Congress

Cong. Nita Lowey

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representative Nita Lowey

U.S. Representative for 17th district of New York

Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey is currently serving her sixteenth term in Congress, representing parts of Westchester and Rockland Counties. She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 and served in the Democratic Leadership in 2001 and 2002 as the first woman and the first New Yorker to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She is also the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Lowey is a leading Congressional proponent of educational opportunity, health care quality and biomedical research, improved homeland security preparedness, stricter public safety laws, environmental protection, women's issues, a leading international role for the United States, and national security. An outspoken supporter of transportation, nuclear, and infrastructure security, Lowey was appointed to the Select Committee on Homeland Security and recognized by the New York Post as “a key general in the battle to rebuild New York” for her leadership in securing over $20 billion for recovery efforts after September 11, 2001. She has been a champion of education throughout her career, fighting for school modernization, teacher development, and literacy programs. Under Lowey’s leadership, federal funding for after-school programs has increased from $1 million in 1996 to $1 billion today.

Twitter: @NitaLowey

Cong. (ret) Jim Leach

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the honorable Jim Leach

Academic, politician

James “Jim” Leach is a congressman and academic. He served as ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013 and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa (1977–2007).

Leach was the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He also served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from September 17, 2007, to September 1, 2008.

Previously, Leach served 30 years (1977–2007) as a Republican member of the House of Representatives, representing Iowa’s 2nd congressional district (numbered as the 1st District from 1977 to 2003). In Congress, Leach chaired the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services (1995–2001) and was a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, serving as Chair of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs (2001–2006). He also founded and served as co-chair of the Congressional Humanities Caucus. He lost his 2006 re-election bid to Democrat Dave Loebsack.

Ted Strickland

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Ted Strickland

Psychologist, religious leader, politician

Ted Strickland is a former minister, psychologist, congressman and governor of Ohio. Strickland created one of the nation’s leading advanced energy laws, preventing runaway electricity rate hikes and making Ohio a national leader in green energy jobs. Strickland held tuition increases to the lowest rate in the nation and made Ohio the first state to offer free tuition to veterans from across the country. Under Strickland’s leadership, Ohio’s primary and secondary schools won the nation’s top prize for education innovation from the Education Commission of the States.

In Congress, Ted was instrumental in passing the Children’s Health Insurance Program that provides health coverage to millions of children nationwide. He was a leading advocate for funding the Appalachian Regional Commission and he voiced opposition to the Iraq War.

After serving as governor, Ted was nominated by President Barack Obama to be a public delegate to the 68th U.N. General Assembly. He also served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. Most recently, Ted ran the Center for American Progress Action Fund where he spoke out on behalf of policies to strengthen America’s working families.

Strickland spoke at The Common Good in 2015 for a Meet & Greet.

Twitter: @Ted_Strickland

Congressman Joe Walsh

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the honorable Joe Walsh

Former Congressman

Joe Walsh was a U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district and is currently a conservative talk show host.

Walsh began his career with Jobs For Youth, working in inner-city Chicago teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills. He worked on state and local public policy issues with the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank, and he ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based privately funded school voucher program which gives high school scholarships to low-income Chicago eighth graders. Walsh also helped launch the Legislative Education Action Drive and Americans for Limited Government, national organizations working to get fiscally conservative state legislators elected in targeted states and advance the causes of limited government. He raised funds for and helped advance the cause of school choice for two of the nation’s leading school choice organizations, the American Education Reform Council and the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation. Walsh continues to build support for an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty, the Fabretto Children’s Foundation.

Walsh has run campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois State House in 1998. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives for Illinois's 8th congressional district.

Congressman Walsh spoke at The Common Good in 2012: Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh – February 13, 2012.

Twitter: @WalshFreedom

Secretary Jack Kemp †

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secretary Jack Kemp †

American politician

Jack Kemp was a pro football player, congressman, cabinet secretary and vice-presidential candidate.

Kemp served in Congress for nine terms (1971-1989). He was elected the incoming Republican freshman class president, and 10 years later was chosen Chairman of the Republican Conference (third ranking in House Republican leadership). Kemp served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1989-1993, where he championed affordable housing, tenant management, and a housing voucher program for homeless veterans and their families. Upon leaving office in 1993, he joined forces with William Bennett and Jeane Kirkpatrick to found Empower America. He also served as chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, which promoted major reform and simplification of the U.S. tax code.

Jack Kemp died on May 2, 2009. President Obama posthumously awarded Jack Kemp the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August, 2009.