Gary Glenn

Electoral and legislative history

Glenn was first elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2014, representing the 98th House District comprising the cities of Auburn, Linwood, Midland, and Pinconning, the village of Sanford, and thirteen suburban and rural townships in Bay and Midland counties. In the current 2017-18 legislative term, he serves as Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tempore and as chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee. He also serves on the House Communications and Technology, Insurance, and Military and Veterans Affairs committees.

In his first term, the 2015-16 session, he served as vice chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee and on the House Commerce and Trade, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Tax Policy committees.

Glenn was reelected in 2016 with just over 60 percent of the vote, winning 48 of the district's 50 precincts and losing the remaining two precincts by a combined total of six votes. Two days later, the incoming Republican House Caucus for the 2017-18 session elected him Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tempore, the same position former Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, held during his second term.

He was also appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on the seven-member Committee on Committees, which recommended the chairs and membership of each House committee, and to serve as one of three Finance Chairmen of the House Republican Campaign Committee.

Michigan Information and Research Service, Lansing's oldest daily legislative news service, selected Rep. Glenn from among 55 first-term state representatives and senators as its MIRS "Freshman Legislator of the Year" in 2015, specifically citing his leadership and impact on energy policy and civil asset forfeiture reforms.

In his first term, he compiled a voting record that earned a 100 percent score from Americans for Prosperity-Michigan and from the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. He won the American Conservatives Union's "Award for Conservative Excellence" for scoring the most conservative voting record in the Michigan House in 2015, and he is routinely scored among the most conservative members of the House by multiple news outlets and interest groups. Glenn also won accolades from conservative organizations for having said in a previous position, before being elected, that "school officials should be held financially or criminally liable if they tell a student it's OK to be gay and he or she contracts a deadly sexually transmitted disease."

In 2016, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan and received NFIB's "Guardian of Small Business" award. In 2017, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Michigan Propane Gas Association.

He is a Republican from Williams Township, Michigan, and as president of the American Family Association of Michigan, he coauthored the state's Marriage Protection Amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2004, including by over 60 percent of the vote in the 98th House District.

In 2011, he was a founding board member of the Michigan Freedom to Work coalition, which launched the successful effort to enact a state Right to Work law prohibiting compulsory union affiliation or financial support. As executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work Committee from 1980–86, he had led the successful effort to enact the same law in that state in 1985. In 2015, the National Right to Work Committee named Glenn the recipient of its highest honor, the Senator Everett M. Dirksen Award, for a lifetime of achievement and commitment to the principle of individual freedom in the workplace.

In 2014, and again in 2016, the Abolitionist Roundtable, an organization of African-American radio talk show personalities in the metro Detroit area, named him the recipient of its annual "Champion of Liberty Award" for his work towards economically and socially conservative policies. In 2011, he was named “Citizen of the Year” by Citizens for Community Values during the South Bend, Indiana-based social conservative advocacy group's annual banquet on the campus of Notre Dame University.

Military career

Gary enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves during the Persian Gulf War buildup in 1990 and served eight years in the Reserves and Army National Guard, including with the 1460th Transportation Company headquartered in Midland. He was named Honor Graduate of both Basic Combat Training at Ft. Sill, Ok., and Advanced Individual Training at Redstone Arsenal, Al., and earned two Army Reserve Component Achievement Medals. He is chairman of the Michigan state chapter of Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, a small nonprofit military readiness and remembrance organization.

Personal life

He is a member of Midland Baptist Church, a life member of the National Rifle Association, and was a founding board member of the new Midland Optimist Club.

Gary and his wife Annette have five children and six grandchildren.

2012 U.S. Senate campaign

Glenn ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. Senate but was defeated in the Republican primary by Pete Hoekstra on August 7, 2012. Despite the electoral loss, Glenn ran very strongly in the campaign with the Tea Party and religious voters for his strong stances on socially conservative issues such as gay marriage and gay adoption

Possible Michigan State Senate run

It was reported in the Midland Daily News that Glenn was moving to the 31st Michigan Senate District for a possible State Senate run, which would also open the door for his wife Annette Glenn to fill his House seat.