Conor Lamb

Conor James Lamb (born June 27, 1984) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district from 2018 to 2023.

Lamb was born in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 1984, to Thomas F. Lamb Jr. and Katie Lamb.

He grew up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, and for a brief period in Connecticut.

The Lamb family has been active in Pittsburgh-area politics and business for many years.

Lamb's father has served as a lobbyist for PNC Financial Services since 1995.

Lamb's grandfather, Thomas F. Lamb, was the Democratic Majority Leader in the Pennsylvania State Senate and later Secretary of Legislative Affairs under Governor Robert P. Casey.

Conor's uncle Michael Lamb is the Controller of the City of Pittsburgh, and was previously the Prothonotary of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

A Catholic of Irish descent, Lamb attended St. Bernard School in Mt. Lebanon, and graduated from Central Catholic High School in 2002.

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a B.A. degree in political science, and earned a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2009.

He is married to Hayley Haldeman.

After law school, Lamb completed the Marine Corps' Officer Candidates School before being commissioned as a Judge Advocate.

From 2013 to 2014, Lamb clerked for Joseph Frank Bianco, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Following his clerkship, Lamb was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Department of Justice's Pittsburgh office, serving under then-U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania David J. Hickton.

A longtime resident of Pittsburgh, Lamb earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in his home city from 2014 to 2017.

In 2015, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania gained convictions against three men who were among 34 members of a heroin gang indicted in 2013 after a wiretap investigation by the FBI, the ATF, the state attorney general's office and local police.

Thomas Hopes, described as the "CEO" of the violent heroin-distribution operation, was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison, and brothers Keith and Gregory Harris were sentenced to 20 years and 121 months in prison, respectively.

In 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office gained convictions against two Pittsburgh residents, Brandon Goode and Mychael Scott, who acted as "straw buyers", purchasing firearms for a gun trafficker to help funnel hundreds of illegal weapons into New York City.

Goode and Scott were sentenced to 65 and 60 months in prison, respectively.

The main gun trafficker, Michael Bassier, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

In 2016, Lamb prosecuted the government's case against Andre Saunders, a drug dealer from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, who imported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin from the West Coast into the Uniontown area and West Virginia and supplied heroin and cocaine to multiple dealers in the Uniontown area.

Saunders was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine and sentenced to 10 years in prison, and was ordered to forfeit his BMW, five luxury watches and a necklace, $325,120 in cash, his Uniontown home, the proceeds of the sale of a second Uniontown home, a 9-mm pistol, and a money judgment of $100,000.

In 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted Dorian Cottrell, a heroin dealer who shot a man during a drug transaction at the Cambridge Square apartments in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

Cottrell was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and was ordered to forfeit his BMW, $27,000 in cash, and 10 firearms.

Murphy had run for reelection unopposed in 2016 and 2014.

After Pennsylvania's congressional map was redrawn by court order the same year, Lamb won his first full term to the 17th district in the general election.

Lamb did not seek re-election to his House seat in 2022, choosing instead to run for Senate.

He finished second in the Democratic primary behind John Fetterman.

In 2017, he prosecuted a Marine officer who had lied to a Marine Corps board of inquiry about a sexual misconduct case.

Lamb has been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars, the Sea Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

On October 5, 2017, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Lamb was considering running for Congress in a special election for Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district.

The district included parts of Allegheny, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

The vacancy was created when incumbent Republican Representative Tim Murphy resigned amid revelations that he had had an extramarital affair and urged his mistress to terminate an unexpected pregnancy, despite his long record as a vocal opponent of abortion.

Lamb was selected as the Democratic nominee at a convention in November 2017.

In the general election, he faced Republican State Representative Rick Saccone.

Despite the district's Republican bent, the special election was considered highly competitive and attracted national attention.

National Republican sources spent more than $8 million on television advertising, Twice as Much as the Democrats.

Several prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump's children Donald Jr. and Ivanka, visited the district to campaign for Saccone.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the neighboring PA's 18th congressional district in 2018.

Lamb was also an unsuccessful candidate in the 2022 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania.

He ran for the 18th district's seat in a special election caused by Republican Congressman Tim Murphy's resignation and defeated Republican Rick Saccone.