🔵 Lunch with U.S. Congressman Tom Cole

April 3, 2024 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (CDT)

Description

Join us in an interactive discussion with Congressman Tom Cole. He will speak to America's role in the world and how our economic and security interests grow by the day.

Tom Cole was first elected to Congress in 2002. Identified by Time Magazine as "one of the sharpest minds in the House," Cole is an advocate for a strong national defense, a tireless advocate for taxpayers and small businesses and a leader on issues dealing with Native Americans and tribal governments. At the outset of his service in the House, Cole was named as one of the "Five Freshmen to Watch" by Roll Call. Cole has a significant background of service to his home state of Oklahoma. Before Congress, he served as State Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, district director to former Congressman Mickey Edwards and a member of the Oklahoma State Senate. Cole also served as Oklahoma’s Secretary of State; in this capacity he served as former Governor Frank Keating's chief legislative strategist and liaison to the state's federal delegation. Keating tapped Cole to lead Oklahoma's successful effort to secure federal funds to assist in the rebuilding of Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Cole is widely regarded as one of the GOP's top political strategists. He served as executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee in the 1992 cycle. He also served as chief of staff of the Republican National Committee during the historic 2000 cycle in which Republicans won the presidency, the Senate and the House for the first time in 48 years. In the 2008 cycle, Cole served as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Cole is a founding partner and past president of CHS & Associates, a nationally recognized political consulting and survey research firm based in Oklahoma City. The firm has been named one of the top 20 in its field and has literally dozens of past and current clients scattered across the country. A former college instructor in history and politics, Cole holds a B.A. from Grinnell College, an M.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Cole has been a Thomas Watson Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow at the University of London; he has also received honorary degrees from Hillsdale Bible College in Moore, Oklahoma City University and Grinnell College. He serves on the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents, as well as the national board of the Fulbright Association. Tom Cole is a fifth-generation Oklahoman and an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. He was awarded the Congressional Leadership Award by the National Congress of American Indians in 2007 and 2011 and was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame in 2004. Cole's late mother, Helen, is also a member of the Chickasaw Hall of Fame and served as a state representative, state senator and mayor of Moore in her native state of Oklahoma. Cole's late father, John, served 20 years in the United States Air Force and worked an additional two decades as a civilian federal employee at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City. Tom and his wife Ellen reside in Moore, Oklahoma.

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If you register for an event and do not cancel your reservation at least 24 hours prior to the attend you will be charged, regardless of attendance.

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