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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Grover Joseph Rees, III | nationality=American | office=United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of East..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Grover Joseph Rees, III
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[United States Ambassador]] to the Democratic Republic of [[East Timor]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| term_start=December 2002
| term_end=2006
| preceded=Shari Villarosa
| succeeded=W. Gary Gray
| birth_date=October 11, 1951
| birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]]
Reared in Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
Resident of [[Lafayette]], Louisiana
| alma_mater=[[Yale University]]<br>
[[Louisiana State University]] Paul M. Hebert School of Law
| religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
| occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Diplomat]]<br>Law[[ professor]]
| spouse= (1) Divorced<br>
(2) Landai Nguyen Rees
| children=From first marriage
Grover J. Reese, IV}}
'''Grover Joseph Rees, III''' (born October 11, 1951), an [[attorney]] from [[Lafayette]], [[Louisiana]], who from 2002 to 2006 was the [[United States Ambassador]] to the Democratic Republic of [[Timor-Leste]], known as Eat Timor. He presented his credentials to East Timorese President Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in December 2002, following his nomination by then [[U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]] and confirmation the previous month by the [[United States Senate]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etan.org/et2002c/december/08-14/10etpres.htm|title=U.S. Wants Stability in Timor-Leste: The new United States Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Grover Joseph Rees, III, on Monday presented his credentials to President Gusmão|publisher=''East Timor Press Review''|date=December 10, 2002|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
East Timor declared its independence from [[Portugal]] in 1975. It is located north of [[Australia]], the two countries separated by the Timor Sea.
==Background==
Rees was born in [[New Orleans]], the first of twelve children<ref name=fedso/> to a [[Roman Catholic]] couple, Grover Joseph Rees, II (1927-2008), and the former Patricia Byrne (1927-2018).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32790843/grover-joseph-rees|title=Maj. Grover Joseph Rees, Jr.|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/917/000128533/|title=Grover Rees|publisher=Nndb.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> His father was in the military; so the family traveled around a great deal. His paternal grandparents, Grover Rees, I (1891-1994), and the former Consuelo Broussard (1889-2003, both of whom lived past the age of one hundred, made their home in Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147781291/grover-joseph-rees|title=Grover Joseph Reese, I|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> and Rees spent many of his summers there. In 1976, the senior Rees, a graduate of [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]] and the [[Harvard]] Law Center, penned ''A Narrative History of Breaux Bridge, Once Called 'La Pointe.'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-History-Breaux-Bridge-Called/dp/B0006WDGVW|title=A Narrative History of Breaux Bridge, Once Called 'La Pointe'''|publisher=Amazon.com|date=January 1, 1976|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees, III, obtained his undergraduate degree from [[Yale University]] in [[New Haven, Connecticu|New Haven]], [[Connecticut]], at which he served in the [[Yale Political Union]]. In 1978, Reese graduated from LSU's [[Paul M. Hebert]] Law School, at which he was a member of the academic honor society Order of the Coif. From 1978 to 1979, he was a law clerk to then-Associate Justice [[Albert Tate, Jr.]], of the Louisiana Supreme Court.<ref name=ourcampaigns>{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=88462 title=Rees, II, Grover J.|publisher=Ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> He speaks [[France|French]], [[Spanish]], [[Portugal|Portuguese]], and Samoan.<ref name=fedso/>
<ref name=fedso/>
==Defending human rights==
Rees was Chief Justice of the High Court of [[American Samoa]] from 1986 to 1991, having served under appointment of both Presidents [[Ronald Reagan|Ronald W. Reagan]] and [[George Herbert Walker Bush]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?groverrees|title=Grover Rees, III|publisher=[[C-SPAN)|date=November 7, 1987|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
He is also a former legislative aide to Representative [[Chris Smith|Christopher H. Smith]], a [[Republican Party|Republican]] from [[Trenton]], [[New Jersey]], and a leader of anti-[[abortion]] forces in the [[United States House of Representatives]]. Rees shares Smith's anti-abortion position.
Rees furthermore is a strong defender of [[human rights]] in foreign policy. From 1995 to 2001, he was the staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. <ref name=ourcampaigns/> American Samoa, where Rees was stationed for five years, became a landmark case in the United States' prosecution of human trafficking—the international practice of forcing people into servitude, [[slavery]], peonage, [[child labor]], or the sex industry. In that role, Rees warned that anyone who exploits workers would face legal consequences in the United States. "If you're going to traffic women and men to slave-like situations, you better not do it in a place under the American flag," he said. As a congressional aide, Rees helped to draft the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
He was general counsel to the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]], then part of the [[United States Department of Justice]], from 1991 to 1993,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.lsu.edu/news/2006/08/03/east-timor-ambassador-addresses-lsu-law-students/|title=East Timor Ambassador Addresses LSU Law Students|date=August 3, 2006|publisher=Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> in the administration of the first President Bush. He stayed at the INS briefly after the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] [[Bill Clinton]] assumed the presidency, but when Clinton "turned back a boatload of Chinese refugees in [[California]] and sent them back to [[China]], the president had Joseph's resignation on his desk the next day," said his mother, Patricia Rees, who added that "Joseph has always been passionate about standing up for the rights of oppressed peoples.
==The Elián González affair==
His view of human rights led Rees to support a full hearing to determine whether Elián González (born 1993) should remain with relatives in [[Miami]], [[Florida]], or be returned to communist [[Cuba]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mrdowling.com/710-elian.html |title=The Elián González Affair = The Fight for a Five-Year-Old|publisher=Mr.dowling.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees decried the pre-dawn raid that resulted in Elián's capture by INS agents. The whole case was, he said, a triumph for Cuban President [[Fidel Castro]]. "Castro has actually been able to turn the Elián issue to his advantage across a broad field of ways." When asked why the nominally Republican Congress did not rise up against the seizure of Elián, presumably against the boy's wishes, to communist governance, Reese cited public opinion polls: "Had the polls suggested that 70 or 80 percent of the people were appalled by the pre-dawn raid in Miami, you would have seen a different reaction in Congress."<ref name=cubanet{{cite web|url=https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs//CNews/y00/jun00/23e1.htm|title=Illegal Elián |publisher=''[[The American Spectator''|author=Byron York|date=June 2000|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees said that he was stunned when he learned that the number of federal agents who participated in "Operation Reunion," the raid to seize Elián from his great uncle's home in Miami, included a total of 151 persons, 131 from the INS and 20 from the United States Marshal's office.<ref name=cubanet/>
==Optimism for the future of East Timor==
In his first speech as ambassador, Rees said that the United States is pleased with the level of freedom and democracy achieved thus far in the Asian country. He urged greater involvement by the Timorese people in their new government. The goal of the leadership of East Timor, he said, must be to maintain security, promote democracy, and guarantee stability so as to attract critically needed foreign investments.
Rees worked on the Timor issue for several years prior to his appointment as ambassador. In 1998, four days after the fall of President [[Suharto]], he visited President Gusmão at the Cipinang prison in [[Jakarta]], as part of Congressman Smith’s delegation. Rees again visited Gusmão when the latter was transferred to house arrest in Salemba in 1999.
Rees expresses optimism for the future of East Timor, a country that, he said, is "rising from the ashes." Rees said that he visited the island in 1996, while it was struggling with the issue of self-determination after some two decades of oppression by [[Indonesia]], and again in 2000, just after a vote for independence. East Timor was in 1996 "nothing but smoking ruins, but now there's a democratically elected president and parliament. Now there is hope," Rees predicted. The new Timorese government "is an experiment in an area of the world that for the most part has not embraced democratic forms of government. . . . It's like being at ground zero during the birth of a nation, like being in [[Boston]] in 1776," he said.
==Law professor and author==
Prior to his move to Washington in 1986, Rees had served for seven years as an assistant professor at the [[University of Texas Law School]] in [[Austin]]. He wrote numerous law review articles, one of which declared the 1979 congressional vote to extend ratification of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] for three additional years to be unconstitutional. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4266&=&context=lalrev&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.bing.com%252Fsearch%253Fq%253Dgrover%252Brees%25252c%252Biii%2526qs%253DPF%2526cvid%253Dddce9576c371498cbcb8de94ba9c3a62%2526cc%253DUS%2526setlang%253Den-US%2526first%253D7%2526FORM%253DPERE#search=%22grover%20rees%2C%20iii%22|title=Rescinding Ratification of Proposed Constitutional Amendments - A Question for the Court|publisher=''Louisiana Law Review,'' Vol. 37 No. 4|author=Grover Rees, III|date=Spring 1977|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>In that the ERA was not added to the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]], the [[United States Supreme Court]] never ruled on the constitutionality of the extension.
often insert their personal legal and political views in the decisions.<ref name=fedso>{{cite web|url=https://fedsoc.org/contributors/grover-rees|title=Hon. Grover Joseph Rees, III|publisher=[[The Federalist Society]]|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
In another law article, Rees argued for traditional constitutional law, rather than judge-made law in which the jurists insert their personal legal and political views into their decisions.<ref name=fedso/>
Rees was a special counsel to then Attorney General [[Edwin Meese|Edwin Meese, III]], in 1986. He worked on judicial appointments. He attempted to find conservative judges who would overturn the liberal legacies of the [[Earl Warren]] and the [[Warren E. Burger]] courts<ref name=fedso/> but would do so without their own "activist" agenda. Rees was quoted in a column by the late [[Joseph Sobran]] as "bristling" at the use of the word "activist."
As he was finishing law school, Rees published a short campaign biography of then U.S. Representative [[David C. Treen]], a fellow Republican who was then seeking the Louisiana governorship for a second time. In 1979, Treen was elected Louisiana's first Republican governor since Reconstruction: he served from 1980 to 1984 during the interregnum of Democrat [[Edwin Edwards]]. Rees titled his book ''Dave Treen of Louisiana.'' Treen had also been Louisiana's first Republican congressman (1973–1980) of the 20th century. Rees was a press assistant to Treen in 1973 and a member of the Young Republicans while he was in college.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Treen-Louisiana-Grover-Rees/dp/1579801099|title=Dave Treen of Louisiana|publisher=Amazon.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
In 2016, Reese ran for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district seat in the U.S. House and signed a written commitment to oppose federal tax hikes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.atr.org/ambassador-grover-joseph-rees-iii-signs-written-commitment-oppose-tax-hikes|title=Ambassador Grover Joseph Rees, III, Signs Written Commitment to Oppose Tax Hikes|publisher=Americans for Tax Reform|date=February 23, 2016|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> He polled only 1 percent of the [[primary]] vote. Victory in a runoff went to fellow Republican [[Clay Higgins]], who defeated his remaining rival, [[Moderate Republican]] Scott A. Angelle, an unsuccessful gubernatorial the previous year.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns (Third congressional district), November 8 and December 10, 2016.</ref><ref name=lda>{{cite web|url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/01/22/sidelined-angelle-lets-others-race/79141408/|title=Sidelined Angelle lets others in race|date=January 22, 2016|publisher=''The Lafayette Daily Advertiser''|author=Ken Stickney|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Grover, III}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Diplomats]]
[[Category:Judges]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
| name=Grover Joseph Rees, III
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[United States Ambassador]] to the Democratic Republic of [[East Timor]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| term_start=December 2002
| term_end=2006
| preceded=Shari Villarosa
| succeeded=W. Gary Gray
| birth_date=October 11, 1951
| birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]]
Reared in Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
Resident of [[Lafayette]], Louisiana
| alma_mater=[[Yale University]]<br>
[[Louisiana State University]] Paul M. Hebert School of Law
| religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
| occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Diplomat]]<br>Law[[ professor]]
| spouse= (1) Divorced<br>
(2) Landai Nguyen Rees
| children=From first marriage
Grover J. Reese, IV}}
'''Grover Joseph Rees, III''' (born October 11, 1951), an [[attorney]] from [[Lafayette]], [[Louisiana]], who from 2002 to 2006 was the [[United States Ambassador]] to the Democratic Republic of [[Timor-Leste]], known as Eat Timor. He presented his credentials to East Timorese President Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in December 2002, following his nomination by then [[U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]] and confirmation the previous month by the [[United States Senate]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etan.org/et2002c/december/08-14/10etpres.htm|title=U.S. Wants Stability in Timor-Leste: The new United States Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Grover Joseph Rees, III, on Monday presented his credentials to President Gusmão|publisher=''East Timor Press Review''|date=December 10, 2002|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
East Timor declared its independence from [[Portugal]] in 1975. It is located north of [[Australia]], the two countries separated by the Timor Sea.
==Background==
Rees was born in [[New Orleans]], the first of twelve children<ref name=fedso/> to a [[Roman Catholic]] couple, Grover Joseph Rees, II (1927-2008), and the former Patricia Byrne (1927-2018).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32790843/grover-joseph-rees|title=Maj. Grover Joseph Rees, Jr.|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/917/000128533/|title=Grover Rees|publisher=Nndb.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> His father was in the military; so the family traveled around a great deal. His paternal grandparents, Grover Rees, I (1891-1994), and the former Consuelo Broussard (1889-2003, both of whom lived past the age of one hundred, made their home in Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147781291/grover-joseph-rees|title=Grover Joseph Reese, I|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> and Rees spent many of his summers there. In 1976, the senior Rees, a graduate of [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]] and the [[Harvard]] Law Center, penned ''A Narrative History of Breaux Bridge, Once Called 'La Pointe.'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-History-Breaux-Bridge-Called/dp/B0006WDGVW|title=A Narrative History of Breaux Bridge, Once Called 'La Pointe'''|publisher=Amazon.com|date=January 1, 1976|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees, III, obtained his undergraduate degree from [[Yale University]] in [[New Haven, Connecticu|New Haven]], [[Connecticut]], at which he served in the [[Yale Political Union]]. In 1978, Reese graduated from LSU's [[Paul M. Hebert]] Law School, at which he was a member of the academic honor society Order of the Coif. From 1978 to 1979, he was a law clerk to then-Associate Justice [[Albert Tate, Jr.]], of the Louisiana Supreme Court.<ref name=ourcampaigns>{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=88462 title=Rees, II, Grover J.|publisher=Ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> He speaks [[France|French]], [[Spanish]], [[Portugal|Portuguese]], and Samoan.<ref name=fedso/>
<ref name=fedso/>
==Defending human rights==
Rees was Chief Justice of the High Court of [[American Samoa]] from 1986 to 1991, having served under appointment of both Presidents [[Ronald Reagan|Ronald W. Reagan]] and [[George Herbert Walker Bush]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?groverrees|title=Grover Rees, III|publisher=[[C-SPAN)|date=November 7, 1987|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
He is also a former legislative aide to Representative [[Chris Smith|Christopher H. Smith]], a [[Republican Party|Republican]] from [[Trenton]], [[New Jersey]], and a leader of anti-[[abortion]] forces in the [[United States House of Representatives]]. Rees shares Smith's anti-abortion position.
Rees furthermore is a strong defender of [[human rights]] in foreign policy. From 1995 to 2001, he was the staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. <ref name=ourcampaigns/> American Samoa, where Rees was stationed for five years, became a landmark case in the United States' prosecution of human trafficking—the international practice of forcing people into servitude, [[slavery]], peonage, [[child labor]], or the sex industry. In that role, Rees warned that anyone who exploits workers would face legal consequences in the United States. "If you're going to traffic women and men to slave-like situations, you better not do it in a place under the American flag," he said. As a congressional aide, Rees helped to draft the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
He was general counsel to the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]], then part of the [[United States Department of Justice]], from 1991 to 1993,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.lsu.edu/news/2006/08/03/east-timor-ambassador-addresses-lsu-law-students/|title=East Timor Ambassador Addresses LSU Law Students|date=August 3, 2006|publisher=Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> in the administration of the first President Bush. He stayed at the INS briefly after the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] [[Bill Clinton]] assumed the presidency, but when Clinton "turned back a boatload of Chinese refugees in [[California]] and sent them back to [[China]], the president had Joseph's resignation on his desk the next day," said his mother, Patricia Rees, who added that "Joseph has always been passionate about standing up for the rights of oppressed peoples.
==The Elián González affair==
His view of human rights led Rees to support a full hearing to determine whether Elián González (born 1993) should remain with relatives in [[Miami]], [[Florida]], or be returned to communist [[Cuba]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mrdowling.com/710-elian.html |title=The Elián González Affair = The Fight for a Five-Year-Old|publisher=Mr.dowling.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees decried the pre-dawn raid that resulted in Elián's capture by INS agents. The whole case was, he said, a triumph for Cuban President [[Fidel Castro]]. "Castro has actually been able to turn the Elián issue to his advantage across a broad field of ways." When asked why the nominally Republican Congress did not rise up against the seizure of Elián, presumably against the boy's wishes, to communist governance, Reese cited public opinion polls: "Had the polls suggested that 70 or 80 percent of the people were appalled by the pre-dawn raid in Miami, you would have seen a different reaction in Congress."<ref name=cubanet{{cite web|url=https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs//CNews/y00/jun00/23e1.htm|title=Illegal Elián |publisher=''[[The American Spectator''|author=Byron York|date=June 2000|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
Rees said that he was stunned when he learned that the number of federal agents who participated in "Operation Reunion," the raid to seize Elián from his great uncle's home in Miami, included a total of 151 persons, 131 from the INS and 20 from the United States Marshal's office.<ref name=cubanet/>
==Optimism for the future of East Timor==
In his first speech as ambassador, Rees said that the United States is pleased with the level of freedom and democracy achieved thus far in the Asian country. He urged greater involvement by the Timorese people in their new government. The goal of the leadership of East Timor, he said, must be to maintain security, promote democracy, and guarantee stability so as to attract critically needed foreign investments.
Rees worked on the Timor issue for several years prior to his appointment as ambassador. In 1998, four days after the fall of President [[Suharto]], he visited President Gusmão at the Cipinang prison in [[Jakarta]], as part of Congressman Smith’s delegation. Rees again visited Gusmão when the latter was transferred to house arrest in Salemba in 1999.
Rees expresses optimism for the future of East Timor, a country that, he said, is "rising from the ashes." Rees said that he visited the island in 1996, while it was struggling with the issue of self-determination after some two decades of oppression by [[Indonesia]], and again in 2000, just after a vote for independence. East Timor was in 1996 "nothing but smoking ruins, but now there's a democratically elected president and parliament. Now there is hope," Rees predicted. The new Timorese government "is an experiment in an area of the world that for the most part has not embraced democratic forms of government. . . . It's like being at ground zero during the birth of a nation, like being in [[Boston]] in 1776," he said.
==Law professor and author==
Prior to his move to Washington in 1986, Rees had served for seven years as an assistant professor at the [[University of Texas Law School]] in [[Austin]]. He wrote numerous law review articles, one of which declared the 1979 congressional vote to extend ratification of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] for three additional years to be unconstitutional. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4266&=&context=lalrev&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.bing.com%252Fsearch%253Fq%253Dgrover%252Brees%25252c%252Biii%2526qs%253DPF%2526cvid%253Dddce9576c371498cbcb8de94ba9c3a62%2526cc%253DUS%2526setlang%253Den-US%2526first%253D7%2526FORM%253DPERE#search=%22grover%20rees%2C%20iii%22|title=Rescinding Ratification of Proposed Constitutional Amendments - A Question for the Court|publisher=''Louisiana Law Review,'' Vol. 37 No. 4|author=Grover Rees, III|date=Spring 1977|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>In that the ERA was not added to the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]], the [[United States Supreme Court]] never ruled on the constitutionality of the extension.
often insert their personal legal and political views in the decisions.<ref name=fedso>{{cite web|url=https://fedsoc.org/contributors/grover-rees|title=Hon. Grover Joseph Rees, III|publisher=[[The Federalist Society]]|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
In another law article, Rees argued for traditional constitutional law, rather than judge-made law in which the jurists insert their personal legal and political views into their decisions.<ref name=fedso/>
Rees was a special counsel to then Attorney General [[Edwin Meese|Edwin Meese, III]], in 1986. He worked on judicial appointments. He attempted to find conservative judges who would overturn the liberal legacies of the [[Earl Warren]] and the [[Warren E. Burger]] courts<ref name=fedso/> but would do so without their own "activist" agenda. Rees was quoted in a column by the late [[Joseph Sobran]] as "bristling" at the use of the word "activist."
As he was finishing law school, Rees published a short campaign biography of then U.S. Representative [[David C. Treen]], a fellow Republican who was then seeking the Louisiana governorship for a second time. In 1979, Treen was elected Louisiana's first Republican governor since Reconstruction: he served from 1980 to 1984 during the interregnum of Democrat [[Edwin Edwards]]. Rees titled his book ''Dave Treen of Louisiana.'' Treen had also been Louisiana's first Republican congressman (1973–1980) of the 20th century. Rees was a press assistant to Treen in 1973 and a member of the Young Republicans while he was in college.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Treen-Louisiana-Grover-Rees/dp/1579801099|title=Dave Treen of Louisiana|publisher=Amazon.com|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
In 2016, Reese ran for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district seat in the U.S. House and signed a written commitment to oppose federal tax hikes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.atr.org/ambassador-grover-joseph-rees-iii-signs-written-commitment-oppose-tax-hikes|title=Ambassador Grover Joseph Rees, III, Signs Written Commitment to Oppose Tax Hikes|publisher=Americans for Tax Reform|date=February 23, 2016|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref> He polled only 1 percent of the [[primary]] vote. Victory in a runoff went to fellow Republican [[Clay Higgins]], who defeated his remaining rival, [[Moderate Republican]] Scott A. Angelle, an unsuccessful gubernatorial the previous year.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns (Third congressional district), November 8 and December 10, 2016.</ref><ref name=lda>{{cite web|url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/01/22/sidelined-angelle-lets-others-race/79141408/|title=Sidelined Angelle lets others in race|date=January 22, 2016|publisher=''The Lafayette Daily Advertiser''|author=Ken Stickney|accessdate=May 14, 2020}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Grover, III}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Diplomats]]
[[Category:Judges]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]