Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D.

Tim Huelskamp is the president and CEO of The Heartland Institute.

Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D., began his service as president of The Heartland Institute in July 2017 and was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2018. He succeeded Heartland’s cofounder and long-time president Joseph Bast as Heartland CEO in January 2018. Bast, who is entering retirement, will continue to serve the organizaion as a director and senior fellow.

From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Huelskamp served three terms in Congress representing the 1^st District in Kansas. He advocated on behalf of conservative, free-market solutions in a wide range of policy arenas and served on numerous committees, most notably the Veterans Affairs Committee and Budget Committee. On the Veterans Affairs Committee, he was a leader in exposing the corruption and failures at the VA and pushing through a historic health care choice option for veterans.

Dr. Huelskamp left his conservative imprints on many other policies: SNAP work requirements, Farm Bill entitlements, the EX-IM Bank, and the Cut-Cap-and-Balance legislation in 2011. He helped grow the House Freedom and Liberty Caucuses, chaired and expanded the Tea Party Caucus, fought the Waters of the U.S. Rule, worked on budgets in the Republican Study Committee, and co-founded Conversations with Conservatives, a monthly House conservative press availability.

From 1997 to 2011, Dr. Huelskamp served as a state senator representing the 38^th district of Kansas. During that time he was a conservative leader on education reform and finance, Medicaid reform, tax cuts and fighting crony capitalism, defending marriage and family, downsizing government, fighting judicial tyranny, and spending transparency.

While serving in the Kansas Senate, Dr. Huelskamp chaired or co-chaired three committees: Elections and Local Government, Information Technology, and Medicaid Reform. He co-founded and led both a bicameral conservative caucus and a coalition of statewide conservative groups to coordinate legislative efforts.

Prior to serving in Congress, Huelskamp was a fifth-generation family farmer in Kansas, where he farmed with his family for more than 30 years. He left Kansas only long enough to earn a BA summa cum laude from the College of Santa Fe and a Ph.D. in political science from American University in Washington, DC. Dr. Huelskamp and his wife Angela are proud parents of four children.

Video

Watch Heartland's new video series, Two Minutes with Tim, on YouTube.

Watch Huelskamp grill then-Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson at a House hearing in 2014 below. More videos of him in action while a member of Congress can be viewed at Huelskamp’s YouTube page.