Bob Gibbs

Elections

Gibbs was elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 2002, defeating Democrat Tom Mason of Ashland for a newly drawn district in the Ohio House.^[8] He was reelected in 2004 in a rematch against Mason.^[9] In the 2006 election, Gibbs defeated Democratic nominee James P. Riley,^[10] a former township trustee from Sullivan, Ohio, with 60% of the vote. In 2009, Gibbs ran for Ohio Senate to fill the seat vacated by state senator Ron Amstutz due to term limits.

Tenure

In 2006 Gibbs was appointed a member of the special task force to study eminent domain and its use and application in Ohio. The committee spent most of the year studying the issue and issued its final report in August 2006 with recommendations to the General Assembly.^[11]

Committee assignments

During his last term Gibbs was chairman of the House ways and means committee. He was also a member of the agriculture & natural resources committee, financial institutions, real estate and securities committee, health care access and affordability committee, and the insurance committee.^{[citation needed]}

Elections

Gibbs won election to the Ohio Senate in 2008, and began his first term in 2009. On August 16, 2007, he announced his he candidacy for the 22nd district senate seat being vacated by the term-limited incumbent senator, Ron Amstutz. Gibbs originally expected to face a primary challenge from state representative Jim Carmichael, but Carmichael dropped out of the race on October 21 in order to run for Wayne County commissioner. In the general election Gibbs defeated Democratic nominee James E. Riley, a job/security representative for the U.A.W. international union, with 59% of the vote.^[12]

After winning election to Congress in 2010, Gibbs resigned from the Senate after serving half of one term.^[13]

Elections

Tenure

On March 4, 2013, Gibbs introduced the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2013 (H.R. 935; 113th Congress), a bill that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states authorized to issue a permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) from requiring a permit for some discharges of pesticides authorized for use under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).^[21][22] In 2018, Gibbs was supported by the Great America Committee, a political action committee registered by Vice President Mike Pence.^[23]

In 2015, Gibbs cosponsored a resolution to amend the US constitution to ban same-sex marriage.^[24]

In December 2020, Gibbs was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated^[25] incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.^[26][27][28]

On January 6, 2021, Gibbs objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results in Congress based on false claims of voter fraud.^[29] On April 6, 2022, he announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022, blaming the redistricting "circus", referring to the still unresolved Ohio congressional map. "These long, drawn-out processes, in which the Ohio Supreme Court can take weeks and months to deliberate while demanding responses and filings from litigants within days, is detrimental to the state and does not serve the people of Ohio", he said.^[30]

Gibbs supported efforts to impeach President Biden. In September 2021, Gibbs introduced a resolution to impeach Biden for his handling of United States-Mexico border security, his extension of the federal COVID-19 eviction moratorium, and his handling of the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan.^[31] In August 2021, Gibbs co-sponsored a resolution to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's Secretary of Homeland Security.^[32]

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment (chair)

Caucus memberships

• Republican Study Committee^[33]
• Republican Main Street Partnership^[34]
• Congressional Constitution Caucus^[35]
• Congressional Western Caucus^[36]