Don Benton

Donald Mark Benton (born April 8, 1957) is an American politician.

Benton served in the United States Army from December 1975 to February 1976, to be trained for a specific job skill under the Guaranteed Training Enlistment Program.

When his training was no longer available, Benton quit the military, receiving an honorable discharge.

Benton was first elected to public office when he won a seat in the Washington state House of Representatives in 1994.

Originally from Santa Clarita, California, he served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives from 1995 to 1996 and the Washington State Senate from 1996 to 2017, representing Washington's 17th legislative district.

He served as campaign director for Donald Trump in Washington.

In 1996, he won simultaneous special and general elections to the state Senate, and was re-elected four times.

In 2000, Benton was elected chair of the Washington state Republican Party.

His tenure was marked by historical fundraising numbers, though some party members criticized his spending priorities and hiring decisions.

After Benton used specific funds he raised to purchase a new headquarters in Olympia without consulting some party leadership, two members of the party's executive board requested his resignation, which he refused to give.

The following year Benton lost reelection by three votes.

In 2012, Benton faced a tight and contentious race, edging Democratic challenger Tim Probst by less than 100 votes.

Political scientist James Thurber described Benton as a "shoot from the hip" lawmaker known for a "bombastic" style and a frequent unwillingness to compromise.

In the 2012 legislative session, Benton led senate Republicans in introducing a rare procedural motion known as the "ninth order" to push the Republican caucus's budget proposal to a floor vote.

The "ninth order" allows any bill to be brought to a vote even if it has not had a public hearing.

Democratic lawmakers protested that the maneuver lacked transparency, though three Democratic senators ultimately joined with Benton to help pass the motion.

In 2013 Benton, while still serving in the Senate, was selected as director of environmental services for Clark County.

His appointment was controversial as it bypassed standard civil service hiring procedures and Benton had no previous experience in environmental services.

Editorials in The Columbian, The Olympian, and The Seattle Times questioned Benton's qualifications and the county was sued for unfair hiring practices by the department's interim director, who claimed she had been denied the opportunity to apply for the position.

By November of that year Benton threatened a suit.

His attorney contacted Ed Barnes, a Clark County union activist who had declared Benton unqualified for the job, during public comment periods at county commission meetings claiming defamation, though some legal experts questioned whether Benton, as a public figure, could file such a suit.

In the midst of the matter, county commissioner David Madore, who had voted for Benton's appointment, declared the hiring was an "accident."

The following year, Clark County convened a council of freeholders to rewrite the county's charter.

In 2014, Benton and Ann Rivers, another state legislator from Clark County, were admonished by a Senate committee for verbal sparring in which Rivers called Benton a "piece of shit," and Benton responded by referring to Rivers as a "trashy trampy-mouthed little girl."

The same year, Benton, along with fellow GOP senator Pam Roach, requested his name be removed from the Republican caucus website.

While Benton said he would remain a member of the Republican caucus, he no longer wanted to be publicly associated with it due to the caucus's decision to bring a bill granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition at state colleges to a floor vote.

Benton served on the Transportation, Government Operations, Rules, and Financial Institutions committees.

He is a Washington state leader for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

In 2016, after Trump was elected, Benton was appointed as a senior White House advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency for a few weeks, but reportedly did not work well with newly appointed agency head Scott Pruitt.

Benton's position with Clark County was eliminated when the Department of Environmental Services was dissolved in July 2016.

After the implementation of the county charter, hiring and firing decisions for department heads were shifted to the executive county manager.

Benton filed a tort claim, a state requirement before filing suit against the county, in October 2016, seeking two million dollars from Clark County for wrongful termination.

Benton served as campaign director for Donald Trump in Washington state during the 2016 Presidential election.

Benton was initially the leader of the EPA "Beachhead" team, which oversaw the transition within the EPA from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration.

However, his approach to implementing the President's policies clashed with incoming EPA Director Scott Pruitt.

In April 2017, Benton was named by President Trump as the 13th Director of the Selective Service System.

He served in that position until the inauguration of President Biden.

Benton received an A.A. from College of the Canyons and a B.S. from Concordia University.

At age 19, he co-founded, with his sister, Santa Clarita Temporaries, a temporary employment agency.

He later was employed as a district manager for Farmers Insurance Group and worked as an advertising consultant in Southwest Washington.