About
Rick Allen (R-Ga.) has served Georgia’s 12th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. He is also president and CEO of R.W. Allen & Associates, a construction firm he founded in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
In September 2021, Allen was among dozens of congressmen who failed to make proper disclosures about their stock holdings in violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012. According to reporting by Insider, he failed to report as much as $200,000 in trading.
At a House Republican Conference meeting in 2016 to vote on an amendment barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Allen read a Bible verse saying that homosexuals are ”worthy of death.” The comments drew widespread condemnation from human rights advocates and members of the LGBTQ community.
After the 2020 presidential election, Allen adhered to the GOP playbook by casting doubt on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory. He objected to certifying the Electoral College results and voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the mob and establishing a special House committee to investigate the insurrection, among other measures.
January 6, 2021
- Just hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Allen joined 146 other congressional Republicans in refusing to certify Biden’s win of the 2020 presidential election.
- A week after the attack on the Capitol, Allen said he didn’t believe Trump “had any idea” that his speech at the Stop the Steal rally would stoke violence among his supporters.
- When voting against impeaching the president for his role in inciting the insurrection, Allen told CSRA News, “I believe everyone has the right to prove their innocence. It’s innocent until proven guilty. None of that happened in this impeachment process.”
- In voting against establishing a House committee to investigate the attack, Allen reversed his previous statement several days after the insurrection in which he said, “We need a bipartisan commission to do a complete investigation, analyze what the President said and talk to witnesses.”
- Allen is likely among 34 Republican members of Congress who texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about various schemes to overturn the election results—both before and after the events of Jan. 6, according to TPM.
The Big Lie
- Allen made a variety of unfounded allegations about irregularities and fraud during the 2020 election, including claims that “glitches” had been found in Dominion voting machines and the counting of absentee ballots had been rushed.
- He joined fellow House Republicans in sending letters to Attorney General Bill Barr on Nov. 6 and Dec. 1, 2020, urging the Justice Department to investigate accusations of fraud in the 2020 election and later tweeted his support for a DOJ investigation.
- On Dec. 10, 2020, Allen signed an amicus brief in a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the results of the presidential election in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
- Disregarding Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s thorough account of the integrity of the election in his home state, Allen challenged the confirmation of Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes for Biden.
- In August 2021, Allen joined an amicus brief opposing the Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging the racially discriminatory provisions in Georgia’s voting law. In a release, he stated, “The Biden Administration’s lawsuit against Georgia is just the latest example of an ongoing effort to federalize elections, and is the same attempt that is being waged legislatively with Congressional Democrats’ For the People Act.” The Georgia law made it illegal to start counting votes until polls close. The New York Times argued that this provision means “the process of tabulating and reporting vote totals is likely to be lengthy for high-turnout contests. That could lead future candidates to follow Mr. Trump’s lead in trying to contest the results of a legitimate election.”