Chris Jacobs (politician)

Prior to holding elected office, Jacobs served as Deputy Commissioner of Environment and Planning in the administration of Erie County Executive Joel Giambra.[4] Jacobs also worked at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under then-HUD Secretary Jack Kemp.[6]

Jacobs served on the Buffalo Board of Education;[7] he was elected as an at-large member in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009.[8]

Jacobs serves on the Boards of Buffalo Place and the Freedom Station Coalition and was previously a board member at the Catholic Academy of West Buffalo and the Olmsted Parks Conservancy.[8]

On April 19, 2006, Jacobs was appointed as New York Secretary of State by Governor George Pataki.[9]

In 2011, Jacobs was elected Erie County Clerk. He was re-elected to the post in 2014.[8]

In February 2006, Jacobs was the Republican nominee in a special election for the State Senate for a seat representing Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Jacobs was defeated by Democrat Marc Coppola.[10]

On November 8, 2016, Jacobs defeated Democrat Amber Small for the 60th District State Senate seat. The district was formerly represented by Democrat Marc Panepinto, with Jacobs' victory contributing to the New York State Senate Republican majority.[11]

Jacobs won re-election in 2018.[12] He resigned his seat on July 20, 2020 after being elected to Congress.[13]

In May 2019, Jacobs announced that he would run for New York's 27th congressional district in the 2020 elections. He initially planned to challenge incumbent Chris Collins in the Republican primary.[14][15] However, Collins resigned in October 2019 and pleaded guilty to insider trading charges.[16]

Jacobs defeated Nate McMurray, 50.7%-45.6%,[17] in a special election on June 23, 2020 for the balance of Collins' fourth term[18] and was sworn in as a member of Congress on July 21, 2020.[19]

On the day of the special election, he also won a three-way Republican primary[20] to become the nominee for the 2020 general election on November 3,[21] in which he went on to win a full term by defeating McMurray a second time.[22]

In January 2021, Jacobs objected to the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results in Congress, basing his decision on what the New York Times described as "spurious allegations of widespread voter fraud".[23] Jacobs's vote came shortly after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.[24] On January 10, seven members of the New York State legislature signed an open letter calling on Jacobs to resign.[25] On January 13, Jacobs voted against both articles of impeachment in the second impeachment of President Donald Trump.[26] On February 4, Jacobs joined 10 other Republican House members voting with all voting Democrats to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her House Education and Labor Committee, and House Budget Committee assignments in response to controversial political statements she had made.[27]

• Committee on Agriculture
• Committee on the Budget[28]