Facebook Jeff and Cheryl Flake and their children.
Jeff Flake is a US Senator from Arizona. He has been serving in the senate since 2013 — but Flake has announced that he will not seek re-election after his current term runs out. Flake has been a very vocal critic of President Trump and has said that he wants to leave politics because he is unhappy with the direction that his Republican party is taking.
Flake and his wife, Cheryl, have five children. Here’s what you need to know about Jeff Flake’s wife and children:
1. Jeff & Cheryl Met at Brigham Young University and Married Soon After Graduation
Jeff and Cheryl are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. They both attended Brigham Young University, where they met and started dating. They married in 1985, just months after they graduated from college.
Jeff and Cheryl have five children: Alexis, Austin, Tanner, Ryan, and Dallin. They have one grandchild so far. Cheryl is a homemaker who says she loves entertaining and preparing big meals for her family.
2. Tanner Flake Became Notorious After Posting Anti-Semitic and Racist Material Online
Tanner made headlines in 2015, when he posted a series of offensive tweets and Facebook comments. His father publicly apologized on behalf of Tanner, after Facebook comments surfaced in which Tanner used the n-word. Tanner also made anti-Semitic remarks on twitter. And in another incident, he said that he would beat up the “f****t” who had stolen his dirt bike.
Tanner eventually made a public apology for his remarks too.
3. Jeff Once Took His Sons on a ‘Wilderness Retreat’
Back in 2013, Jeff and his sons spent a week on a deserted island. They traveled to Kwajalein Island, which was part of Marshall Island. That would have been far enough from home for many Arizonans — but the Flakes went even further, traveling by boat to a deserted island known as Biggarenn.
There, they spent a “survival week” living by their wits. They did bring along a satellite phone, though, just in case — because the waters around Biggarenn are known to be infested with sharks. All members of the family survived the week intact.
4. Austin Flake Once Sued Sheriff Joe Arpaio
The Flakes’ son Austin has a complicated history with Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff who became infamous for his treatment of immigrants in Arizona.
In 2014, Arpaio left his dogs in a kennel owned by Austin’s then-in-laws. Flake has since divorced Logan Brown, who was his wife at the time. When Arpaio’s dogs were staying in the kennel, the air conditioning failed and the dogs died of excessive heat. Flake and his ex-wife were watching the kennel at the time, and Arpaio had them charged with animal cruelty.
Just two months later, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery withdrew the charges, saying that Flake and Brown were not to blame. Flake launched a civil case against Arpaio, claiming that the sheriff’s office gave false testimony to the grand jury and targeted Flake for political reasons.
5. Alexis Flake Got Engaged on the Capitol Dome
The Flakes have four sons and one daughter. Their daughter, Alexis, was a 2009 Arizona Junior Miss who once interned with Good Morning America in DC. Like her parents, she attended Brigham Young University. Her now-husband, Jason Arias, also attended Brigham Young. But the couple met when they were set up by a mutual friend during a summer when both were interning in DC.
The couple first met at the Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game. Alexis said afterward that her mother, who was also there, spent so much time talking to Jason that Alexis could hardly get a word in. In 2013 Jason proposed to Alexis on the dome of the US capitol. She was 21 years old at the time; Arias was 26. The couple has one child, a son.