Rep. Paul Gosar
Representative for Arizona’s 9th District
pronounced pawl // GOH-sahr
Gosar is the representative for Arizona’s 9th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2023. Gosar is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 65 years old.
He was previously the representative for Arizona’s 4th congressional district as a Republican from 2013 to 2022; and the representative for Arizona’s 1st congressional district as a Republican from 2011 to 2012.
![Photo of Rep. Paul Gosar [R-AZ9]](/static/legislator-photos/412397-200px.jpeg)
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his advisors and associates, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided by themselves rather than by voters. Their attempts to suppress state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and by using lies and fraudulent documents was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Gosar was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. Gosar was a part of a coordinated campaign by the Trump Administration to pressure the Vice President to exclude some Democratic states from the electoral count rather than follow the procedure set in law in which Congress may vote to exclude electors, and other extrajudicial strategies to suppress certified election results. Gosar perpetuated a debunked conspiracy theory on the House floor ahead of the final electoral count. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Gosar voted to omit Arizona and/or Pennsylvania from the counting of presidential electors, which could have altered the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor.
In 2023, Trump associates and top advisors pleaded guilty to submitting a fraudulent slate of electors to Congress from Georgia, making false statements about purported widespread fraud in the election, and tampering with voting machines after the election, admitted in civil court to posing as fake electors in Wisconsin, and were convicted of contempt of Congress for withholding documents during its investigation and assaulting police officers at the Capitol. Trump associates and top advisors are also facing charges for submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress (in Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona) and Trump himself faces criminal charges for soliciting the Vice President to subvert Congress’s certification of the election, coordinating the fraudulent slates of electors, and inciting the insurrection at the Capitol. The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups one member of which was convicted of sedition, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.
Misconduct
On Nov. 7, 2021, Rep. Gosar posted on his official social media accounts a video clip taken from the opening credits of an animated show called Attack on Titan. The clip was altered to add real people's faces to various characters. The result was a character with his face killing one with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's face and flying at one, armed with swords, with President Biden's face. On Nov. 17, Rep. Gosar was censured and removed from his committee assignments (one of which he shared with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez) by a vote of 223-207.
| Nov. 7, 2021 | Rep. Gosar posted the video clip. |
| Nov. 17, 2021 | House of Representatives censured Rep. Gosar and removed him from committee assignments |
Earmarks
Gosar did not request any earmarks for fiscal year 2024.
Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. More about FY2024 earmark requests from Demand Progress Education Fund »
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Gosar is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Gosar has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to May 17, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Paul Gosar sits on the following committees:
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House Committee on Natural Resources
- Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chair
Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittees - House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
Enacted Legislation
Gosar was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.J.Res. 7: Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020.
- H.R. 3314 (116th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1750 McCulloch Boulevard North in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, as the “Lake Havasu City Combat …
- H.R. 1268 (116th): Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act
- H.R. 755 (116th): Black Mountain Range and Bullhead City Land Exchange Act of 2019
- H.R. 756 (116th): Embry-Riddle Tri-City Land Exchange Completion Act of 2019
- H.R. 274 (116th): Cottonwood Land Exchange Act of 2019
- H.R. 304 (116th): La Paz County Land Conveyance Act
Does 12 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Gosar sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (21%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (16%) Immigration (15%) Crime and Law Enforcement (13%) International Affairs (10%) Emergency Management (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Gosar recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7365: VETS Safe Travel Act
- H.Res. 934: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that regular journalistic activities are …
- H.J.Res. 97: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, …
- H.R. 5635: Northern Arizona Protection Act
- H.R. 4615: National Emergency Expenditure Reporting Transparency Act
- H.J.Res. 74: Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on May 16, 2012.
- H.J.Res. 70: Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 25, 2011.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to May 2024, Gosar missed 502 of 8,241 roll call votes, which is 6.1%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
