Yoder lands at lobbying firm that represents T-Mobile, owned by Dan Quayle’s son
Former Rep. Kevin Yoder has landed at a Washington-based lobbying firm co-owned by former Vice President Dan Quayle’s son.
Yoder, R-Kansas, represented Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District for eight years before losing his seat to Rep. Sharice Davids by double digits amid a wave of suburban voter anger against President Donald Trump.
He will now serve as a partner in HHQ Ventures, a lobbying and consulting firm co-founded in 2015 by former Rep. Ben Quayle, an Arizona Republican and the son of the former Vice President Dan Quayle, who also serves as a strategic advisor for the firm.
“I looked at a lot of options and the opportunity to pour my heart and soul into helping this business grow was very attractive,” Yoder said in a news release. “We are a nimble, energetic, highly-experienced group. No other firm is better positioned to offer expert counsel on critical issues affecting public policy, markets, and business growth.”
The firm has been registered since 2016 to lobby on behalf of T-Mobile, which is in the process of a proposed merger with Sprint, a company based in Yoder’s district.
The proposed merger could mean the loss of up to 28,000 jobs nationwide, including thousands in Kansas, according to the Communications Workers of America. It is being reviewed by Federal Communications Commission, a process which has been slowed by the partial government shutdown.
Yoder could not immediately be reached by phone to discuss the firm’s representation of T-Mobile.
Quayle was one of the freshman lawmakers who joined Yoder in swimming in the Sea of Galilee during a 2012 trip to Israel. Yoder had to apologize after his decision to swim in the nude caused international uproar.
Before losing his U.S. House race, Yoder chaired the subcommittee that oversees the Homeland Security budget. It put him at the center of the border wall standoff that resulted in the shutdown after a compromise could not be reached on the Homeland Security budget.
Several other former Kansas representatives have also launched lobbying careers in recent years, including former Reps. Lynn Jenkins and Todd Tiahrt.
Yoder will be barred from working directly as a lobbyist for one year under federal lobbying rules, but he is already listed as a partner in the firm on its website.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a group which advocates for stronger ethics rules, said that Yoder will still be allowed to participate in strategy sessions and decide what members of Congress should be called on an issue during his one-year prohibition.
This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 4:33 PM.
