Mike Gallagher (American politician)
Michael John Gallagher (born March 3, 1984) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2017. His district covers the state's northeastern part. Gallagher succeeded Representative Reid Ribble after the 2016 election. He is a member of the Republican Party. Early years Gallagher lived in Green Bay through middle school. After his parents' divorce, he moved to California and studied at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, while spending summers in Wisconsin. Gallagher later said his teachers "endowed me with a love for history and set me on a path to earning a Ph.D. with a focus on Cold War history." He graduated in 2002 as a valedictorian. Military Gallagher was a United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, serving seven years (2006–13) on active duty. He twice deployed to the Al Anbar Province, Iraq, serving on General David Petraeus's CENTCOM Assessment Team as a commander of intelligence teams. He assessed American military strategy in the Middle East and Central Asia in his role as a counterintelligence officer, and as a member of the CENTCOM assessment team. Education Gallagher earned his B.A. in 2006 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. With a growing interest in global security, he changed his major from Spanish to Arabic. Gallagher completed a 117-page senior thesis, "New Approaches to Asymmetric Threats in the Middle East: From Fighting to Winning", under the supervision of Frederick Hitz. At this time he completed a summer internship abroad with the Rand Corporation in Cambridge, United Kingdom, working on a strategic study of terrorist groups such as Basque separatists. Gallagher served his first tour of duty in the Iraq War with the United States Marine Corps. Subsequently, Gallagher began a MSSI (Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence) at National Intelligence University and graduated in 2010. Gallagher completed a second M.A. in security studies in 2012. He completed a third M.A. in government in 2013. He studied for both at Georgetown University. He then began doctoral studies, writing a dissertation on the administrations of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Cold War, receiving his Ph.D. in government and international relations in 2015. His dissertation committee was chaired by Andy Bennett and included Keir A Lieber and Colin Dueck. U.S. House of Representatives Elections Gallagher served as a Republican staffer on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker hired him as a foreign policy advisor in February 2015, in preparation for his 2016 presidential campaign. After Walker dropped out of the presidential race, Gallagher worked as a senior marketing strategist for Breakthrough Fuel, a supply-chain management company. He then ran for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district seat, to which Reid Ribble was not seeking reelection. Gallagher won the primary against Wisconsin state senator Frank Lasee and Forestville village president Terry McNulty. In the general election, Gallagher defeated Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, 63% to 36%. He was reelected in 2018 over Brown County assistant