Guy Adrian Vander Jagt ( / ˌ v æ n d ər ˈ dʒ æ k / VAN -dər JAK ; August 26, 1931 – June 22, 2007) was an American lawyer, pastor, and Republican politician from Michigan. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1966 to 1993 and led the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Vander Jagt was well-known for his speaking skills. President Nixon once said he was "the best public speaker in America." A producer from the Homebuilder's Convention also said, "I've worked with many famous people, including Colin Powell, Margaret Thatcher, and George Bush, but Vander Jagt was the best speaker we ever had." Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying, "Some call me the great communicator, but I feared having to speak after Guy Vander Jagt during my eight years in Washington."
Early life and education
Vander Jagt was born in Cadillac, Michigan, to Marie and Harry Vander Jagt. Harry was a Dutch immigrant. As a young man, Guy worked on his family's 120-acre (0.49 km) farm near Cadillac. He showed a talent for speaking in public when he began preaching at the Tustin Presbyterian Church while attending Cadillac High School. He graduated from Hope College in Holland in 1953. During his time at Hope College, he won the Michigan state debate championship three times and earned the National Oratorical Championship during his senior year. He also served as student body president and worked as a radio disc jockey at WHTC.
After graduating, Vander Jagt attended Yale Divinity School and received a B.D. degree in 1955. In 1956, he earned a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to study for one year at the University of Bonn, Germany.
When he returned to West Michigan, Vander Jagt briefly served as an interim pastor of the Cadillac Congregational Church. He later worked as a newscaster and news director at the WWTV TV station. It is said that he memorized the text of each broadcast.
Vander Jagt then returned to school to study law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. However, he transferred to the University of Michigan Law School, where he earned his J.D. degree in 1960. He began practicing law in Grand Rapids.
State Senate
In 1964, he was chosen to serve in the Michigan State Senate.
After U.S. Senator Patrick V. McNamara passed away in April 1966, Vander Jagt, along with Republican candidates Robert P. Griffin and Leroy Augenstein, was considered a strong possibility for filling the empty U.S. Senate seat. Michigan Governor George Romney created rules to find a candidate with at least 65% support. When it became clear that neither Griffin nor Augenstein would reach that level of support, Vander Jagt decided not to continue and instead supported Griffin. Griffin was appointed to the Senate in May. In return, Vander Jagt ran for the position left open by Griffin in Michigan's 9th congressional district, which included areas from his home in Cadillac near Lake Michigan to Muskegon and the suburbs of Grand Rapids.
Vander Jagt participated in two elections on November 8, 1966: one to finish Griffin's fifth term and another to begin a full two-year term. He won both elections easily and was elected again 12 times, never facing significant competition in a district known to strongly support Republican candidates.
Congressional career
One of Vander Jagt’s earliest roles was on the House Committee on Science and Space during the development of the U.S. space program, which led to the Moon landing. On the Conservation and National Resources Subcommittee, he worked to help create Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore near his home. However, he later pointed out that poor management of the park showed one of the worst problems in how land is acquired. As a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, President Richard Nixon sent him on trade missions to Africa and Asia. In 1974, Vander Jagt was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, where he served on the Trade and Select Revenue Measures Subcommittees. He continued working on this committee throughout his time in the House. He also served on the Joint Tax Committee of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
In 1980, Vander Jagt was chosen by presidential candidate Ronald Reagan to deliver the main speech at the Republican National Convention in Detroit. He gave the speech on July 16 without using notes, relying only on memory. He was being considered as a possible vice presidential candidate. Using the success of his speech, Vander Jagt ran for House Minority Leader after John J. Rhodes of Arizona decided not to run for the position again. However, he lost to Bob Michel of Illinois. Vander Jagt served as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1975 until he left the House. He also helped make Newt Gingrich the chairman of a Republican long-range planning committee before Gingrich was sworn into office, helping him move ahead of current members.
In the late 1980s, Vander Jagt led an effort to try to remove the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limits a president to two terms. In a 1986 fundraising letter, he explained that he wanted to keep Ronald Reagan in office because he believed Reagan was one of the greatest American presidents. In 1986 and again in 1987, 1989, and 1991, he introduced a bill in the House to change the amendment.
In 1992, Vander Jagt’s district was changed to the 2nd district. For the first time since his initial election in 1966, he faced a serious opponent in the primary election: Pete Hoekstra, a Herman Miller executive and fellow Dutch-American. Hoekstra had never run for office before but gained attention by riding his bike across the district. He also claimed that Vander Jagt had been in Congress for too long, noting that Vander Jagt had won his first election when Hoekstra was 13 years old. Hoekstra won the primary by more than six points, dominating the more populated southern part of the district, including Muskegon and the Grand Rapids suburbs. Vander Jagt’s support in the northern part of the district was not enough to close the gap.
Later career and death
Vander Jagt began working again as a private lawyer with the law firm BakerHostetler, which is based in Cleveland. He passed away due to pancreatic cancer at a hospice care center in Washington on June 22, 2007, at the age of 75. He was laid to rest in Maple Hill Cemetery in Cadillac, Michigan.