Michael Huffington
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Michael Huffington (also known as Mike Huffington) was a member of the Congress of the United States for one term, 1992 – 1994. He was born in Dallas, Texas in 1947. Huffington was formerly married to Arianna Huffington, the Greek-born columnist and progressive activist, with whom he has two daughters.
Once a staunch Republican, Huffington "came out of the closet" as a bisexual in 1998.
Huffington received a BS degree in engineering and a BA degree in economics concurrently from Stanford University in 1970. Following Stanford, he received an MBA in finance from Harvard University. From 1976 to 1990, Huffington served as vice chairman of his family-owned energy business, Huffco. (Huffington's father is Roy M. Huffington, a highly successful Texas oilman, and former Ambassador to Austria.)
In 1986, President Reagan appointed Huffington as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy with responsibility for conventional arms control negotiations.
In 1992, Huffington was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 22nd District (Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties).
In 1994, after his single term in the House, Huffington used $28 million of his personal fortune in a bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary, he defeated William E. Dannemeyer, a politician, activist, author and an outspoken critic of homosexuality. At the time, Huffington's campaign was the most expensive non-presidential election in American history. It was bitterly contested race, lavishly covered by the media, in a year in which the Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress. Huffington lost by less than 1.6% of the vote to incumbant Diane Feinstein.