Samuel H. Clovis Jr.

Samuel H. Clovis Jr. (born Sept. 18, 1949)^[1] is a radio host and United States Air Force veteran, who is the senior White House adviser to the United States Department of Agriculture. He was national co-chair of the Trump-Pence campaign in the 2016 presidential election. In July 2017, President Donald Trump said he would nominate Clovis as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics in the United States Department of Agriculture.^[2]

Early life and education

Clovis was born in Salina, Kansas and grew up in Medora, Kansas.^[1] As a high school senior he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy.^[3] He graduated from Buhler High School^[4] and went on to attend the Air Force school in Colorado Springs where he earned his bachelor's degree in political science. He served in the Air Force for 25 years from 1971 to 1996 as fighter pilot and instructor. During his time in the Air Force he also served in the Pentagon, the Middle East, and as commander of the 70th Fighter Squadron. He became colonel^[3] and retired as the Inspector General of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Space Command.^[5]

He also holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and attended the national security program at Georgetown University^[3] and earned a Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Alabama.^[6]

Career

After retiring from the Air Force he had short periods of working for BETAC (1996-97) and Northrop Grumman (1997-2000).^[1] In 2000, he moved to Iowa and briefly joined William Penn University in Oskaloosa until 2003.^[3] In 2003 he worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for a year until he joined, from 2004 – 2010, the Homeland Security Institute,^[1] now the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute.^[3] In 2005 he joined Morningside College^[1] in Sioux City, Iowa, as an economics professor.^[7][5] In January 2010 he started hosting his own radio talk show^[3] "Impact With Sam Clovis" on KSCJ-AM.^[8] About the same time, he became active in the Republican Party and served as a delegate to the state convention in 2010. In 2012, he supported and campaigned with Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses. He was chairman of the 4th District GOP convention as well as an alternate delegate to the national Republican convention.^[3] He eventually left his professorship at Morningside College to pursue his political career.^[8] In 2014, Clovis ran in the Republican primary for the Senate in Iowa and lost to Joni Ernst. Afterwards, Clovis ran for the Iowa state treasurer against incumbent Michael Fitzgerald and lost by 53% to 44%.^[9] On August 25, 2015, Clovis joined the Trump campaign as a policy advisor, having previously worked on the campaign for Rick Perry.^[10]

After Trump took office in January 2017 Clovis was given a temporary role^[11] as senior White House adviser to the USDA^[12] until a permanent USDA director would be approved.^[11]

Views

Clovis, who is not a scientist^[13], has described climate research as "junk science",^[14] and in 2014 told Iowa Public Radio that he is skeptical about climate change.^[15]

In August 2017, CNN reported on the existence of a now-defunct blog that Clovis had maintained primarily between 2011 and 2012. In blog posts accessed via the Wayback Machine, Clovis was critical of President Barack Obama and the progressive movement, accusing Obama of being a socialist and writing that progressives were "liars, race traders and race 'traitors.'" A USDA spokesperson responded that Clovis "is a proud conservative and a proud American. All of his reporting either on the air or in writing over the course of his career has been based on solid research and data. He is after all an academic."^[16]

Personal life

He lives in Hinton, Iowa, together with his wife Charlotte.^[4] He has two grown sons from a first marriage^[17] and one stepson, Khan.^[4] He is Roman Catholic.^[1]

Awards

• Defense Superior Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster^[4]

References