Thomas Nilap

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**Thomas Nilap** (Born August 20, 1963) is a United States politician and lawyer, and a former U.S. Representative and Senator from Alaska.

## Early Life and Education

Thomas Nilap was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and grew up with one of the best educations Alaska had to offer. When he turned twenty he moved to Massachusetts and studied law at Harvard. While he was there he fell in love with his future wife Jennifer, the couple marrying shortly thereafter.

## Representative from Alaska's At-Large Congressional District

When he finally graduated he moved back to Alaska with his wife and started up his own Lawfirm. Ten years passed and he decided to run for the House of Representatives in Alaska's at-large Congressional district. He won with great success.

Thomas Nilap was the US Representative from Alaska's At-large District from 1991 to 2004. During his time in the House of Representatives, he fought for bills that he argued would benefit the Alaskan people and not hinder them.

## United States Senator from Alaska

By the time he turned forty-two Nilap had decided to run for Senate.

Running as a Republican in the 2004 election, Nilap achieved an extremely narrow victory, but successfully attained election. Noted to have a "shaky" first few months he soon settled into his role as the state's Junior Senator, and won re-election in 2010.

   Thomas Nilap would serve as the United States Senator from Alaska for twelve years. Nilap had consistently been identified as a member of the libertarian wing of the party, and has angered numerous conservatives. Thus in 2016, Nilap faced a strong primary challenge from both conservative hardliner James LeBloc and conservative Helena Locklear. The Republican primary was widely is seen as one of the most bitter in the country with the three candidates often resorting to ad hominem attack against each other. James LeBloc later withdrew and endorsed Nilap, leaving Locklear and Nilap in the race. Locklear eventually defeated Nilap in the primary. Nilap vowed to fight on and continued the race as an independent. Opinion polls showed him running in third place behind Democratic nominee Travis Hammitch and Mayor Locklear.

His campaign was permanently halted when he assaulted Senator Villaneuva de Pena on the Senate Floor, the incident was filmed on live television. The scandal caused Nilap to drop out of the race, although he did get a considerable amount of write-in votes.

## Post-Congressional Activities

Thomas Nilap has mostly stayed out of the public eye after his resignation from the United States Senate. He did, however, hold one last rally after the election.

There were rumors that Nilap suffered from a heart attack, however, there was no public comment made by Nilap or anyone of his family.

In his resignation speech, he mentioned 'life after politics.' Many critics believe this statement was Nilap confirming that he was going back to practice law, while others believe that Nilap could be seeking election to an elected office.

## Twitter

Thomas Nilap has come under fire on his Twitter wars. In past arguments, he has claimed that members of the Senate have sex tapes with Representative Donald Johnson. Most notable was Gianna Carrollton where Donald Johnson claimed the rumors are true.