Sharing common values and a love for their country, Pres. Ronald Reagan and Sen. Hatch were fast friends.

Life in the Senate: 

In 1976, Orrin Hatch ignored a mountain of conventional wisdom when he decided to run against Sen. Frank Moss – a powerful incumbent Democrat in a time when Utah was a very blue state. The novice Republican underdog campaigned tirelessly across Utah, won an endorsement from then California Gov. Ronald Reagan, and eventually beat Moss with 54 percent of the vote.

As a statesman, Hatch is perhaps best known for his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, a position in which he served from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2003 to 2005. Still the senior Republican on the committee, Hatch has participated in the confirmation hearings of eight of the nine current Supreme Court justices and countless federal judges.

Hatch has also been chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee (now called the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee), serving from 1981-1987. Among his many accomplishments on this committee, Hatch has helped create the modern industries of generic drugs and nutritional supplements.

Hatch’s priorities as Senator are to:

• give taxpayers back more of what they earn
• work for a country in which children can be safe, healthy, and well-educated
• defend Constitutional rights
• cut down the size of a bloated government bureaucracy
• empower the military with the tools to fight terror and tyranny
• embody the time-honored principles of integrity, honesty and candor

Hatch is the ninth-most senior member of the U.S. Senate, and the fourth-most senior Republican.