Sam Clovis

Samuel Harvey Clovis Jr. (born September 18, 1949) is a former United States Air Force officer, talk radio host, and political figure.

Clovis is currently retired in Iowa.

He was a fighter pilot and instructor and served in The Pentagon, the Middle East, and as commander of the 70th Fighter Squadron.

He rose to the rank of colonel and retired as the Inspector General of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Space Command.

Clovis served in the Air Force for 25 years (1971–96).

Clovis received an MBA from Golden Gate University in 1984, and attended the national security program at Georgetown University.

After retiring from the Air Force, Clovis worked for BETAC (1996–97) and Northrop Grumman (1997–2000).

In 2000, he moved to Iowa and worked at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, until 2003.

In 2003 he worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for a year; from 2004 to 2010 he worked for the Homeland Security Institute, now the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute.

In 2005 he began working at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, as a professor, teaching classes on business, management and public policy.

He earned a doctorate in public administration (D.P.A.) from the University of Alabama in 2006.

His dissertation concerned federalism and homeland security preparation.

In January 2010, Clovis started hosting his own radio talk show Impact With Sam Clovis on Sioux City, Iowa station KSCJ.

About the same time, he became active in the Republican Party and served as a delegate to the state convention in 2010.

In 2012, he supported and campaigned with Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses.

He was chairman of the 4th District Republican convention as well as an alternate delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention.

In the fall of 2013, Clovis took a sabbatical from his professorship at Morningside College to pursue a political career.

Clovis unsuccessfully ran for Iowa state treasurer in the 2014 elections.

He was a candidate in the Republican primary for the Senate in Iowa, finishing second to Joni Ernst, with 19 percent of the vote, on June 3, 2014.

Later in June, at the Iowa GOP state convention, Clovis was selected as the Republican candidate for the Iowa state treasurer, running against Democratic incumbent Michael Fitzgerald.

Clovis then hired Matthew Whitaker, also an unsuccessful Republican Senate primary candidate, to chair his campaign for state treasurer.

In November, Clovis lost to Fitzgerald, 53% to 44%.

On June 4, 2015, The Washington Post reported that Rick Perry, shortly after launching his presidential campaign, hired Clovis to chair his campaign in Iowa.

On August 24, 2015, nearly three months later, The Washington Post reported that Clovis resigned from the campaign, in part, over the campaign's failure to pay his salary.

Clovis endorsed Donald Trump the next day, August 25, with an introduction at a rally held in Dubuque, Iowa.

Clovis joined the campaign as a national co-chair and policy advisor.

During this time, Clovis went on unpaid leave from Morningside College, before leaving permanently in late 2015.

Clovis became national cochairman of Trump's campaign team and served as a frequent spokesperson on cable news.

He was national co-chair of Donald Trump's campaign in the 2016 presidential election.

In January 2017, Trump appointed Clovis a senior White House adviser to the USDA.

In July 2017, Trump nominated Clovis as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics in the United States Department of Agriculture.

On November 2, 2017, Clovis withdrew from consideration for the appointment following news of his involvement in the 2017 Special Counsel investigation.

After Trump took office in January 2017, he appointed Clovis as senior White House adviser to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In July 2017, Trump nominated Clovis to the post of Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics, the USDA's top science post.

The nomination attracted attention because this post is traditionally filled by a scientist, and Clovis has no scientific background.

A statute requires that nominees for the position be chosen from among "distinguished scientists with specialized training or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics."

He resigned from the USDA effective May 4, 2018.

Clovis was born in Salina, Kansas, and grew up in Medora, Kansas.

As a high school senior, he was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy and the United States Air Force Academy.

He graduated from Buhler High School and went on to attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science.