Gary Glenn

Gary Glenn
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives
from the 98th district
Assumed office
January 1, 2015
Preceded by Jim Stamas
Personal details
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Annette Glenn
Children five
Residence Williams Township, Michigan
Alma mater Lenoir-Rhyne University
Website
Military service
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army Reserves
Army National Guard
Years of service 1990-1998

Gary Glenn is a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives, first elected in 2014 to represent the 98th legislative district. He is a Republican from Williams Township, Michigan, and as president of the American Family Association of Michigan, he coauthored the state's Marriage Protection Amendment approved by voters in 2004.[1]

Career

As executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work Committee from 1980–86, he led the successful effort to enact a state "right to work" law prohibiting compulsory union affiliation or financial support. In 2011, he was a founding board member of the Michigan Freedom to Work coalition, which launched the successful effort to enact similar legislation in that state. In 2015, the National Right to Work Committee named Glenn the recipient of its highest honor, the Senator Everett M. Dirksen Award, for a lifetime of achievement and commitment to the principle of individual freedom in the workplace.

Military career

Glenn enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves during the Persian Gulf War buildup in 1990 and served eight years in the Reserves and Army National Guard, including with the 1460th Transportation Company headquartered in Midland. He was named Honor Graduate of both Basic Combat Training at Ft. Sill, Ok., and Advanced Individual Training at Redstone Arsenal, Al., and earned two Army Reserve Component Achievement Medals. He is chairman of the Michigan state chapter of Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, a small nonprofit military readiness and remembrance organization.

American Family Association

In 1999 Glenn became president of the American Family Association of Michigan,[2] an organization dedicated to opposing civil rights for LGBT people, abortion, and pornography,[3] designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[4]

2012 U.S. Senate campaign

Glenn ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. Senate but was defeated in the Republican primary by Pete Hoekstra on August 7, 2012.[5] Despite the electoral loss, Glenn ran very strongly in the campaign with the Tea Party and religious voters for his strong stances on socially conservative issues such as gay marriage and gay adoption.[6]

State legislature

Glenn was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2014, representing the 98th House District, comprising the cities of Auburn, Linwood, Midland, and Pinconning, the village of Sanford, and thirteen suburban and rural townships in Bay and Midland counties. In the current 2017-18 legislative term, he serves as Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tempore and as chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee. He also serves on the House Communications and Technology, Insurance, and Military and Veterans Affairs committees.

In his first term, the 2015-16 session, he served as vice chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee and on the House Commerce and Trade, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Tax Policy committees.

Glenn was reelected in 2016 with just over 60 percent of the vote, winning 48 of the district's 50 precincts and losing the remaining two precincts by a combined total of six votes. Two days later, the incoming Republican House Caucus for the 2017-18 session elected him Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tempore, the same position former Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, held during his second term.

He was also appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on the seven-member Committee on Committees, which recommended the chairs and membership of each House committee, and to serve as one of three Finance Chairmen of the House Republican Campaign Committee.

Michigan Information and Research Service, Lansing's oldest daily legislative news service, selected Rep. Glenn from among 55 first-term state representatives and senators as its MIRS "Freshman Legislator of the Year" in 2015, specifically citing his leadership and impact on energy policy and civil asset forfeiture reforms.

In his first term, he compiled a voting record that earned a 100 percent score from Americans for Prosperity-Michigan and from the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. He won the American Conservatives Union's "Award for Conservative Excellence" for scoring the most conservative voting record in the Michigan House in 2015, and again in 2016, and he is routinely scored among the most conservative members of the House by multiple news outlets and interest groups. Glenn also won accolades from conservative organizations for having said in a previous position, before being elected, that "school officials should be held financially or criminally liable if they tell a student it's OK to be gay and he or she contracts a deadly sexually transmitted disease."[7]

In 2016, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan and received NFIB's "Guardian of Small Business" award. In 2017, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Michigan Propane Gas Association.

In 2014, and again in 2016, the Abolitionist Roundtable, an organization of African-American radio talk show personalities in the metro Detroit area, named him the recipient of its annual "Champion of Liberty Award" for his work towards economically and socially conservative policies. In 2011, he was named “Citizen of the Year” by Citizens for Community Values during the South Bend, Indiana-based social conservative advocacy group's annual banquet on the campus of Notre Dame University.

2018 Michigan State Senate race

Glenn moved from Midland to Bay County's Williams Township in order to be eligible to run in the August 2018 primary for the 31st District state Senate seat, comprising Bay, Lapeer, and Tuscola counties, but he received only 41% of the vote, compared to Kevin Daley, who received 59%.[8][9]

Personal life

He is a member of Midland Baptist Church, a life member of the National Rifle Association, and was a founding board member of the new Midland Optimist Club.

He and his wife Annette were married in 1983, and they have five children and six grandchildren.

References

  1. ↑ "Gary Glenn, District 98". Michigan House Republicans. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Gary's Bio". Gary Glenn for State Senate. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  3. ↑ "AFA of Michigan". AFA of Michigan. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  4. ↑ "American Family Association". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  5. ↑ "Gary Glenn ends U.S. Senate campaign, backs opponent in hopes of beating Pete Hoekstra in GOP primary". October 22, 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "Glenn unites tea party, religious right in Michigan Senate race". American Independent. American Independent. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  7. ↑ "Schools saying 'it's OK to be gay' should be liable if kids get STDs, Michigan legislator says". MLive. MLive. June 19, 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "Kevin Daley defeats Gary Glenn in GOP primary for state Senate". Houston Chronicle. 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  9. ↑ "Gary Glenn for State Senate". Gary Glenn for State Senate. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
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