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Darrell Issa
Photo: House Creative Services, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons20

Darrell Issa

American politician (born 1953)

Darrell Edward Issa ( ICE-ə; born November 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 48th congressional district. He represented the 50th congressional district from 2021 to 2023.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Nov 1, 1953.1

About

A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2019, representing two districts primarily covering North County in the San Diego area: first the 48th district for one term and then the 49th district for eight terms. From January 2011 to January 2015, he chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa was CEO of Directed Electronics, which he co-founded in 1982. It is one of the largest makers of automobile aftermarket security and convenience products in the United States.

On January 10, 2018, Issa announced that he would not seek reelection to the House. Democrat Mike Levin was elected on November 6, 2018, to become the district's next representative. On September 19, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Issa to be director of the United States Trade and Development Agency.

On September 26, 2019, Issa announced that he was running for California's 50th congressional district in the 2020 election. He placed second in the March top-two primary, advancing to face Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in the November general election. Issa defeated Campa-Najjar.

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • 1976Siena Heights University Bachelor of Arts3 4
  • Date not recordedKent State University3
  • Date not recordedCleveland Heights High School3
  • Date not recordedKent State University at Stark3

The second of six children, Issa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Martha (née Bielfelt) and William Issa, who sold trucks and ground valves. His father was the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, and a member of the Maronite Catholic faith. His mother is of German and Bohemian (Czech) descent and a Latter-day Saint.

During his childhood, the large family moved to a three-bedroom house in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Cleveland Heights. Many of Issa's friends were Jewish, and he reportedly worked for a rabbi at one point. He became very familiar with Jewish culture.

In 1970, on his 17th birthday, Issa dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army. He became an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician assigned to the 145th Ordnance Detachment. Trained to defuse bombs, Issa has said that his unit provided security for President Richard Nixon, sweeping stadiums for bombs before games in the 1971 World Series. A May 1998 investigation by Lance Williams of the San Francisco Examiner found that Nixon had not attended any 1971 World Series games, but that Issa's unit did perform security sweeps during the series. First Lady Pat Nixon was present at Game 2 of the series, where she threw the first pitch. After the series, Issa was transferred to a supply depot, a result of receiving poor ratings.

Issa received a hardship discharge from the Army in 1972 after his father suffered a heart attack. After that, he earned a General Educational Development (GED) certificate.

Twice that year, Issa was arrested. In the first incident, a grand jury indicted him for theft of a Maserati, in a complex scheme with his brother William, but prosecutors dropped the charge. In the second incident, he was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and a police officer noticed a firearm in his car's glove compartment; Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm and was sentenced to six months' probation and a small fine. Issa has said he believes the record has since been expunged.

Issa majored in business administration at Siena Heights University, a small Roman Catholic college in Adrian, Michigan, completing his degree at the Stark campus of Kent State University. While at Kent State, he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps; at graduation he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

Issa served in the Army Reserve from 1976 to 1980, and was promoted to captain. From September 9 to 26, 1980, Issa served on active duty while training with the 1/77th Armor Battalion as an Assistant S-1. His evaluation report, by then-Lt. Col. Wesley Clark, read, "This officer's performance far exceeded that of any other reserve officer who has worked in the battalion" and "Promote ahead of contemporaries. Unlimited potential."

Shortly before his discharge from the Army in 1980, Issa was again indicted for grand theft auto. The prosecution dropped the case in August 1980. In 1981, Issa was in a car crash. The other motorist sued him for $20,000; they eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson, entrepreneur, politician.9

  • Since 2021United States representative7
  • 2017 to 2019United States representative7 8
  • 2015 to 2017United States representative7 8
  • 2013 to 2015United States representative7 8
  • 2011 to 2013United States representative7 8
  • 2009 to 2011United States representative7 8
  • 2007 to 2009United States representative7 8
  • 2005 to 2007United States representative7 8
  • 2003 to 2005United States representative7 8
  • 2001 to 2003United States representative7 8
  • Date not recordedFounded OpenGov Foundation5
  • Date not recordedFounded Directed Electronics6

Quantum Enterprises and Steal Stopper

After leaving the military, Issa and his second wife, Kathy Stanton, returned to the Cleveland area. According to Issa, he and his wife pooled their savings, sold their cars (a 1976 Mercedes and a 1967 VW Beetle) and a BMW motorcycle, and borrowed $50,000 from family members to invest in Quantum Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer run by a friend from Cleveland Heights. It assembled bug zappers, CB radio parts, and other consumer products for other companies. One of those clients, car alarm manufacturer Steal Stopper, became the path to Issa's fortune. It was struggling badly, and he took control of it by foreclosing a $60,000 loan he had made to it when its founder, Joey Adkins, missed a payment. Adkins remained as an employee.

Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying Ford with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with Toyota. Early in the morning of September 7, 1982, Quantum and Steal Stopper's offices and factory in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out. The buildings and almost all the inventory within were destroyed. An investigation of the fire noted "suspicious burn patterns" with fires starting in two places aided by an accelerant such as gasoline.

Adkins said Issa had appeared to prepare for a fire by increasing the fire insurance policy by 462% three weeks earlier, and by removing computer equipment containing accounting and customer information. St. Paul Insurance, suspicious of arson and insurance fraud, initially paid only $25,000, according to Issa.

Read more

Directed Electronics

Steal Stopper soon returned a profit again. As car theft rose in the U.S. during the 1980s, so did the demand for security devices. Rolls-Royce, BMW, and General Motors joined Ford, and Toyota as customers of Steal Stopper. In 1985, Issa sold the company to a California-based maker of home alarms, and moved to the San Diego suburb of Vista, to work for the company.

Shortly afterward, Issa left to start Directed Electronics, Inc. (DEI). He has continued to live in Vista. Issa used his knowledge of the weaknesses in automotive security to develop effective theft deterrents. Using sensors that, when armed, would detect motion and pressure on the car's body, his device made loud noise to draw attention to a would-be car thief, such as the car's horn honking or a speaker playing a recording with Issa's voice saying: "Protected by Viper. Stand back" and "Please step away from the car", warnings for DEI's signature product, the Viper car alarm. Sales grew from $1 million in the company's first year to $14 million by 1989.

Greene Properties

Issa is partner in 17 limited partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs) that own commercial properties across North San Diego County. He is CEO of Greene Properties, Inc., a privately held real estate investment company with commercial real estate holdings in San Diego North County. Headquartered in Vista, it manages three commercial office buildings in Carlsbad with a total of 26,354 square feet.

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornNov 1, 1953, Cleveland10
  • CitizenshipUnited States11

Health care

Issa favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and voted in support of the budget resolution to repeal it in January 2017.

On May 4, 2017, Issa voted to repeal Obamacare and pass the American Health Care Act of 2017.

An organization called Save My Care spent $500,000 to release a series of attack ads against 24 House members who voted for the AHCA, including one about Issa.

Read more

In the 1970s, Issa married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia Enyart. They eventually divorced. After he left the military, Issa married Kathy Stanton. The two met while neighbors, when Stanton locked her keys inside her apartment and Issa climbed up the balcony to get into her apartment. They were married in 1980 and had one son. In July 2018, he filed for divorce from Kathy, and their divorce became final in March 2021.

With a net worth of approximately $460 million, Issa was the wealthiest serving member of Congress as of 2023.

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politics

Early political career

Activism

Active in consumer-electronics trade organizations, Issa became more directly involved in politics. He went to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress and later became one of California's biggest individual campaign contributors to Republican candidates. In 1996, he chaired the successful campaign to pass California Proposition 209, a ballot initiative that prohibited Californian public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in public employment, public contracting, or public education. He was instrumental in persuading the national Republican Party to hold its 1996 convention in San Diego.

1998 U.S. Senate election

Issa's first campaign for elected office was in 1998, when he sought the Republican nomination for United States Senate to face incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. He spent $10 million of his own money in the primary, running against California State Treasurer Matt Fong, Congressman Frank Riggs, and three others. Fong's campaign raised $3 million from contributions and complained that Issa's wealth made for an uneven playing field (Issa received only $400,000 in contributions from others). An Issa spokesman countered that the money was needed to compensate for Fong's statewide name recognition. Issa lost to Fong, 45% to 40%; Riggs got 10% of the vote. A San Francisco exit poll suggested large numbers of Asian Americans, who typically vote in the Democratic primary, had crossed party lines to strategically vote for Fong.

Political positions

Abortion

As of 2026, Issa has an A+ "Pro-Life Scorecard" from the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America for voting against abortion in his 2021–2026 tenure (it does not list his votes in 2001–2019). He supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling the day the decision was made a "great day for the cause and principle of life."

Read more

2003 California gubernatorial recall election

Issa came to national prominence in 2003 when he contributed more than $1.6 million to help fund a signature-gathering drive for the petition to recall California Governor Gray Davis. At the time he made the contribution, it was widely believed that Issa intended to run to replace Davis. But after fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the race two days before the filing deadline, Issa announced that he would not run. He later said his mission had been accomplished with Davis's recall and that he wanted to continue to represent his district in Congress and work toward Middle East peace. At one point in the campaign he suggested people should vote against recalling Davis unless one of the two leading Republican contenders dropped out, concerned that Schwarzenegger and fellow Republican Tom McClintock would split votes, resulting in Democratic lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante's election. Issa endorsed Schwarzenegger, who won the governorship when Davis was recalled.

Donald Trump

Issa attracted attention for his close relationship with and strong support for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. He endorsed Trump in March 2016. When the Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape surfaced, Issa condemned Trump's remarks but did not rescind his endorsement.

In early February 2017, Issa expressed his support for a special prosecutor to look into Trump's ties to Russia. On February 27, he walked back his previous comments. Issa supported Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, saying "Comey had lost my confidence long ago."

Issa said he believed Russia meddled with the 2016 election, but he supported Trump's firing of Comey (who was leading the investigation into the meddling) and that said the U.S. should focus on other issues.

On January 7, 2021, after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Issa voted to reject the certification of Pennsylvania's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. He voted against impeaching Trump on an article of impeachment for "incitement of insurrection" in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol. In May 2021, Issa voted against the creation of an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack.

Environment

Before the 2010 election, Issa pledged that, if elected, he would probe "Climategate", which refers to the hacked Climatic Research Unit emails that climate change denialists falsely asserted showed scientific misconduct and fraud by climate scientists. He called Obama's unwillingness to investigate Climategate "unconscionable" and an abdication of responsibility.

Foreign and defense policy

In 2001, Issa voted for the authorization of the PATRIOT Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. He voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act in 2005 after successfully amending it to require judicial notification, reporting requirements, and facts justifying the use of roving surveillance at new facilities or places.

Issa is one of several Lebanese Americans in Congress. He had a significant role in U.S. peace initiatives in the Middle East. He traveled to Lebanon and Syria in an effort to negotiate the end of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. In 2003, he appeared at a Washington rally by Iranian groups protesting against the Islamist government in Iran.

In March 2015, Issa supported the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war, saying, "We must make it clear that we will support our allies and punish our enemies through steadfast resolve and decisive action."

In June 2021, Issa was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (AUMF) against Iraq.

Israel

In 2023, he voted for a resolution stating support for Israel in the Gaza war launched by Hamas.

LGBT rights

On July 19, 2022, Issa and 46 other Republican Representatives voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to same-sex marriage in federal law.

Science

Issa supports embryonic stem cell research and has voted to allow it.

He co-sponsored both the 2008 and 2009 versions of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act and sponsored the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699) introduced in 2011, all of which aim at a reversal of the NIH's Public Access Policy, which mandates open access to NIH-funded research.

Tax reform

Issa voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He was one of two California Republicans to vote against the bill, alongside Dana Rohrabacher. Issa expressed concern that "many" of his constituents would face increased taxes under the proposal and that "Californians have entrusted me to fight for them. I will not make the incredible tax burden they already endure even worse."

Technology

Issa opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act because of the amount of discretion it would give the Department of Justice. In September 2026, Issa introduced legislation to require internet service providers, domain name resolution services, and virtual private networks to block piracy websites.

From Wikipedia’s article on Darrell Issa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2008Order of the Golden Heart12

Sources

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