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Shays, who has owned a home in Stamford, turns 69 on Saturday. The former member of the U.S. House of Representatives was born on Oct. 18, 1945 in Stamford.
Shays was elected to the Connecticut House at the age of 29, and served from 1975 to 1987.
In 1987 Shays won a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives to fill the vacant seat of the late Rep. Stewart McKinney. He represented the 4th congressional district (southwestern Connecticut) until losing to Democrat Jim Himes in 2008.
He was the only Republican congressman from New England elected to the 110th U.S. Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.
During his 21 years in Congress, he served on the Government Reform, Financial Services, Budget and Homeland Security Committees and was the first congressman to enter Iraq after the war.
He was a candidate for the 2012 Republican U.S. Senate nomination to replace retiring Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and a signatory to amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage.
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