Robert Lee "Bob" Stump (4 April 1927 – 20 June 2003) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-AZ 3) from 3 January 1977 to 3 January 2003, succeeding Sam Steiger and preceding Ed Pastor. He was a conservative "Pinto Democrat" until 1983, when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
Biography[]
Robert Lee Stump was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1927, and he owned a cotton and grain farm in Tolleson for many years. He served in the State House from 1959 to 1967 and in the State Senate from 1967 to 1976, serving as a Democrat. In 1976, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, representing a vast district in northwestern Arizona which included Phoenix up to the Grand Canyon. His voting record was strongly conservative, and he voted for Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cuts. Shortly after that vote, he announced that he would switch his party affiliation to Republican, and he never faced serious competition at the ballot box, never achieving under 60% of the vote (except for 1991). Stump kept a low profile; he answered his own phones in Washington DC, opened his own mail, and worked at his farm in Arizona on weekends. He cast votes against virtually all spending programs, attempted to make English the official business language of America, and sought to end birthright citizenship. He decided to retire in 2002 due to poor health, and he died in 2003.