Vern Buchanan

Buchanan grew up in Inkster, Michigan, a small town outside Detroit, the son of a factory foreman in a family of six children. His maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Finland. When he graduated from high school in 1969, he joined the Michigan Air National Guard, serving there for six years. Buchanan got a bachelor's degree in business administration from Cleary University and a master's in business administration from the University of Detroit.

Buchanan’s estimated net worth is $261.77 million. In his June 2007 financial disclosure filing, Buchanan reported over $100 million in assets, making him among the five wealthiest members of Congress. Most of his wealth is from his automotive empire, which includes several dealerships in Florida. He also reported ownership interests in about 50 other businesses, including offshore reinsurance companies and a charter-jet business. He reported receiving at least $19.5 million in income from these businesses in 2006.

In May 1976, Buchanan convinced the owner of a Michigan printing company, Jim McDonald, that he could help the business grow. The two founded American Speedy Printing, which grew through franchising to more than 730 stores in 44 states. Later, Buchanan and American Speedy Printing were defendants in a string of lawsuits during the late 1980s and early 1990s by franchisees and master franchisees, who said they were not making the money that Buchanan had said they could expect. After filing for bankruptcy, he was accused by a creditors' committee of taking excessive compensation and actions that resulted in overstated earnings for American Speedy Printing. In a 1995 deposition, he said that he had no personal obligation to repay a large corporate loan from Merrill Lynch. A dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over taxes on the money Buchanan received from Merrill Lynch stretched through the 1990s. Buchanan, his business partner, and Merrill Lynch were sued for violating the Michigan Corporation Act. It ended with Buchanan paying $1.5 million.

In 1992, Buchanan bought a Honda and Acura dealership in Ocala, Florida. In late 1999, he bought two more dealerships. He continued to acquire dealerships after that, but in 2006 he sold five dealerships and other businesses in order to concentrate on politics. His dealerships had $756 million in sales in 2005.

Buchanan owns two reinsurance companies—Jamat Reinsurance Co. and Buchanan Reinsurance Co., in Turks and Caicos, and part of the Bermuda reinsurance company Greater Atlantic Insurance Co. The three companies offer extended warranty policies to car buyers. Buchanan invests some of the proceeds from his reinsurance companies in real estate developments in the Bahamas.

In 1999, Buchanan was approached to help to finance the Ritz-Carlton condo-hotel development in Sarasota. …

Buchanan ran in the 13th congressional district in Florida to replace incumbent Republican Katherine Harris, who was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Buchanan won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote, against four opponents. His closest challengers were Nancy C. Detert, with 25% of the vote, and Tramm Hudson, with 24%.

In the November general election, Buchanan faced Democrat Christine Jennings, a banking executive. There were 216,000 registered Republicans and about 155,000 registered Democrats in the district, but Jennings polled ahead of Buchanan up to election day. Buchanan put more than $5 million of his own money into his campaign.

In October, Vice President Dick Cheney held a fund-raising luncheon for Buchanan; later that month, President George W. Bush held a fund-raising reception for him. Between the two events, Governor Jeb Bush, Senator Mel Martinez, and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney came to the district to campaign for Buchanan.

Initial results of the November election showed Buchanan leading by less than 350 votes. Due to the closeness of the race, and a high undervote of 18,000 in Sarasota County, a recount was ordered. Sarasota County voters had given more votes to a hospital board than they had to their Congressional representative—with 13% of voters not voting, compared to an average of 2% in neighboring counties. The touch-screen voting machines used provided no paper record. On November 20, 2006, the Florida Department of State certified the results of the recount, which showed Buchanan winning by 369 votes.

Jennings challenged the results of the election in court, citing "pervasive malfunctioning of electronic voting machines." In December 2006, a Florida circuit judge ruled that her claim that voting machines in Sarasota County lost up to 18,000 votes was "conjecture" and didn't warrant overriding the trade secrets of the voting machine company. In June 2007, a Florida state appellate court ruled that Jennings did not meet the "extraordinary burden" of proving the lower court judge was wrong. Another suit, filed by voters represented by Voter Action, People For the American Way Foundation, the ACLU of Florida, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation was also dismissed.

The U.S. …

In July 2012, the House Ethics Committee cleared Buchanan of charges that he violated House rules by misleading Congress in his financial disclosure forms. After the issue was raised, Buchanan submitted revised forms. The committee "found no evidence that the errors were knowing or willful and unanimously determined that the errors were not substantively different from the hundreds or thousands of errors corrected by amendment at the requirement of the Committee every year."

In 2008, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint alleging "straw donors" to Buchanan's campaign (campaign contributions from Buchanan's employees for which they were then reimbursed); in 2011, CREW requested a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. (The group also named Buchanan to its annual "most corrupt members of Congress" list in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012).

By 2012, Buchanan was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, the FEC, the Justice Department, and the Office of Congressional Ethics over two separate allegations of campaign finance misconduct: that he had violated federal law and House rules by coercing a former business partner to sign a false affidavit to the FEC, and that he had illegally reimbursed car-dealership employees for campaign contributions. The latter allegation was also raised in a legal dispute with Sam Kazran, Buchanan's former business partner, who alleged that Buchanan engaged in a "cash swap scheme" in which employees were directed to write checks to Buchanan's campaign fund, then reimbursed by the company.

In 2012, the Justice Department ended its 11-month investigation with no criminal charges. The FEC also ended its investigation by 2012. Kazran agreed to pay $5,500 in fines "for improperly funneling money to Buchanan's campaign committee", and in May 2013 three men and two Tampa companies were fined a total of $16,000 by the FEC for illegal campaign contributions to Buchanan. …

Buchanan lives in Longboat Key, Florida, with his wife, Sandy, whom he met in college. The Buchanans have two sons. His son James was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2018. Buchanan is a Baptist.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave Buchanan its Spirit of Enterprise award in 2009. Buchanan is a former board member of the chamber, which endorsed him in his 2006 and 2008 campaigns for the 13th Congressional District seat.

Also in 2009, the Veterans of Foreign Wars gave Buchanan their Legislative Achievement Award for his work on legislation improving the quality of life of active and reserve service members, military retirees, veterans and their families.

On July 19, 2021, Buchanan announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, becoming the first member of Congress to do so. He began quarantining at home and urged Americans to remain vigilant despite the vaccines' efficacy.

With a net worth of $157.2 million, Buchanan is the 6th-wealthiest member of Congress.

Buchanan voted against the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 which expanded VA benefits to veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during their military service.