Vicky Hartzler

Vicky Hartzler
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Ike Skelton
Member of the Missouri House of Representatives from the 124th district
In office 1995–2000
Preceded by	Gene Olson
Succeeded by	Rex Rector
Personal details
Born	(1960-10-13) October 13, 1960 Archie, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Lowell Hartzler
Alma mater	University of Missouri, Columbia (BS) University of Central Missouri (MS)

Vicky Jo Hartzler^[1] (née Zellmer; October 13, 1960) is an American politician who currently serves as the incumbent U.S. Representative for Missouri's 4th congressional district. The district comprises a large swath of the western-central part of the state, anchored in Columbia to the eastern and southern Kansas City suburbs. The district also includes the cities of Sedalia, Warrensburg, Moberly, and Lebanon. The district takes in Ft. Leonard Wood in Pulaski County, Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, and the University of Missouri (Mizzou).

Prior to her election to Congress, Hartzler represented District 124 in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1995 to 2000.^[2]

Early life

Hartzler was raised on a farm near Archie, a rural community south of Kansas City. She attended the University of Missouri where she graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Education, and attended University of Central Missouri where she graduated with an M.S. in Education.

Missouri Legislature

Before running for State Representative in 1994, Hartzler taught high school home economics (now commonly referred to as family and consumer sciences) for 11 years.^[3] Her accomplishments included leadership on legislation facilitating the adoption process. Hartzler left the Missouri House of Representatives in 2000 after adopting a baby daughter.

In 2004, after she had left the Missouri General Assembly, Hartzler served as state spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Marriage,^[4] which supported banning marriage equality. Despite Hartzler's fierce opposition to the Missouri Assembly's ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment^[5] ("I don't want women used to pass a liberal agenda"), former Republican Governor Matt Blunt appointed Hartzler Chair of the Missouri Women's Council in 2005, where she served for two years.^[6]

U.S. House of Representatives

2010

After almost a decade out of politics, Hartzler entered the Republican primary for Missouri's 4th congressional district, which at the time was held by 17-term Democratic incumbent Ike Skelton. She won a crowded seven-way primary with 40 percent of the vote.

In the November 2, 2010 general election, Hartzler won with 50.43% of the vote. She is the first Republican to represent this district since 1955, and only the second since the Great Depression. She was also the second Republican woman elected to Congress from Missouri, after Jo Ann Emerson, with whom she served from 2011 to 2013. However, she is the first who was not elected as a stand-in for her husband; Emerson was originally elected to serve out the final term of her late husband, Bill Emerson. Republicans had been making gains in the district for some time; it gave John McCain 62 percent of the vote in 2008 while simultaneously reelecting Democrat Skelton, and Republicans hold most of the district's seats in the state legislature.

She ran on a conservative platform, voicing support for tax cuts and spending cuts. She opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.

2012

Redistricting after the 2010 U.S. Census removed Cole, Lafayette, Ray, Saline, part of Jackson and part of Webster counties from the district and added Boone, Cooper, Howard, Randolph, part of Audrain, and part of Cass counties, and altering the boundary within Camden County, which was already divided, taking out more of it.

Her first time running in the newly drawn district, Hartzler easily won the Republican primary with 84% against Bernie Mowinski and went on to comfortably win the general election with 60.3% against Democratic Cass County Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Hensley.

2014

Hartzler won nearly 75% of the party vote in the Republican congressional primary with John Webb, then went on to easily win the general election with a more than two-to-one margin.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
  • Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture
• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
  • Subcommittee on Military Personnel
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
• House Budget Committee

In October 2015, Hartzler was named to serve on the Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood.^[7]

Caucuses

• Republican Study Committee
• Tea Party Caucus
• Congressional Cement Caucus

Positions

At a town hall meeting in Missouri on April 5, 2012, Hartzler expressed doubts regarding President Barack Obama's birth certificate.^[8]

In September 2013, Hartzler voted in favor of a $39 billion reduction in SNAP Benefits (aka "food stamps"). This bill was separate from farm subsidies for the first time in over three decades, which were increased.^[9] Hartzler is a direct recipient of farm subsidies, and has received over $800,000 to date.^[10]

On November 18, 2014, during the worst early season cold snap in the U.S. since 1976, Hartzler made a joke about climate change on Twitter. "Global warming strikes America! Brrrr!"^[11] Her humorous quip was taken seriously and rebutted in detail by The Washington Post, which used data to demonstrate that her district in Missouri is an area among the most severely impacted by climate change in the USA.^[12]

Personal life

Hartzler lives on a farm near Harrisonville with her husband Lowell and their daughter.

Works

• Vicky Hartzler, Running God's Way, Pleasant Word (a division of WinePress Publishing; December 13, 2007); ISBN 978-1-4141-1124-7

References

External links

• Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler official U.S. House site
• Vicky Hartzler for Congress
• Vicky Hartzler at DMOZ
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress