Michael Huffington

Michael Huffington (born September 3, 1947) is an American politician, former Republican member of Congress from California, LGBTQ activist, and film producer. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995, representing California’s 22nd Congressional District, and has since been active in political advocacy, philanthropy, religious ecumenism, and independent film production. Huffington was married to Arianna Huffington, the Greek-born writer and co-founder of HuffPost, from 1986 to 1997, and they have two daughters.

Huffington was born in Dallas, Texas, to Celeste Phyllis (Gough) and Roy Michael Huffington, a geologist and entrepreneur who founded the natural gas exploration company Roy M. Huffington, Inc. (HUFFCO). His father made a substantial fortune through natural gas interests in Indonesia, and Huffington’s own wealth later derived both from his share of the family’s Houston-based oil, gas, and real estate firm—sold to Taiwanese interests in 1990—and from a merchant bank he founded. Raised in a Presbyterian household, he would later undergo a notable religious journey, becoming Episcopalian at age 38 and ultimately joining the Greek Orthodox Church during his marriage to Arianna Huffington.

Huffington’s formal education began at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1965. While at Culver, he rowed on the lightweight crew team and received the Central States Amateur Rowing Association Medal, and he was elected to the Culver chapter of the Cum Laude Society upon graduation. He went on to Stanford University, where he was active in campus life as a member of the varsity crew, a student senator, and co-president of his senior class. In 1970 he earned concurrently a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. He continued his studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, receiving a Master of Business Administration in finance in 1972.

Huffington’s interest in politics emerged early. In the summer of 1968, while still a student, he served as an intern in Washington, D.C., for freshman Congressman George H. W. Bush, an experience that introduced him to national politics and Republican Party leadership. Over the following years he pursued a business career, building his personal fortune through banking and energy investments. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed him Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, a senior post in the Department of Defense with responsibility for conventional arms control negotiations. For his service in that role, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Huffington entered elective politics in California in the early 1990s. In 1992 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 22nd District, encompassing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. He spent a then-record $5.4 million on the campaign, approximately 95 percent of it his own money. In the Republican primary he defeated veteran incumbent Representative Robert J. Lagomarsino, and in the general election he prevailed over Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gloria Ochoa. He took office on January 3, 1993, and served one term in Congress until January 3, 1995. During his tenure in the House of Representatives, Huffington participated in the legislative process as a member of the Republican Party and represented the interests of his Central Coast constituents during a period of significant political and economic change in the United States. Reflecting his interest in children’s welfare, he donated his entire congressional salary in 1993 to the Partnership for Children of Santa Barbara County and in 1994 to the Partnership for Children of San Luis Obispo County.

In 1994, rather than seek re-election to the House, Huffington mounted an ambitious campaign for the United States Senate seat held by Democrat Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein had won the seat in a 1992 special election following the appointment of John F. Seymour to fill the vacancy created when Pete Wilson became governor of California. In the Republican primary, Huffington defeated former Representative William E. Dannemeyer. He spent approximately $28 million on the race, at the time the most expensive non-presidential campaign in American history. In the general election he lost to Feinstein by a narrow margin of 1.9 percent of the vote. After this defeat, Huffington did not return to elective office but remained engaged in public policy and political advocacy.

Following his congressional service and Senate campaign, Huffington became active in California ballot initiatives and centrist Republican causes. In 1998 he served as co-chair, alongside actor and director Rob Reiner, of Proposition 10 in California, a measure that increased the state excise tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack. The hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue generated by Proposition 10 were dedicated to prenatal care and to the health care and education of children under six years of age. In the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, he endorsed Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, even as his former wife Arianna Huffington ran as an opposing candidate; she later withdrew from the race, though her name remained on the ballot. On June 29, 2006, he co-chaired the Log Cabin Republicans’ “The Courage To Lead: An Evening With The Governor” dinner honoring Governor Schwarzenegger, and personally contributed $1 for every $2 donated to the Log Cabin Republicans in connection with that event. Also in 2006, Huffington became a director of It’s My Party Too, a moderate Republican organization founded by former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman that advocated fiscal conservatism, social progressivism, environmental protection, and limited government interference in personal matters; in 2007 the group evolved into the Republican Leadership Council.

Huffington’s personal life and activism increasingly focused on LGBTQ issues from the late 1990s onward. He married Arianna Huffington on April 12, 1986, and the couple had two daughters before divorcing in 1997. In 1998 he publicly disclosed that he is bisexual, a declaration that helped shape his subsequent philanthropic and advocacy work. Later that year he provided the initial grant that launched Sexual Orientation Issues in the News (SOIN) at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, a program designed to improve media coverage and understanding of LGBTQ topics. In 2005 he helped establish a summer fellowship program for LGBTQ students at Stanford University. He was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in 2013 in support of same-sex marriage in the case Hollingsworth v. Perry, which concerned California’s Proposition 8. On October 11, 2009, he spoke at the National Equality March rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., underscoring his role as a prominent Republican voice for LGBTQ equality. In December 2006 he also became a blogger for The Huffington Post, the online news and opinion site co-founded by his former wife in 2005.

Religion and ecumenical dialogue have been another major focus of Huffington’s later life. Having been raised Presbyterian and later joining the Episcopal Church before converting to Greek Orthodoxy, he became a significant benefactor of efforts to promote understanding between Christian traditions. Between 2007 and 2021, he donated $3.5 million to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles to establish the Huffington Ecumenical Institute, dedicated to fostering dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Explaining his vision for the institute, he stated that his dream was to see members of the Catholic and Orthodox churches able to receive communion in each other’s churches. In 2021 he contributed an additional $2.5 million to Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, Massachusetts, to establish another Huffington Ecumenical Institute, furthering his commitment to Christian unity and theological exchange.

Parallel to his political and philanthropic endeavors, Huffington developed a substantial career in film and television production. From 1991 to 2000 he was co-owner of Crest Films Limited, through which he helped finance and produce a range of projects. He was a financial contributor to the documentary Out of the Past, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. He executive produced three short films at the University of Southern California—“The Promise” (1998), “Lost and Found” (1999), and “Nuclear Family” (2000)—and served as an executive producer of the 2000 television series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. He later executive produced the 2007 American Film Institute short Santa Croce, distributed worldwide through the iTunes Store and Shorts International. Also in 2007 he executive produced the documentaries For the Bible Tells Me So, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and A Jihad for Love, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, both of which explored religion and sexuality. He was executive producer of We’re All Angels, a 2007 documentary about gay Christian pop singers Jason and deMarco that premiered on Showtime on June 12, 2008, and of Bi the Way, a documentary on bisexuality in America that premiered at the 2008 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival. He executive produced American Primitive, which premiered at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival, and produced the comedy Father vs. Son, which premiered at WorldFest 2010 and received the Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best World Premiere – Feature Films. He also produced Dissolution, which premiered at the 2010 Jerusalem International Film Festival and won the Best Drama Award, and produced After the Fire, directed by Guido Verweyen and inspired by the Pulitzer Prize–winning story and New York Times bestseller After the Fire by Robin G. Fisher. Under his own banner, Huffington Pictures, he produced the 2013 feature film Geography Club, based on Brent Hartinger’s novel about gay and questioning teenagers, and later served as executive producer of Hold Me Down, a 2017 American drama short film depicting the struggles of a 19-year-old single mother in the Bronx.

Across his varied career in business, politics, activism, religion, and the arts, Michael Huffington’s one term in Congress from 1993 to 1995 formed part of a broader public life that has included high-profile electoral campaigns, substantial personal philanthropy, and sustained engagement with issues ranging from early childhood development and ecumenical dialogue to LGBTQ rights and representation in media.