Michael Huffington (also known as Mike Huffington) was a member of the US Congress for one term, 1992 – 1994. He was born in Dallas, Texas in 1947. Huffington was formerly married to Arianna Huffington, the Greek-born columnist and progressive activist, with whom he has two daughters. (She was widely thought to be the instigator of his failed bid for the US Senate.)

Once a staunch Republican, Huffington "came out of the closet" as a homosexual in 1998.

Huffington received a BS degree in engineering and a BA degree in economics concurrently from Stanford University in 1970. Following Stanford, he received an MBA in finance from Harvard University. From 1976 to 1990, Huffington served as vice chairman of his family-owned oil business, Huffco. (Huffington's father is Roy M. Huffington, a highly successful Texas oilman.)

In 1986, President Reagan appointed Huffington as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy with responsibility for conventional arms control negotiations.

In 1992, Huffington was elected to the US House of Representatives from California's 22nd District (Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties).

In 1994, after his single term in the House, Huffington used US$30 million of his personal fortune in a bid a seat in the US Senate, running a campaign critics described as "a rabid anti-immigration platform". At the time, Huffington's campaign was the most expensive non-presidential election in American history. It was bitterly contested race, lavishly covered by the media, in a year in which the Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress. Huffington lost.

Describing Huffington's campaign, investigative journalist Greg Palast wrote:

It was a perplexing campaign for California, where whites are the minority race and the only true non-immigrants are, if you think about it, a handful of Navaho Indians. Mrs Huffington herself delivered the most virulent anti-foreigner speeches... in her thick Greek accent.

In a interview with journalist David Brock in Esquire Magazine in 1998, Huffington recounted his early years as "a life of dedication to right-wing causes beginning with his cadet days in military school." At Stanford, he was "a clean-cut leader of the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom, determined to save the campus from the onslaughts of secular humanism and multiculturalism." As a result of watching "denunciations of gay sin" on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" program Huffington said he committed himself to heterosexuality. At age 33, Huffington resolved that "I am straight, I will get married. I will have children. I will never sleep with another man again."