Mike Doyle

Michael F. Doyle Jr. (born August 5, 1953) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for PA's 18th congressional district, serving from 1995 to 2022.

He is a member of the Democratic Party.

His district was based in Pittsburgh and included most of Allegheny County.

He graduated from Swissvale Area High School in 1971, and then enrolled at Pennsylvania State University.

He worked in steel mills during his summers in college, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in community development in 1975.

A native of Swissvale and graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, Doyle previously served as a member of the Swissvale Borough Council (1977–1981) and an aide to Republican State Senator Frank Pecora (1979–1994).

After college, Doyle worked as executive director of Turtle Creek Valley Citizens Union (1977–1979) and was elected to the Swissvale Borough Council in 1977.

In 1979, he began work as chief of staff to Pennsylvania State Senator Frank Pecora.

Like Pecora, Doyle was once a Republican who later switched parties to become a Democrat.

In addition to his work for Pecora, he joined Eastgate Insurance Company as an insurance agent in 1982.

He was first elected to Congress in 1994.

Doyle announced that he would retire from Congress in 2022.

Doyle was born in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, to Michael F. and Rosemarie Fusco Doyle.

In 1994, Doyle was elected to Congress as a Democrat from the state's 18th district, which at the time was in Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs.

The incumbent Republican, Rick Santorum, was elected to the United States Senate.

Doyle won by almost 10 points, in one of the few bright spots in a bad year for Democrats.

He was reelected three times with no substantial opposition.

Doyle came under fire in the 2000s for living in the C Street Center, a home run by Republican Christian fundamentalists in D.C. Additionally, he traveled with the group, or The Fellowship, to the Middle East in April 2009.

The trip included travel to Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel on behalf of the Fellowship Foundation.

Doyle met with political and religious leaders to help spread the Fellowship's agenda.

In the early 2000s, he voted to prohibit "partial-birth/late term abortions".

Doyle has also voted for the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger.

In 2002, the Pennsylvania state legislature reconfigured Doyle's district, combining it with the Pittsburgh-based district of fellow Democrat William J. Coyne.

The new district was by far the most Democratic district in western Pennsylvania, and Doyle was completely unopposed in 2002 and 2004; in 2006 and 2008, his only opposition was Green Party candidate Titus North.

Doyle was challenged by Republican Melissa Haluszczak and Green Party Ed Bortz.

Doyle defeated Republican Hans Lessmann, 76%–23%.

Doyle's time with the Fellowship was mentioned in Jeff Sharlet's 2010 book C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. Sharlet documented trips and events made by Doyle and other politicians on the Fellowship's behalf.

Early in his career, Doyle opposed abortion, but he began to support abortion rights in the 2010s, receiving more favorable ratings from interest groups like NARAL while scoring a 0 with groups such as the National Right to Life Committee.

In the process, the state legislature redrew most of western Pennsylvania's heavily Democratic areas into just two districts—the reconfigured 14th district and the 12th district of John Murtha.

The potentially explosive situation of having two Democratic incumbents face each other in the primary was defused when Coyne announced his retirement (even though the district contained more of Coyne's former territory than Doyle's), leaving Doyle as the sole incumbent.

Doyle ran unopposed in 2014.

As of October 15, 2014, Doyle had raised $747,107 during the 2013–14 campaign cycle.

Doyle defeated Republican Lenny McAllister, 74%–25%.

Sharlet's books were the basis for the 2016 Netflix docuseries The Family.

Doyle voted against authorizing military force in Iraq and against the $87 billion emergency spending bill to fund U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Coalition on Autism Research and Education, also known as the Congressional Autism Caucus, and he offered an amendment that was included in the health reform law to ensure that insurance companies cover treatments for people with autism.

He has also introduced legislation to provide better services for adults with autism.

Doyle again ran unopposed in 2018 for his 13th term in office, in a redrawn 18th district.

Doyle won the Democratic nomination against a progressive challenger, Jerry Dickinson, a law professor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

In the general election, he defeated Republican Luke Negron.