Lee, Mike (1971-…), became a United States senator in 2011. Lee, a Republican, represents Utah. Before his election to the Senate, Lee worked as a lawyer.
Michael Shumway Lee was born in Mesa, Arizona, on June 4, 1971. His father, Rex E. Lee, held the post of solicitor general, the second-highest ranking attorney in the Department of Justice, under President Ronald Reagan. The older Lee later served as president of Brigham Young University. In 1994, Mike Lee received a bachelor’s degree from the university, where the student body elected him president. He graduated with a law degree from the university in 1997. Following graduation, Lee clerked for federal judges and worked as a lawyer for a private law firm.
In 2005 and 2006, Lee served as general counsel for Utah Governor Jon Huntsman. In 2006, Lee began a yearlong clerkship with Justice Samuel A. Alito of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2007, Lee returned to private law practice. During his 2010 campaign for the U.S. Senate, Lee won the support of groups associated with the conservative tea party movement. He won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2010 and took office in January 2011. He was reelected in 2016 and 2022.
As a senator, Lee became known for his efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance reform law popularly known as Obamacare. He also gained attention for his work with Democratic senators to increase safeguards for citizens’ privacy in federal surveillance programs and to reform federal sentencing laws to reduce prison sentences for low-level offenders.
