Pat Toomey Bio
Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2023. A Republican, he previously represented Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. Before entering elected office he worked as a Wall Street banker and later served as president of the Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, from 2005 to 2009. Toomey won the 2010 Senate election and was reelected in 2016, and he announced in October 2020 that he would not seek a third term in 2022. In February 2021 he was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, and after leaving office he joined the board of Apollo Global Management.
Early Life and Background
Toomey was born on November 17, 1961, in Providence, Rhode Island, the third of six children of Patrick Joseph Toomey and Mary Ann (née Andrews) Toomey. His father was of Irish descent, worked for the Narragansett Electric Company as a union employee who laid cable, and his mother worked part-time as a secretary at St. Martha’s Catholic Church. Toomey’s maternal grandparents were all born in the Azores, giving him a mixed Irish Catholic and Portuguese Azorean heritage. He grew up in a large Catholic family in Rhode Island, an upbringing that shaped his early interest in civic life and public service.
Toomey was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the organization. He attended La Salle Academy on a scholarship, where he took part in the Close Up Washington civic education program and graduated as valedictorian. He then enrolled at Harvard College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1984.
Path to US Politics
After graduating from Harvard, Toomey was hired by Chemical Bank, where he worked on currency swap transactions. In 1986 he moved to Morgan, Grenfell & Co., where he traded in foreign currencies, interest rates, and currency-related derivatives. He resigned from Morgan, Grenfell in 1991 after the firm was acquired by Deutsche Bank, citing concerns that a less flexible work environment would follow. That same year, Toomey and his two younger brothers, Steven and Michael, opened Rookie’s Restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, beginning his long association with the Lehigh Valley region.
In 1994 Toomey was elected to Allentown’s newly established Government Study Commission, where he drafted a new city charter that required a supermajority for any tax increase and created a split-roll tax system taxing land at higher rates than buildings. Allentown voters approved the charter on April 23, 1996. His work on fiscal restraint and tax policy at the local level established the conservative economic positions that would later define his political career.
Pat Toomey Career
Early Career (1998–2005)
Toomey entered electoral politics in 1998, when he ran for Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district in the Lehigh Valley after Democratic incumbent Paul McHale retired. He won a six-candidate Republican primary with 27 percent of the vote and went on to defeat state Senator Roy Afflerbach in the general election, 55 percent to 45 percent. During the campaign he pledged to serve no more than three terms in the House and criticized the Clinton administration’s tax plans, calling for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service in favor of a flat-tax system.
Toomey was reelected to a second term in 2000, defeating United Steelworkers local president Ed O’Brien 53 percent to 47 percent, and was reelected again in 2002, defeating O’Brien 57 percent to 43 percent. In January 1999 he was named to the House Budget Committee, where he built a reputation as a fiscal conservative. In 2001 he proposed a budget that would cut taxes by 2.2 trillion dollars over ten years, exceeding the plan offered by President George W. Bush. In 2002 he voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
US House of Representatives (1999–2005)
During his time in the U.S. House, Toomey distinguished himself as a fiscal expert and pushed consistently to reduce federal spending and set aside funds for debt reduction. He was a longtime supporter of creating Medicare Part D but said he would not vote for the program unless it lowered costs and guaranteed competition between government and private insurers. Toomey strongly opposed President Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform proposal and was a strong supporter of banking deregulation, helping to write House Resolution 10 in 1999, which led to the repeal of parts of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act. He also pressed the House to pass the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 to ease regulation of derivatives.
Honoring his 1998 pledge to serve no more than three terms, Toomey did not run for reelection to the House in 2004 and instead challenged longtime incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter in the primary. His campaign was backed by 2 million dollars in advertising from the Club for Growth and argued that Specter was not conservative enough on fiscal issues. Despite the support of most of the state’s Republican establishment, including Senator Rick Santorum and President George W. Bush, Toomey lost the primary by about 1.6 percentage points, a margin of roughly 17,000 votes.
US Senate (2011–2023)
Toomey returned to politics in 2009, initially preparing to challenge Specter again, but when Specter switched parties in April 2009, Toomey became the front-runner for the 2010 Republican nomination. He won the Republican primary with 81 percent of the vote and went on to defeat former congressman and retired Navy three-star admiral Joe Sestak in the November 2010 general election, 51 percent to 49 percent. He was sworn in on January 3, 2011, becoming the first Lehigh Valley resident to serve as senator from Pennsylvania since Richard Brodhead in the mid-19th century.
During his Senate tenure, Toomey served on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in 2011 and was selected in April 2012 to chair the Senate Steering Committee, succeeding Senator Jim DeMint. He was a leading sponsor of the JOBS Act, which passed the Senate in March 2012 to ease securities regulations for emerging growth companies and startups. In October 2018 he was one of 50 senators to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Toomey won reelection in 2016, defeating Democrat Katie McGinty with 48.9 percent of the vote to her 47.2 percent.
Notable Events and Milestones
Toomey’s most defining moment came on February 13, 2021, when he was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict former President Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial following the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Earlier, in 2013, he had partnered with Senator Joe Manchin to introduce background-check legislation in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and he later supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun-safety law passed in nearly three decades.
Pat Toomey Career Wins
Across his political career, Pat Toomey compiled a record of competitive but consistently successful races. He won three consecutive terms in the U.S. House, won the 2010 U.S. Senate race, and secured reelection to the Senate in 2016.
US House of Representatives Highlights
Toomey first won Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district in 1998 with 55 percent of the vote and was reelected in 2000 and 2002, becoming a well-known fiscal conservative in the House. His third and final House victory came in 2002, when he defeated Ed O’Brien by a 14-point margin. After fulfilling his three-term pledge, he left the House in January 2005 to lead the Club for Growth.
Other Wins & Achievements
Toomey also won a seat on Allentown’s Government Study Commission in 1994 and helped draft the voter-approved city charter of 1996. He was reelected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 with 48.9 percent of the vote against Democrat Katie McGinty, solidifying his standing as a leading fiscal conservative in Pennsylvania politics.
Pat Toomey Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Pat Toomey was raised in a large Catholic family in Providence, Rhode Island, as the third of six children. His father, Patrick Joseph Toomey, was a union worker for the Narragansett Electric Company of Irish descent, and his mother, Mary Ann Toomey, was of Portuguese Azorean descent and worked part-time as a church secretary.
Personal Life
In November 1997, Toomey married Kris Ann Duncan. The couple has three children: daughters Bridget and sons Patrick Toomey Jr. and Duncan. After leaving the Senate in January 2023, Toomey joined the board of directors of Apollo Global Management, the New York-based investment firm.