Hon. Chris Gibson

Former U.S. Representative of New York

Congressman Christopher Patrick “Chris” Gibson is a former officer in the United States Army and member of the Republican Party who served as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 19th congressional district from 2011 to 2017.

A lifelong resident of Kinderhook, New York, Gibson joined the United States Army in 1986 after graduating from Siena College.He served tours in the First Gulf War, Kosovo, and Iraq, rising to the rank of Colonel. He later taught American politics at West Point and was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has received four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, among other awards while in the military. He also holds a Ph.D in government from Cornell University. In 2008, he published his first book, Securing the State, which offered his overview on national security decision-making.

He retired from the Army in 2010 to run for Congress, and was re-elected in 2012 and 2014. Gibson made a name for himself focusing on local issues like expanding access to broadband and better treatment of Lyme disease. During his tenure in Congress, Gibson served on the Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Armed Services.  January 2015, Gibson, a supporter of term limits, announced that he would not seek re-election in 2016. Congressman Gibson has been a Visiting Professor in Leadership Studies at Williams College since February 2017.