Mike Rounds : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Carrer

Marion Michael Rounds is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior us Senator from South Dakota since 2015. A member of the Republican Party , he served because the 31st governor of South Dakota from 2003 to 2011, and within the South Dakota Senate from 1991 to 2001. In 2014, Rounds was elected to the us Senate, succeeding retiring Democrat Tim Johnson. He was reelected in 2020 over Democratic nominee Dan Ahlers.

Rounds attended South Dakota State University in Brookings, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in politics.

Rounds may be a former partner in Fischer Rounds & Associates, an insurance and land firm with offices in Pierre, Rapid City , Mitchell, Watertown and Sioux Falls.

Rounds may be a member of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church of Pierre. hes also a member of various service clubs and community organizations, including Elks, Exchange Club, Knights of Columbus and Ducks Unlimited.

In May 2011, Roundss school, South Dakota State University, gave him an honorary doctorate for public service.

Mike Rounds Net Worth

Mike Rounds Net Worth is $ 6 Million in 2021.

Mike Rounds Family

The eldest of 11 children, Rounds was born in Huron, South Dakota, the son of Joyce and Don Rounds. He has German, Belgian, Swedish and English ancestry. Rounds has lived within the capital of Pierre since he was three years old. He was named for an uncle, Marion Rounds, who was killed within the Pacific theater during war II. Several members of the Rounds family are involved in government . His father worked at various times as state director of highway safety, a staffer for Rural Electrification Administration, and executive of the South Dakota Petroleum Council. His brother Tim Rounds may be a member of the South Dakota Legislature, representing District 24, which incorporates Pierre.

Mike Rounds Wife and Children

While attending South Dakota State University, Rounds met his wife, Jean, formerly of Lake Preston, South Dakota. They were married in 1978 and have four children.

Mike Rounds Career and Achievement

South Dakota Senate

Elections

Rounds represented District 24, which was based in Pierre. In 1990, he defeated incumbent senator Jacqueline Kelley, 53%–47%. He was reelected in 1992 (60%), 1994 (77%), 1996 (66%), and 1998 (75%). Rounds had to go away the Senate in 2000 due to legislative term limits South Dakota voters had passed in 1992.

Tenure

Rounds represented Hughes, Lyman, Stanley, and Sully counties. In 1993, he became Senate Minority Whip. In 1995, his peers selected him to be Senate legislator.

Governor of South Dakota

Elections

2002

As the 2002 race for governor took shape, media and political observers largely dismissed Rounds as an extreme long shot. Until late 2001, then-Congressman John Thune was the front-runner for the nomination. When Thune passed on the race to challenge Senator Tim Johnson, states attorney General Mark Barnett and former elected official Steve T. Kirby quickly became candidates.

But the competition between Kirby and Barnett soon became very negative and dirty. Barnett attacked Kirby for not investing in companies based in South Dakota and for his involvement with Collagenesis, a corporation which removed skin from donated human cadavers and processed them to be used . It became the topic of a scandal when it had been revealed that the corporate was using the skins for far more lucrative face lift like lip and penis enhancements while burn victims "lie waiting in hospitals as nurses scour the country for skin to hide their wounds, albeit skin is in plentiful supply for plastic surgeons". Kirby invested within the company after the scandal broke and Barnett attacked him for it in television advertisements, but the advertisements backfired because "the claims were so outlandish that folks thought needless to say that they were exaggerated or completely fabricated."

After winning the Republican nomination, Rounds chose senator Dennis Daugaard of Dell Rapids as his campaigner . Their Democratic opponents were University of South Dakota President Jim Abbott of Vermillion and his campaigner, former State Representative Mike Wilson of Rapid City.

2006

Two Democratic candidates emerged to challenge Rounds: Jack Billion, a retired surgeon and former state legislator from Sioux Falls , and Dennis Wiese, the previous president of the South Dakota Farmers Union. Billion easily won the nomination and selected Rapid City board of education member Eric Abrahamson as his campaigner.

Tenure

Rounds served as a member of the Governors Council at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He was the 2008 Chair of the Midwestern Governors Association.

Issues

Research Centers

Roundss 2010 Initiative established ten research centers at state-supported universities. within the programs first four years, the states first five research centers generated an estimated $59 million in federal and personal funding, with an estimated $110 million economic impact.

Abortion

On Washingtons Birthday, 2006, the state legislature of South Dakota passed an act banning all medical abortions except those necessary to save lots of the mothers life. Rounds signed the act on March 6 and therefore the ban was to possess taken effect on Dominion Day , 2006, but didnt , due to a court challenge. A referendum on repealing H.B. 1215 was placed on the ballot for the November 2006 statewide election thanks to a petition. On May 30, over 38,000 signatures were filed, quite twice the 17,000 required to qualify. Voters repealed the law on November 7, 2006, the day of Roundss reelection.

EB-5 Visa Inquiry

During Roundss administration, South Dakota offered green cards to foreign investors in exchange for investments during a new South Dakota beef packinghouse and other economic investments through the EB-5 visa program the federal established in 1990. After the meat packinghouse went bankrupt, questions emerged about the character of the investments and therefore the foreign investors. Some investors received neither their EB-5 visas nor the cash back from their failed investments, with no indication on where their money went.

State officials misused funds to buy their salaries, didnt disclose that they owned companies which they gave contracts to, directed money to companies that went bankrupt and arranged for loans from unknown sources from shell companies located in tax havens. In October 2014, Rounds admitted that he had approved a $1 million state loan to beef packinghouse Northern Beef shortly after learning that Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda had agreed to hitch the corporate , with Benda then getting another $600,000 in state loans that was ultimately wont to pay his own salary. Benda committed suicide in October 2013, days before a possible indictment over embezzlement and grand larceny charges.

3D-Printed Weapons

Of 3D-printed weapons, Rounds has said, “This may be a new technology which you’re not getting to replace into the bottle. its there.” He has suggested creating and using new technologies, like metal detectors which will also recognize plastic, in schools, airports and other public places.

U.S. Senate

Election

2014

Speculation persisted that in 2008 Rounds would seek the us Senate seat held by Tim Johnson, a Democrat who had served since 1997. Johnson opted to not run reelection.

On November 29, 2012, Rounds launched a campaign for the seat being vacated by Johnsons retirement. He won the June 2014 Republican primary, defeating four other candidates. Early polls showed Rounds leading by a 2–1 margin against Democratic opponent Rick Weiland. October 2014 polls showed a better three-way race between Rounds, Weiland, and independent former Senator Larry Pressler. Independent conservative former state legislator Gordon Howie was also within the race.

2020

In the 2020 election, Rounds defeated Scyller Borglum to win the Republican nomination. He won the overall election over Democrat Dan Ahlers with nearly 66% of the vote.

Tenure

Education

In February 2019, Rounds was one among 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to their employees student loans as a way of granting them relief and incentivizing people to use for jobs with employers who implement the policy.

Environment

In 2017, Rounds was one among 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the us from the Paris Agreement. consistent with the middle for Responsive Politics, Rounds has received over $200,000 from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012. Rounds supported embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who had come under scrutiny due to extraordinary expenditures for private security and luxury travel, and therefore the appearances of ethical conflicts, defending him on Meet the Press. Calling the criticism "nitpicking," he said, “I don’t skills much of its overblown and the way much of its accurate, to be honest.”

Criminal Justice

Rounds opposed the primary STEP Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump signed into law. The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018.

Israel Anti-Boycott Act

In March 2018, Rounds co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (s. 720), which might make it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements within the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

Health Care

Rounds opposes the Affordable Care Act, and has voted to repeal it. In 2019, he said he supported lawsuits seeking to overturn it.

2021 Storming of the US Capitol

On May 28, 2021, Rounds abstained from voting on the creation of an independent commission to research the Epiphany insurrection.