John Ensign (25 March 1958-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-NV 1) from 3 January 1995 to 3 January 1999 (succeeding James Bilbray and preceding Shelley Berkley) and a US Senator from Nevada from 3 January 2001 to 3 May 2011 (succeeding Richard Bryan and preceding Dean Heller). He resigned in 2011 due to a sex and corruption scandal.
Biography[]
John Mueller was born in Roseville, California on 25 March 1958. His father abandoned the family when he was four, and he was raised by his mother and his stepfather Michael S. Ensign, who became chairman of the board of directors of the Mandalay Resort Group in Las Vegas. The younger Ensign went on to open a 24-hour animal hospital in Las Vegas, and he owned two hospitals before entering politics as a Republican. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, and, while he lost a 1998 US Senate bid to Harry Reid, he won the 2000 senatorial election, succeeding the retiring Democratic incumbent Richard Bryan. He was pro-life, one of the Humane Society's biggest allies in the US Congress, supported the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" in 2010, supported fiscal conservatism, opposed Obamacare, sought to require all low-security prisoners to work up to 50 hours a week, and voted in favor of the invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq War. However, he was embroiled in controversy due to a sex scandal with one of his campaign staffers, which her husband claimed was sexual harassment. Ensign resigned in 2011 rather than be brought down by the corruption charges against him.