United States Congressman

curt clawson

Congressman Curt Clawson has been coming to Southwest Florida since his family settled in Bonita Springs in 1993. After a successful career as a business leader and former college basketball player, Clawson moved to Southwest Florida in 2011. He soon became involved in local water issues.

Urged by local leaders and motivated by his family’s generations of service to their country, Clawson decided in 2014 to run in a special election to fill the vacated seat in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. Clawson won the election on messages of constitutional conservatism, growing the economy and unifying the Republican Party of Southwest Florida.

Clawson was sworn into office by House Speaker John Boehner on June 25, 2014, one day after winning the special election by nearly forty percentage points.

Born in Tacoma, Washington, Clawson attended Batesville High School in Batesville, Indiana – a hotbed of Indiana high school basketball. As a senior in high school, Clawson led the state of Indiana in scoring and was recruited by Purdue Head Basketball Coach Gene Keady, where he later helped his team win the 1984 Big Ten Championship. As a senior captain on that 1984 Team, Clawson is known for making the first 3-point basket in Purdue history and making two clutch free throws to clinch the Big Ten Championship.

After graduating from Purdue, Clawson served a year-long Ambassadorial Scholarship for Rotary International, enrolled in graduate MBA studies in Monterrey, Mexico, and took some time to play for the local university basketball team. Clawson began his working career in manufacturing in 1986, as a supervisor on a muffler production line in Columbus, Indiana for Arvin Industries – the world’s largest manufacturer of automotive exhaust systems.

In 1990, Clawson graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters of Business Administration degree, sponsored by Arvin. He returned to Arvin and held a variety of senior management level positions.

In 1995, Clawson joined AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) as President of the Filters and Spark Plugs Group, which manufactured Autolite® spark plugs and FRAM® filters. In 1999, he became President and Chief Operating Officer of American National Can – the world's largest manufacturer of beverage cans.

In 2001, Clawson joined Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc., a global leader in wheel rim manufacturing. He served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company from September 2001 until his retirement in February 2012. During his time at Hayes, Clawson successfully led the company out of the financial distress he inherited – without taking one penny of taxpayer money – saving thousands of jobs.

While at Hayes, Clawson established, and still principally funds, a shelter for homeless teen mothers on the east side of Detroit. He also stays active advising and mentoring young athletes in Southwest Florida.

Clawson’s parents, Jack and Cherie, are residents of Bonita Springs. When not in Washington, Curt enjoys spending time with them during the autumn of their lives. Together, they enjoy walking the beach, swimming in the Gulf, and watching beautiful sunsets. Read More

Press Releases

Clawson Stands Ground To End Root Cause of Border Crisis

Clawson Fights For and Delivers Vote to End DACA

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Washington, Aug 1 | David James (202-225-2536) | comments

Newly-elected Congressman Curt Clawson (FL-19) issued the following statement following this evening’s votes in the U.S. House of Representatives to resolve the humanitarian crisis on the southern border of the U.S.:

Clawson stated:

“The voters of Southwest Florida sent me to Washington to make the tough choices and, together with conservatives, we ensured a vote to end the root cause of the southern border crisis. While the initial border bill passed by the House tonight took a giant leap toward reinforcing our southern border, it needed to be strengthened to get to the root cause of the situation by freezing the President’s Executive Order known as DACA.

“After days of debate within my own party and multiple individual meetings with our Leadership, with intense pressure on conservatives to back down, we held our ground. In addition to the vote on the border bill, tonight the House also went on record to fix the loophole created by the President’s Executive Order and we prevailed. The House has now given to the Senate and the President the ability to end the border crisis immediately. Any delay in action by the Senate and the President will only further this crisis.

“As a nation we must take down the vacancy sign for illegal immigration and secure our borders. Once that happens we can have an honest debate on immigration reform.”

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