 1995.
In 1993, he sponsored legislation that created new drug test programs for employers. That year, he also called for an independent study of the Department of Economic Services' child welfare agency.

Committee assignments

Elections

;1994
Incumbent U.S. Congressman Sam Coppersmith, a Democrat, decided to retire after one term in what was then the 1st District in order to run for the U.S. Senate. Salmon won the Republican primary with a plurality of 39% in a five-candidate field. During his first congressional campaign, term limits were a high-profile issue. Salmon was one of many candidates nationwide who pledged to serve only three terms in Congress. In the general election, he defeated Democratic State Senator Chuck Blanchard, 56%–39%.
;1996
He won re-election to a second term with 60% of the vote.
;1998
He won re-election to a third term with 65% of the vote.
;2000
He honored his campaign pledge and did not seek re-election to a fourth term in 2000. He was then succeeded by Jeff Flake.

Tenure

He signed the Contract with America.
In 1999, he unsuccessfully advocated carving Ronald Reagan's face into Mount Rushmore, claiming that the former President had won the Cold War. An idea that garnered support from Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett and John R. Kasich. Salmon was instrumental in obtaining the January 29, 2000 release of U.S. based academic researcher Song Yongyi from detention in China on spying charges.
;Accomplishments

2002 gubernatorial election

Incumbent Republican Arizona Governor Jane Dee Hull was ineligible for re-election in 2002. In the Republican primary, Salmon defeated Arizona Secretary of State Betsy Bayless and Arizona Treasurer Carol Springer 56%–30%–14%. He won every county in the state. In the general election, he faced Democratic nominee and Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano, Libertarian nominee Barry Hess, and former Arizona Secretary of State Richard D. Mahoney. Napolitano defeated Salmon 46.19%–45.22%, a difference of just 11,819 votes.

Political activism

After that race, he served as a lobbyist and chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. In 2007, he served as campaign manager to businessman Scott Smith's successful campaign for Mayor of Mesa. In 2008, he became President of the Competitive Telecommunications Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association.

U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2017)

Second congressional stint

In April 2011, Salmon announced he would seek his old congressional seat, which was now numbered as the 5th District. His conception of term limits had evolved: in 2011 he stated that they were a flawed concept unless they were applied across the board. His successor in Congress, Jeff Flake, was giving up the seat to run for the United States Senate. He was endorsed by the Club for Growth, Governor Jan Brewer, Senator John Thune, Congressman David Schweikert, Congressman Trent Franks, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. In the August 28 Republican primary, he defeated former state house speaker Kirk Adams 52%–48%. In the general election, Salmon defeated Democrat Spencer Morgan 65%–35%. However, the 5th is as heavily Republican as its predecessor, and Salmon had effectively assured his return to Congress with his primary victory.
Salmon was reelected almost as easily in 2014. However, he announced on February 25, 2016 that he is retiring for good.

Committee assignments

In March 2013, he endorsed the idea of bringing back the Hastert Rule, which is that in order to bring a bill to the floor it must have a majority of the majority party's support. He also proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution limiting House members to three terms in office and Senators to two.
;Abortion
Salmon is pro-life and has opposed federal funding of abortions as well as family-planning assistance that includes abortions.
;Gay rights
Salmon voted to ban gay couples adopting children and opposes gay marriage.
In April 2013, Salmon announced that he would continue to oppose same-sex marriage even though his son is openly gay. Salmon's stances have been unmoved despite his acceptance of his son's homosexuality. Salmon's son led the Arizona Log Cabin Republicans; he left the group to focus on medical school.
;Civil Rights
chapter in Glendale, Arizona in 2014
Salmon is strictly opposed to the surveillance of personal emails and phone-calls currently allowed and has called for legislation to reduce it. He introduced a bill that would better protect privacy rights by limiting the ability of the government to perform
unwarranted searches.
;Environment
Salmon has been a moderate supporter of environmental protection. He voted to enforce environmental standards on new pipelines, prohibit the EPA from being barred from investigations, reduce nuclear waste, and provide larger forest conservation.
;Budget
Salmon is a strong fiscal conservative and has often caused rifts and defections in his own party to oppose increasing the deficit. He has strictly opposed raising the debt limit and any new spending without matching cuts. He believes government agencies and institutions should undergo reform, not expansion, to meet their needs.
;Taxes
Matt Salmon signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, stating he would never vote for legislation to increase taxes on Americans. He opposes new government spending unless it has a plan to initiate some spending cut that will offset the loss. He has voted to cut various taxes, such as the estate and marriage taxes.
Following the recent IRS scandal and the wake of investigation, Salmon has called upon Attorney General Eric Holder to hold independent investigation on the IRS for its alleged targeting of its political opponents due allow for an unbiased non-government council to look into the matter.
He is a cosponsor to a bill that would prevent politically-based bias causing any discrimination in tax treatment.
In 2011 Salmon signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.

Electoral history