Rod Jetton

Rod Jetton (born September 9, 1967) is an American politician, author, and businessman.

Jetton graduated from Charleston High School in 1986 and from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri in May 1990, with a double major in history and political science and was student body president his senior year.

After graduating, Jetton joined the United States Marine Corps and served as an Infantry Officer for four years.

He was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and was involved in the Bosnia and Somalia operations.

He was married to the former Cassandra (Cassie) James from 1988 until their divorce in October 2009.

He has three children, Callie, Elaine and Will.

After finishing his tour in 1995, Jetton received an honorable discharge.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Jetton started Jetton James Real Estate Company.

After college, Jetton joined Congressman Bill Emerson's campaign team as a field coordinator, and gained valuable experience in local grass roots politics.

In 1996, he was elected to the Bollinger County Commission.

He was the youngest County Commissioner in the state at that time During his time as County Commissioner, Jetton worked with other commissioners to eliminate the county's $350,000 debt within his first term.

The Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce gave him the "One Year VIP Business Achievement Award" in 1998 for his leadership and service to the community.

In 2000, Jetton was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives where he served until 2009, when term limits required that he leave the legislature.

In his second term, he was chosen Speaker pro Tempore of the Missouri House.

He was a Republican member of the Missouri House of Representatives who represented Missouri's 156th District from 2001 to 2009 and was Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009.

Jetton has authored four books about biblical teachings and how to recover from personal crisis.

Jetton is a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5900, the American Legion, Farm Bureau, National Rifle Association of America and National Federation of Independent Business.

In 2002, Jetton led political efforts for the minority Republican caucus.

He assisted in re-drawing House legislative districts and developing plans to recruit and train Republican candidates.

These efforts contributed to the Republicans picking up fourteen new seats and establishing a majority for the first time in 48 years.

As speaker, he proposed and passed rules changes giving the minority equal debate time and establishing other policies that more evenly distributed power between the House minority and majority.

These changes were opposed by some elements of his own party.

In Jetton's first term as speaker he launched Common Sense Conservative Consulting which advised some people who were seeking legislation in the state.

The Missouri State Ethics Commission said it was a legal but questionable practice.

On January 5, 2005, he was sworn in as the 70th Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.

He served on the Agriculture, Judicial, Banking, and Natural Resources committees.

In 2007, he unintentionally voted for a rider to repeal Missouri's law banning gay sex.

The rider was attached to a Jessica's Law bill.

Jetton said he did not know about the rider.

While Jetton acknowledged the ban was unenforceable because of the Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas ruling, he said, "Thanks to that deletion, it is now legal to engage in deviate sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex here in Missouri."

In response, Jetton removed state representative Scott A. Lipke of Jackson, Missouri, as chair of the Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety because he thought Lipke should have told lawmakers about the rider.

In 2007, Jetton proposed and passed one of Missouri's largest tax cuts.

The cut eliminated taxes on Social Security benefits.

Jetton told The Southeast Missourian newspaper in July 2011 that he had remarried and is working for civil engineering company in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

He also serves as a contributing blogger for a political website, The Recovering Politician, and has written several books.

In 2017, Jetton moved to Greece to pursue a Master of Arts degree at the University of Macedonia.

The master's program focused on the politics and economics of eastern and southeastern Europe with sections on the how refugees are impacting the European Union

Jetton is a member of the evangelical Christian group, Gideons International.

Jetton was born in De Soto, Missouri, to Bill and Judy Jetton.

His father is a Southern Baptist minister.