Greg Walden

Greg Walden
Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2019
Preceded by	Frank Pallone
Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
In office January 3, 2017 – January 3, 2019
Preceded by	Fred Upton
Succeeded by	Frank Pallone
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Bob Smith
Member of the Oregon Senate from the 28th district
In office January 1995 – January 1997
Preceded by	Wes Cooley
Succeeded by	Ted Ferrioli
Member of the Oregon House of Representatives from the 56th district
In office January 1989 – January 1995
Preceded by	Wayne Fawbush
Succeeded by	Bob Montgomery
Personal details
Born	Gregory Paul Walden (1957-01-10) January 10, 1957 The Dalles, Oregon, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mylene Walden (m. 1982)
Children	1 son
Education	University of Oregon (BS)

Gregory Paul Walden (born January 10, 1957) is an American politician who is the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 2nd congressional district, first elected to office in 1998. He is a member of the Republican Party, and as of 2019 the only Republican member of Oregon's congressional delegation. The 2nd district covers more than two-thirds of the state (generally, east of the Cascades). He is the son of three-term Oregon state representative Paul E. Walden.

In October 2019, Walden announced that he will not run for reelection in 2020.

Early life, education and career

Walden was born in The Dalles, Oregon, the son of Elizabeth (née McEwen) and Paul Ernest Walden. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Oregon in 1981. Before being elected to Congress, Walden owned and ran radio stations.

Political career

Walden served as Press Secretary and Chief of Staff to Congressman Denny Smith from 1981 to 1987. He was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1988 and served in the House until 1995, when he was appointed to the Oregon State Senate to fill a vacancy that opened up when Wes Cooley was elected to the U. S. House. Walden rose to the position of assistant majority leader in the Senate and was considering a bid for Oregon Governor in 1994. However, upon discovering that the son he and his wife were expecting had a heart defect, Walden decided to not run for Governor and to not seek re-election to the state Senate. Their son died soon after birth.

Walden was tapped as campaign manager for Cooley's re-election bid. However, after Cooley was caught in several lies about his military service, Walden was one of many Republicans who called for Cooley to drop out of the race. Walden went as far as to announce he was running for the 2nd District seat as an independent. However, he served as Oregon state chairman of Bob Dole's presidential campaign, and he touted his "strong Republican credentials"—implying that he would serve as a Republican if elected. Walden's candidacy led to fears that the Democrats could take advantage of a split in the Republican vote and take a seat they hadn't held since 1981. This ended, however, when Cooley's predecessor, Bob Smith, was called out of retirement.

Smith did not run for reelection in 1998. Walden easily won the Republican primary and the November general election. His district contains some liberal-leaning communities such as Ashland and his hometown of Hood River, but most of it leans heavily Republican, and Walden has been reelected ten times without serious difficulty, never receiving less than 60 percent of the vote. In 2002, he defeated Democrat Peter Buckley, who later became a member of the Oregon House of Representatives. In 2006, Walden defeated Democratic nominee Carol Voisin, and in 2008 he won a sixth term with 70% of the vote over Democrat Noah Lemas and Pacific Green Tristin Mock. Following the defeat of Senator Gordon Smith in the 2008 elections, Walden became the only Republican representing Oregon in the United States Congress.

On October 28, 2019, Walden announced that he will not run for reelection. Walden disagreed with President Donald Trump over the latter's attempts to finance his border wall project and backed sanctioning Russia despite Trump's resistance. He voted to end the 35-day government shutdown and spoke up about addressing the global warming crisis, though he supported Trump regarding the growing Ukraine quid pro quo scandal.

U.S. House of Representatives

Party leadership

Walden was chosen by Speaker John Boehner to be chairman of the House Majority Transition Committee. He served as chairman of the House Republican Leadership through most of 2010.

Following the 2012 elections, Walden became chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. In July 2014, he announced he would seek a second term as chairman of the committee, arguing he would help provide continuity in a changing leadership team after the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. He served a second term, the traditional limit for holders of that office, ending in 2016.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Power

From 2010 to 2011, Walden gave up his seat on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, at Republican leadership request so that Parker Griffith, who had recently switched parties, could take his spot on that committee.

Walden founded the Small Brewers Caucus (see Alcohol in Oregon) and the Digital Television Caucus; as of 2007, he was a member of 39 congressional caucuses.

Oregon Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (left) and Walden, hiking on Mount Hood during a 2005 fact-finding trip.

Walden is also a member of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, the Congressional Cement Caucus and the Congressional Western Caucus.

Legislation sponsored

The following is an incomplete list of legislation that Walden introduced into the House of Representatives.

• Central Oregon Jobs and Water Security Act (H.R. 2640; 113th Congress) – a land-use and water bill related to the Crooked River in Oregon and the Bowman Dam. H.R. 2640 would modify features of the Crooked River Project located in central Oregon, near the city of Prineville, and prioritize how water from the project would be allocated for different uses.
• Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2013 (H.R. 3675; 113th Congress) – a bill that would make a number of changes to procedures that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) follows in its rulemaking processes. The FCC would have to act in a more transparent way as a result of this bill, forced to accept public input about regulations. Walden indicated that the bill was written in response, among other things, to a proposed FCC study on the decisions made by newspaper editorial boards. Walden argued that "Americans deserve greater... transparency and accountability from their government," particularly because "an item as controversial as this study made it all the way through the FCC without so much as a commission vote." The study was deemed "dangerous" by him, because it threatened the free speech and freedom of the press rights of the newspapers.
• Hermiston Reversionary Interest Release Act (H.R. 3366; 113th Congress) – a bill that would release the interest of the United States in some land currently being used for Oregon State University's Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Hermiston, Oregon. This would enable the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center to relocate without the land it is currently on being returned to the federal government. The Bureau of Land Management opposed the bill and it died in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2014.
• STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4572; 113th Congress) – a bill related to the regulation of satellite broadcasting in the United States.

Intervention in Malheur Wildlife Refuge issues

Walden, whose district office incorporates the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, said, although one militant was killed and another wounded in the armed occupation of the refuge, "We can all be grateful that today has ended peacefully, and that this situation is finally over. Now, life in Harney County can begin to return to normal and the community can begin the long process of healing." Walden complained about allegedly poor federal forest and land management policies during the occupation, and said he would like to see changes to those policies: "We need to foster a more cooperative spirit between the federal agencies and the people who call areas like Harney County home." On June 27, 2018, on the floor of the House of Representatives, Walden pleaded for a pardon for Dwight and Steven Hammond, who repeatedly committed arsons and threatened federal refuge workers, over an 18-year period, saying that the original trial's federal Judge Michael Robert Hogan said that the mandatory sentence would, "...shock the conscious (sic)." On July 10, Trump pardoned both men, commuting their sentences to time served. Stephen had been scheduled to be released on June 29, 2019 and Dwight on February 13, 2020.

Personal life

Walden during the 109th Congress

Walden and his wife, Mylene, live in Hood River with their son Anthony. They are members of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and participate in local civic groups such as the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce.

Walden is a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator, W7EQI.

Business interests

On January 31, 2007, Walden sold Columbia Gorge Broadcasting, which runs five stations in the eastern Columbia River Gorge, to Bicoastal Columbia River LLC in order to avoid any conflict of interest that might arise with his congressional duties.

Electoral history

Greg Walden General Electoral Results 1998–2018

Year	Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		Libertarian	Votes	Pct		Socialist	Votes	Pct		Constitution	Votes	Pct		Pacific Green	Votes	Pct		Independent	Votes	Pct
2018	Jamie McLeod-Skinner	145,298	39.41%		√ Greg Walden	207,597	56.30%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				Mark R. Roberts	15,536	4.21%
2016	Jim Crary	106,640	27.29%		√ Greg Walden	272,952	69.87%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
2014	Aelea Christofferson	73,785	25.67%		√ Greg Walden	202,374	70.41%		Sharon Durbin	10,491	3.65%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
2012	Joyce B. Segers	96,741	29.16%		√ Greg Walden	228,043	68.73%		Joe Tabor	7,025	2.12%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
2010	Joyce B. Segers	72,173	25.86%		√ Greg Walden	206,245	73.91%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
2008	Noah Lemas	87,649	25.75%		√ Greg Walden	236,560	69.49%		No candidate				No candidate				Richard D. Hake	5,817	1.70%		Tristin Mock	9,668	2.84%		No candidate
2006	Carol Voisin	82,484	30.35%		√ Greg Walden	181,529	66.80%		No candidate				No candidate				Jack Allen Brown Jr.	7,193	2.64%		No candidate				No candidate
2004	John C. McColgan	88,914	25.63%		√ Greg Walden	248,461	71.64%		Jim Lindsay	4,792	1.38%		No candidate				Jack Allen Brown Jr.	4,060	1.17%		No candidate				No candidate
2002	Peter Buckley	64,991	25.76%		√ Greg Walden	181,295	71.86%		Mike Wood	5,681	2.25%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
2000	Walter Ponsford	78,101	26.12%		√ Greg Walden	220,086	73.63%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate				No candidate
1998	Kevin M. Campbell	74,924	34.81%		√ Greg Walden	132,316	61.48%		Lindsey Bradshaw	4,729	2.19%		Rohn Webb	2,773	1.28%		No candidate				No candidate				No candidate

External links

• Congressman Greg Walden official U.S. House website
• Greg Walden for Congress
• Greg Walden at Curlie
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Greg Walden at The Oregonian

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Bob Smith	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon's 2nd congressional district 1999–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Fred Upton	Chair of the House Energy Committee 2017–2019	Succeeded by Frank Pallone
Preceded by Frank Pallone	Ranking Member of the House Energy Committee 2019–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Pete Sessions	Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee 2013–2017	Succeeded by Steve Stivers
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Mike Thompson	United States Representatives by seniority 62nd	Succeeded by Lacy Clay