Don Benton

Don Benton
13th Director of the Selective Service System
In office
April 13, 2017 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byLawrence Romo
Adam J. Copp (acting)
Succeeded byCraig T. Brown (acting)
Member of the Washington Senate
from the 17th district
In office
December 14, 1996 – January 9, 2017[1]
Preceded byShirley Galloway
Succeeded byLynda Wilson
Member of the Washington House of Representatives
from the 17th district
In office
January 9, 1995 – December 14, 1996[1]
Preceded byHolly Myers
Succeeded byJim Dunn
Chair of the Washington Republican Party
In office
January 1, 2000 – March 14, 2001
Preceded byDale Foreman
Succeeded byChris Vance
Personal details
Born
Donald Mark Benton

(1957-04-08) April 8, 1957 (age 67)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Children4, including Brad
Residence(s)Olympia, Washington and Vancouver, Washington
Alma materConcordia University (BS)

Donald Mark Benton (born April 8, 1957)[2] is an American politician. Originally from Santa Clarita, California, he served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives from 1995 to 1996 and the Washington State Senate from 1996 to 2017, representing Washington's 17th legislative district.[3] He served as campaign director for Donald Trump in Washington. In 2016, after Trump was elected, Benton was appointed as a senior White House advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency for a few weeks, but reportedly did not work well with newly appointed agency head Scott Pruitt.[4] In April 2017, Benton was named by President Trump as the 13th Director of the Selective Service System.[5] He served in that position until the inauguration of President Biden.

  1. ^ a b "Members of the Legislature, 1889-2019" (PDF). State of Washington. 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  2. ^ "The Voter's Self Defense System". Vote Smart.
  3. ^ "The Voter's Self Defense System". Vote Smart. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2012.
  4. ^ Rein, Lisa and Juliet Eilperin (March 19, 2017). "White House installs political aides at Cabinet agencies to be Trump's eyes and ears". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  5. ^ Wilkie, Christina (April 14, 2017). "Trump Taps Salesman To Run Military Draft". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 15, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.