Mike Lee

Biography

Overview

Mike Lee is the senior Republican U.S. Senator from Utah, serving since 2011. A lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Lee was first elected in 2010 after defeating incumbent Bob Bennett in the Republican primary. He is known for his constitutional conservatism and advocacy for limiting federal government power. Lee chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.

Career

Lee has championed criminal justice reform, co-sponsoring the First Step Act with bipartisan support that reduced some drug-offense minimum sentences and improved rehabilitation programs. He worked with Bernie Sanders and others on war powers resolutions limiting U.S. military involvement in Yemen and has consistently advocated for congressional authorization before military action. Lee opposed the Saudi arms deal in 2019 and supported U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Syria. He blocked federal assistance for the Flint water crisis in 2016 and initially opposed funding for 9/11 first responders before ultimately voting against it.

Prior political experience

Lee was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, winning the Republican primary with 51% of the vote against Tim Bridgewater and defeating the general election with 62% of the vote. He was reelected in 2016 and again in 2022, defeating independent Evan McMullin (who he had voted for in 2016) with 53% to 43% in a competitive race. According to the Wikipedia biography, Lee has been reelected twice, in 2016 and 2022.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal

Conservative

119th Congress+0.891

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1

+1

-0.454

Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 653 scored votes

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Officeholding history

Term	Seat	Term dates	Termination	Predecessor	Successor
3rd	U.S. Senate UT Class 3	2023–present	In progress	Mike Lee	—
2nd	U.S. Senate UT Class 3	2017–2023	Term ended	Mike Lee	Mike Lee
1st	U.S. Senate UT Class 3	2011–2017	Term ended	—	Mike Lee

Committee assignments

Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy
SenateChairman· 2023–present
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
SenateChairman· 2023–present
Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights
SenateChairman· 2023–present
Intellectual Property
Senate· 2023–present
Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights
Senate· 2023–present
the Constitution
Senate· 2023–present
Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism
Senate· 2023–present
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Senate· 2023–present
National Parks
SenateEx Officio· 2023–present
East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy
Senate· 2023–present
Water and Power
SenateEx Officio· 2023–present
Senate Committee on the Budget
Senate· 2023–present
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Senate· 2023–present
Public Lands, Forests, and Mining
SenateEx Officio· 2023–present
Energy
SenateEx Officio· 2023–present

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

Year	Seat	Result	Vote share	Field
2016	U.S. Senate UT Class 1	Won	67.94%	Mike Lee67.94% Misty Snow27.01% Bill Barron2.52% Stoney Fonua2.52%