Mike Lee

Mike Lee
Born	Michael Shumway Lee 4 6, 1971
Birthplace	Mesa, Arizona, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician, lawyer
Title	Chair of the Senate Energy Committee
Known for	Senior U.S. Senator from Utah
Education	Brigham Young University (BA, JD)
Children	3
Website	[https://www.lee.senate.gov Official site]

Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the senior United States senator from Utah since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Lee rose to national prominence during the Tea Party movement wave of 2010 when he defeated three-term incumbent senator Bob Bennett in the Republican primary before winning the general election. Born into a prominent political and legal family — his father, Rex E. Lee, served as United States Solicitor General, and his brother, Thomas Rex Lee, sits on the Utah Supreme Court — Lee built an early career in federal law clerking and prosecution before entering politics. He has been reelected twice, in 2016 and 2022, and became Utah's senior senator in 2019 following the retirement of Orrin Hatch. Since January 2025, Lee has served as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He previously chaired the Joint Economic Committee from 2019 to 2021. Throughout his Senate tenure, Lee has positioned himself as a constitutional conservative, frequently invoking originalist interpretations of the Constitution in legislative debates on topics ranging from government spending and civil liberties to health care and criminal justice reform.

Early Life

Michael Shumway Lee was born on June 4, 1971, in Mesa, Arizona. He is the son of Rex E. Lee, who served as the United States Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985, and who later became the president of Brigham Young University. Lee grew up in a household steeped in legal and public affairs. His brother, Thomas Rex Lee, later became a justice on the Utah Supreme Court. The Lee family is part of the extended Udall-Hunt-Lee family, a prominent political dynasty in the Western United States with roots in early Arizona and Utah politics.

Lee spent part of his childhood in the Washington, D.C. area while his father served in the Reagan administration. This upbringing provided him with early exposure to the workings of the federal government, constitutional law, and the judicial system. His father's career as Solicitor General — arguing cases before the Supreme Court of the United States — shaped Lee's own interest in constitutional interpretation and the role of the judiciary.

The family eventually settled in Utah, where Rex E. Lee became president of Brigham Young University. Mike Lee has spoken publicly about the influence his father had on his understanding of the Constitution and the importance of limited government, themes that would become central to his political career.

Education

Lee attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued his legal education at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he received his Juris Doctor (JD) degree. His education at BYU grounded him in the legal tradition that would define his subsequent career in federal clerkships, prosecution, and ultimately the United States Senate.

Career

Legal Career

After completing his legal education, Lee began his career as a law clerk for Judge Dee Benson of the United States District Court for the District of Utah. He subsequently clerked for Judge Samuel Alito, who at the time served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. This clerkship established a professional relationship between Lee and Alito that would continue for years.

From 2002 to 2005, Lee served as an assistant United States Attorney for the District of Utah, where he was involved in federal prosecution. He left the U.S. Attorney's office in 2005 to join the administration of Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., serving as the general counsel in the governor's office from 2005 to 2006.

After Alito was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in January 2006, Lee returned to clerk for him at the Supreme Court. This made Lee one of relatively few attorneys to have clerked for the same judge at two different levels of the federal judiciary. Following his Supreme Court clerkship, Lee entered private legal practice in Utah.

2010 Senate Election

Lee entered the political arena in the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Utah, running for the seat held by three-term Republican incumbent Bob Bennett. The election took place during a period of rising Tea Party activism, and Bennett, despite his long tenure and seniority, faced criticism from conservative activists who viewed him as insufficiently opposed to government spending and the federal bailout programs enacted during the 2008 financial crisis.

Under Utah's convention system, delegates at the state Republican convention voted to eliminate Bennett from the primary ballot, a dramatic outcome that shocked the political establishment. Lee advanced from the convention and ultimately won the Republican primary. He went on to win the general election comfortably in the heavily Republican state, taking office on January 3, 2011.

Lee's victory was considered emblematic of the Tea Party's influence on the Republican Party during the 2010 midterm elections, in which several incumbent or establishment-backed Republican candidates were defeated by more conservative challengers.

First Term in the Senate (2011–2017)

Lee quickly established himself as one of the most conservative members of the Senate. He received high ratings from conservative organizations, including a score from the American Conservative Union and a rating on the Heritage Action scorecard that placed him among the most conservative senators.

One of Lee's early areas of focus was opposition to what he considered excessive federal spending and the growth of the national debt. He advocated for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and was vocal in his opposition to raising the debt ceiling without corresponding spending cuts.

Lee also engaged in debates over Social Security, suggesting reforms to the program that drew both attention and criticism. He proposed changes to benefits and eligibility that he argued were necessary to ensure the program's long-term solvency.

During his first term, Lee became involved in the issue of judicial nominations, at times placing holds or objecting to nominees put forward by the Obama administration. Bloomberg News described his approach to the confirmation process as a "one-man fight" in a 2012 report.

Lee also emerged as a proponent of criminal justice reform, an area where he found occasional common ground with senators across the political spectrum. The Washington Post noted in 2013 that Lee was "more serious about prison reform than Rand Paul," highlighting his work on sentencing reform legislation that aimed to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent offenses.

2016 Reelection and Relationship with Trump

Lee was reelected in the 2016 U.S. Senate election. During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Lee refused to endorse Donald Trump. In the general election, Lee voted for Evan McMullin, an independent conservative candidate from Utah who ran against Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Despite this initial distance from Trump, Lee's relationship with the president evolved over the course of the Trump administration. Lee eventually became a supporter and ally of Trump, endorsing him in both the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

Health Care Debates

Lee played a notable role in Senate debates over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Republican efforts to repeal or replace the law. In 2017, he was named to a thirteen-member working group of Republican senators tasked with drafting health care legislation, a group that drew attention for being composed entirely of men.

In July 2017, Lee, along with Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, announced opposition to the Republican leadership's health care bill, effectively stalling the legislation. Their objections centered on the bill not going far enough in repealing the ACA, a position that placed them to the right of the Senate Republican leadership's approach.

Second Term and Committee Leadership (2017–2023)

Following the retirement of Senator Orrin Hatch in January 2019, Lee became the senior senator from Utah. That same year, he assumed the chairmanship of the Joint Economic Committee, a position he held from January 3, 2019, to February 3, 2021.

Lee continued his legislative work on a range of issues, including government surveillance, technology regulation, and antitrust law. He introduced and co-sponsored legislation related to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, seeking to place limits on the government's foreign surveillance powers. In February 2026, Lee partnered with Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, to introduce legislation that would impose new restrictions on Section 702 ahead of its April reauthorization. This bipartisan effort reflected Lee's long-standing concerns about civil liberties and government overreach in the area of electronic surveillance.

Lee also became increasingly involved in antitrust issues, particularly as they related to the technology and entertainment industries. As of February 2026, Lee found himself at the center of a dispute involving Hollywood studios and the future of cinema and movie streaming, with the Deseret News reporting that the senator had been "thrust into" the debate over antitrust enforcement in the entertainment sector.

2020 Election and January 6

Lee supported Donald Trump's efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. However, he did not sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus brief, in which several Republican state attorneys general and members of Congress sought to have the Supreme Court invalidate the election results in key states. Ultimately, Lee voted to certify the election outcome when the matter came before the Senate following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

2022 Reelection

In the 2022 U.S. Senate election, Lee faced Evan McMullin — the same independent conservative candidate Lee had voted for in the 2016 presidential election — as his principal challenger. McMullin ran as an independent and received the endorsement of the Utah Democratic Party, which did not field its own candidate. Lee won reelection, securing another six-year term.

Chair of the Senate Energy Committee

On January 3, 2025, Lee assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, succeeding Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. In this role, Lee oversees legislation and policy related to energy production, public lands, water resources, and mineral extraction — issues of particular importance to the Western states, including Utah.

Senate Filibuster and Voting Legislation

As of February 2026, Lee was involved in discussions among Senate Republicans regarding potential modifications to the filibuster in order to advance voting-related legislation, including the SAVE America Act. Democrats have vowed to block the legislation using the filibuster, and Lee appeared on Fox News to discuss the effort. An opinion piece in MS NOW criticized Lee and other Republicans for seeking to weaken the filibuster in the context of legislation that critics argued would make it harder for certain populations to vote.

Personal Life

Mike Lee and his wife, Sharon Burr Lee, have three children. The family resides in Utah. Lee is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lee is part of the extended Udall-Hunt-Lee family, a politically prominent family in the American West. His father, Rex E. Lee, served as Solicitor General of the United States and later as president of Brigham Young University before his death in 1996. His brother, Thomas Rex Lee, serves as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court.

Lee became the dean of Utah's congressional delegation in 2021, following the retirement of Representative Rob Bishop.

Recognition

Lee has received high marks from conservative organizations throughout his Senate career. The American Conservative Union gave him consistently high ratings, and he scored among the top senators on the Heritage Action scorecard during his early years in office.

His work on criminal justice reform has drawn attention from across the political spectrum. The Washington Post highlighted his efforts on sentencing reform in 2013, noting his substantive engagement with the issue of mandatory minimum sentences.

Lee has also been recognized for his work on constitutional issues and civil liberties, particularly regarding government surveillance. His bipartisan collaboration with Senator Dick Durbin on Section 702 reform in 2026 reflected a continuing focus on these issues.

His career in the Senate has included leadership roles on multiple committees, including the chairmanship of the Joint Economic Committee (2019–2021) and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (2025–present).

Legacy

Lee's Senate career has been defined by a consistent emphasis on constitutional originalism, limited government, and fiscal conservatism. His defeat of Bob Bennett in the 2010 Republican convention remains a defining moment of the Tea Party era and an illustration of how grassroots conservative activism reshaped the Republican Party's internal dynamics during that period.

His work on criminal justice reform represents one of the areas where he has contributed to bipartisan legislative efforts, working with both Republican and Democratic colleagues on sentencing reform. Similarly, his ongoing engagement with civil liberties issues, particularly regarding Section 702 and government surveillance, has placed him in coalition with members of both parties who share concerns about the scope of federal intelligence-gathering powers.

As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lee oversees policy areas of significant importance to Utah and the Western United States, including public lands management, energy production, and water resources. His elevation to this role reflects his seniority within the Senate Republican caucus and his standing within the party.

Lee's political trajectory — from initial opposition to Donald Trump in 2016 to becoming an ally and endorser in subsequent elections — mirrors a broader pattern among Republican officeholders who came to accommodate or embrace Trump's influence within the party. His 2022 reelection victory over Evan McMullin, the same candidate he had voted for in 2016, underscored the degree to which his political alignment had shifted during the intervening years.