Tommy George Thompson (born November 19, 1941) is an American politician who served as the 19th United States secretary of Health and Human Services from 2001 to 2005 in the cabinet of President George W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 42nd governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001 and Republican floor leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1981 to 1987. Thompson is the longest-serving governor in Wisconsin history and is the only person to be elected to the office four times.

During his tenure as governor he was also chair of Amtrak, the nation's passenger rail service. He was chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 1991 and 1992, and the National Governors Association in 1995 and 1996. After his time in the Bush Administration, Thompson became a partner in the law-firm Akin Gump and Independent Chairman of Deloitte's Center for Health Solutions. He has served on the boards of 22 other organizations.

Thompson was a candidate for President of the United States, running in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries, but withdrew from the race before voting began. He was the Republican nominee for United States Senate in Wisconsin in the 2012 election, vying to replace retiring senator Herb Kohl, but was defeated by Democrat Tammy Baldwin in what was his only statewide election loss.

Early life, education, and military service

Childhood and family

Thompson was born in Elroy, Wisconsin. His mother, Julie (née Dutton), was a teacher, and his father, Allan Thompson, owned and ran a gas station and country grocery store. His brother, the late Ed Thompson, was a mayor of Tomah, Wisconsin, and was the Libertarian Party nominee for governor of Wisconsin in 2002.

He has a daughter, Kelli Thompson, who was Wisconsin's state public defender until she stepped down in 2023.

Education

Thompson earned his bachelor and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1963 and 1966, respectively.

Military service

Thompson held a student deferment from military service during the Vietnam War until he completed law school in June 1966. The following year, 1966, Thompson enlisted in the National Guard. His final rank was captain. Thompson aggressively used parliamentary procedure to block bills favored by the Democratic majority and stop legislative progress, earning him the nickname "Dr. No" by the frustrated majority.

American Legislative Exchange Council

As a state legislator, Thompson was involved in the early years of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative legislative organization. Speaking at a 2002 ALEC meeting, Thompson stated: "I always loved going to [ALEC] meetings because I always found new ideas. Then I'd take them back to Wisconsin, disguise them a little bit, and declare, 'That's mine.'"

1979 congressional campaign

While Thompson was Assistant Minority Leader in the Assembly, incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman William Steiger of Wisconsin's 6th congressional district died at the age of 40 from a heart attack. Thompson was one of seven Republican candidates who ran to replace Steiger in the special election in 1979. State Senator Tom Petri won the primary and general elections and represented the 6th district until his retirement in January 2015.

Governor of Wisconsin (1987–2001)

Thompson served as the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, having been elected to an unprecedented four terms. As of April 2013, Thompson has the tenth longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at days.

Elections

;1986

Thompson decided to run for Governor of Wisconsin in 1986 against incumbent Democrat Anthony Earl. He ran and won the Republican primary with 52% of the vote in a five candidate field. He defeated Earl 53%–46%.

;1990

Thompson won election to a second term defeating Democrat Thomas Loftus, the Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, 58%–42%.

;1994

Thompson won election to a third term defeating Democratic state senator Chuck Chvala 67%–31%. He won every county in the state except Menominee County.

;1998

Thompson won election to a fourth term defeating Democrat Ed Garvey, a Wisconsin Deputy Attorney General, 60%–39%.

Tenure

thumb|240px|Then-Governor Thompson meets President [[Bill Clinton, 1993]]

Thompson is best known nationally for changes in Wisconsin's welfare system, before similar ideas were adopted nationally. In 1990 Thompson pushed for the creation of the country's first parental school-choice program, which provided Milwaukee families with a voucher to send children to the private or public school of their choice. He created the BadgerCare program, designed to provide health coverage to those families whose employers don't provide health insurance but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Through the federal waiver program, Thompson helped replicate this program in several states when he became Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Thompson was well known for his extensive use of the veto, particularly his sweeping line-item veto powers. At the time, Wisconsin governors had the power to strike out words, numbers, and even entire sentences from appropriations bills. In his first two terms alone, he used the line-item veto 1,500 times to cancel a total of $150 million in spending; none of these vetoes were overridden.

Thompson's welfare reform policies were criticized.

Transportation focus

Thompson is a rail enthusiast, and was a supporter of mass transit, which earned him distrust on the issue from other Republicans. through 2006, when his name was removed from the side of the locomotive as part of a routine overhaul.

Beginning in the 1990s, Thompson proposed modernizing passenger rail in the state. In 1999, Thompson proposed a modernization and extension of the Hiawatha rail service (between Chicago and Milwaukee), extending to beyond Milwaukee to also serve Madison, Wisconsin and Minnesota's Twin Cities (Minneapolis–Saint Paul). which would include a station at Dane County Regional Airport. As part of his plans, Thompson initiated preliminary studies that resulted in the construction of the Milwaukee Airport Rail Station.

Taxes

In 1996, Thompson bragged that he never raised taxes in Wisconsin. cutting income tax rates three times and a $1.2 billion property tax cut in 1995.

Two of the tax increases that Thompson did fight, using the Wisconsin governor's partial-veto power, were taxes on the state's wealthiest residents. These functions were in turn vested in Thompson's appointee at the newly created Department of Financial Institutions, which also regulates depository institutions and the securities industry.

  • Enforcement of consumer protection laws was taken away from the elected Wisconsin Attorney General and transferred to Thompson's appointee at what is now the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
  • The Wisconsin Office of Public Intervenor, which for decades prior functioned as an ombudsman for the state's natural resources protected under the Public Trust Doctrine, had its budget significantly reduced, shrinking its staff and eliminating its power to sue in environmental cases; Thompson effectively shifted these powers to an appointed natural resources secretary.
  • An attempt was made to transfer education policy to an appointed education secretary after the constitutional head of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, saw most of the office's powers gutted. The Wisconsin Supreme Court later ruled the move unconstitutional.

Thompson also had two other acts overturned by the courts as unconstitutional. Crabb issued an injunction against violent anti-spearfishing protests in 1991, and made it permanent in 1992. On May 20, 1991, the Thompson administration declared it would no longer attempt to appeal the 1983 Voight Decision.

Other leadership roles

During his time as governor, Thompson served as chairman of the National Governors Association and the Education Commission of the States,

Consideration as prospective Republican vice presidential nominee

Thompson's name had been in the press as a possible vice presidential pick during several election seasons. By 1992, Thompson himself had openly discussed his desire to be the Republican vice presidential nominee for 1996. In 2000, Thompson was mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for George W. Bush.

Secretary of Health and Human Services

thumb|250px|right|Thompson at the 2004 HealthierUS summit

Thompson left the governorship when he was appointed by President George W. Bush as HHS Secretary. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 24, 2001. Thompson announced his resignation from HHS on December 3, 2004, and served until January 26, 2005, when the Senate confirmed his successor, Michael O. Leavitt.

While Secretary, he launched initiatives to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health, In the aftermath of 9/11, he also worked on strengthening the nation's preparedness for a bio-terrorism attack, by stockpiling smallpox vaccines and investing heavily in state and local public health infrastructure.

Key initiatives

Thompson's major initiatives were "efforts to strengthen U.S. preparedness for a bioterrorism attack, increase funding for the National Institutes of Health, expand health insurance coverage to lower-income Americans, and focus attention on health problems such as obesity and diabetes." He also was elected chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2003.

Medicare prescription drug-benefit

Thompson was one of the key architects of the 2003 passage of Bush's Medicare Modernization Act, which was slated to provide public funding for prescription drugs for Medicare recipients starting in 2006. On the prescription drug-benefit issue, the major piece of health care legislation of President Bush's first term, Thompson frequently served as the president's point man. National analysts cite the passage of Medicare reform as the most important achievement of Thompson's tenure as HHS secretary.

As part of the debate over the adoption of Medicare Part D, Thompson was involved in a dispute over whether the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services had to share cost estimates to Congress for legislation that would create a prescription drug benefit. Critics accused Thompson and HHS of downplaying the true cost of the law by $150 billion. CMS Administrator Tom Scully threatened to fire a CMS actuary if he revealed to Congress his estimate. Investigators determined that the data was improperly hidden from Congress, but did not conclude whether laws had been broken. In 2011 the trustees of Medicare found that the prescription drug benefit had come in 40% below estimates, the Congressional Budget Office (using different budgeting numbers) determined that the program had come in 28% below projections.

In her Senate campaign, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said in 2012 that Thompson was responsible for forbidding Medicare to negotiate drug prices, a statement that Politifact rated as "True." Thompson said that he had nothing to do with that provision, a statement Politifact rated as "False." The New York Times reported, "In December (2004), just before leaving office, Mr. Leavitt’s predecessor, Tommy G. Thompson, said he wished Congress had given him the authority to negotiate prices for Medicare beneficiaries, as he negotiated discounts on antibiotics during the anthrax scare of 2001."

2001 anthrax scare

Early in his term, Thompson faced an emergency situation with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Thompson was given poor marks for seeming "utterly overtaken by events" and issuing "early statements that the government was prepared to deal with any biological emergency [that] never squared with the facts".

At a White House briefing following the first anthrax death of the scare, Thompson made a statement to the press that "would be cited for years afterward as a historic blunder in crisis communication". Thompson offered the media a "far-fetched" suggestion that the individual who died had come into contact with anthrax from drinking water from a creek.

Thompson's words were criticized by a range of experts as unwarranted, as potentially undermining public confidence, and as the "kind of statements that lead to mistrust of officials and experts". Thompson was also faulted for positioning himself as the voice of the Administration to the public on this issue, having had no formal training in medicine or public health. In return, Thompson's office sent back to the unit's director, Gerald Keusch of the Fogarty International Center, résumés for other scientists that Keusch described as "lightweights" with "no scientific credibility." Keusch relayed to one of those rejected, Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel, that he was pushed aside for having "signed too many full-page letters in The New York Times critical of President Bush." This incident was cited by the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists as part of a report detailing their allegations of a "politicization of science" under President George W. Bush's administration.

Resignation press conference

Thompson resigned on December 3, 2004, in a press conference at which he issued warnings over the dangers of avian flu and the poisoning of U.S. food supplies by terrorists. Some noted, in particular, his words: "I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not, you know, attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do. And we are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."

In 2011, Thompson was paid more than $1.1 million in cash and stock incentives from five public companies, Thompson's consulting firm was paid $471,000 by six companies, and Thompson himself received $3 million from the sale of a healthcare firm he chaired. Thompson's work with these companies and other investments led him to accumulate a disclosed net worth of $13 million. There, Thompson provided "strategic advice" to the lobbyists in the firm's health care practice, advising them on how to most successfully lobby government officials on behalf of the firm's clients. Thompson was no longer associated with Deloitte by October 2011. These included transferring some Medicaid beneficiaries from federal to state responsibility and requiring digitization of medical records, which would directly benefit those companies. Thompson also authored a Boston Globe op-ed on the topic.

One of the nonprofit organizations that Thompson joined the board of, Medical Missions for Children, recruited Thompson to co-host a number of episodes of one of its health instructional series, Plain Talk about Health.

2008 presidential campaign

After first announcing the formation of an exploratory committee in late 2006, Thompson announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election on April 1, 2007.

Statement about sexual orientation and workplace protections

During a May 3, 2007, presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Thompson was asked by moderator Chris Matthews whether a private employer opposed to homosexuality should have the right to fire a gay worker. He said, "I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be."

He later claimed that he did not hear the question correctly, saying, "It's not my position. There should be no discrimination in the workplace." He would also claim that he had been feeling sick on the day of the debate, and that he was distracted when that question was asked by his own impending need to use a bathroom.

Gaffe about Jews, Israel

In April 2007, Thompson was compelled to apologize for remarks he made about Jews and Israel during an address to an assembled crowd of Jewish social activists in Washington, D.C.

On April 16, 2007, appearing before a conference organized by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Thompson referenced his lucrative transition from public service to the private sector Thompson stated: "You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that." Thompson then returned to the podium with the intention of clearing up his earlier comments, adding: "I just want to clarify something because I didn't (by) any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things. What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You've been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that." He discussed his connections to politically conservative Israeli and Jewish leaders while speaking to the mostly liberal leaning group

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, later wrote of the incident that "there could be no more vivid illustration of how deeply ingrained these stereotypes [about Jews and finances] have become" than Thompson's belief that "repeating an age-old stereotype about Jews and money would please his Jewish listeners!" In a New York Times article published October 11, 2008, Thompson was quoted in response to a question regarding whether he was happy with McCain's campaign as saying, "No. I don't know who is."

2012 U.S. Senate election

While Thompson gave some consideration to running for the governorship again in 2010, he more seriously considered running for the United States Senate in Wisconsin's 2010 election. Ultimately, however, he declined to run for either office in 2010. On September 19, 2011, Thompson announced he would run in 2012 for the seat vacated by Herb Kohl. He more formally launched his campaign with an announcement video on December 1.

Political positions during 2012 campaign

During the 2012 campaign, Thompson, speaking to a Tea Party group, said, "Who better than me, that's already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs that do away with Medicaid and Medicare?" When a videotape of his remarks surfaced, Thompson stated that he did not want to eliminate Medicare but instead wanted a system that would provide a subsidy to individuals to help them purchase private health insurance.

Republican primary

After a bitter four-way race, Thompson won the Republican nomination on August 14, 2012. His opponents in the primary had included Eric Hovde (a millionaire hedge fund manager), Mark Neumann (a former congressman), and Jeff Fitzgerald (speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly). During the primary, attention was raised to the fact that in 2008 Thompson had given campaign contributions to two Democrats – $250 to Michigan U.S. senator Carl Levin and $100 to Bev Perdue, who was running for governor of North Carolina. Both Democrats won in that year's elections. That same election cycle, he had given $1,200 to the Wisconsin Republican Party. The attacks against Thompson led to Mike Huckabee (a Republican who was the former governor of Arkansas, a former presidential candidate, and an active conservative media figure) offering a defense and endorsement of Thompson.

General election

Ahead of the general election, ALEC member the American Chemistry Council spent nearly $650,000 in support of Thompson's campaign in the latter part of 2012. Thompson faced Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin in the general election. Although most polls from the spring through September showed Thompson ahead, he ultimately lost to Baldwin in the general election, receiving 45.9% against Baldwin's 51.5%. Ultimately, Thompson could not overcome a combined 260,000-vote deficit in the state's two largest counties, Milwaukee and Dane – home to Milwaukee and Madison, respectively. It was the first time Thompson had lost a statewide election.

Later political involvement

Over the course of the Republican primaries for the United States presidential election of 2016 Thompson endorsed a number of candidates. Before the primaries, he initially endorsed Scott Walker's campaign. After Walker withdrew his candidacy, Thompson gave his endorsement to the campaign of Jeb Bush. In March 2016 (a month after Bush ended his campaign), Thompson endorsed the campaign of John Kasich and became chair of Kasich's Wisconsin state campaign operation. In early July, Thompson, endorsed Donald Trump (the party's presumptive nominee) and served as a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Thompson considered running for Wisconsin governor again in 2022, which would mean challenging incumbent Democrat Tony Evers. In March 2022, he visited Mar-a-Lago to consult with then-former president Trump about such a possibility. In April, Thompson claimed that he would not be running for governor. He claimed that he had received encouragement from Trump, but was ultimately dissuaded from running by objections from his own immediate family. In July, Thompson gave his own endorsement in the Republican gubernatorial primary to Tim Michels (the Trump-backed candidate). Trump and Thompson's endorsements of Michels was seen as helping him to overtake former lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch in the polls. While Michels succeeded in securing the Republican nomination, he went on to lose to Evers.

In October 2022, Thompson joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched by Issue One to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of social media in the United States co-chaired by former House Democratic Caucus Leader Dick Gephardt and former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Thompson served as a delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention (held in Milwaukee), and delivered a speech at the convention. Thompson claimed that it was the twelfth consecutive Republican convention to which he had been a delegate. In the 2024 presidential election, Thompson once again endorsed Trump, and sent Trump's campaign advice on campaigning in Wisconsin. Thompson also campaigned alongside Trump in Wisconsin.

President of the University of Wisconsin System (2020–22)

thumb|Thompson (as UW System president) visiting the campus of [[UW Oshkosh in March 2022.]]

In the fall of 2019, incumbent University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross announced his intention to retire. This kicked off a search by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to find his successor. In what was seen as a flawed candidate search, complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, the board initially was poised to offer the position to University of Alaska System President Jim Johnsen. A week later, after closed-door sessions, the board named Thompson as the interim president.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Assembly (1966–1970)

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican primary, September 13, 1966

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 8, 1966

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 5, 1968

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 5, 1968

Wisconsin Assembly (1972–1978)

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 7, 1972

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 5, 1974

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 2, 1976

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 7, 1978

United States House of Representatives (1979)

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican primary, September 9, 1986

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 4, 1986

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican primary, September 11, 1990

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 6, 1990

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 8, 1994

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican primary, September 8, 1998

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 3, 1998

United States Senate (2012)

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican primary, August 14, 2012

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 6, 2012

References

  • Tommy Thompson for U.S. Senate
  • (House, 1979)
  • (President, 2008)
  • (Senate, 2012)<!--

Links formerly displayed via the CongLinks template:

  • Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org
  • Financial information (state office) at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
  • Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
  • Works by or about Tommy Thompson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • Appearances on C-SPAN programs
  • Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
  • Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
  • -->
  • "Tommy Thompson and the Conservative Revolution"; primary source material compiled by the Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Tommy G. Thompson Collection, 1957-ongoing Special Collections & Archives, Marquette University (archive of materials donated by Thompson and others)

;Presidential campaign

  • Federal Election Commission – Tommy G. Thompson (President) campaign finance reports
  • PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer – Vote 2008: Tommy Thompson

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