Joe Wilson (U.S. politician)

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Joe Wilson
Joe Wilson (U.S. politician)
In office
2001-present
Preceded by Floyd Spence
Succeeded by Incumbent
Born July 31, 1947
Charleston, South Carolina
Political party Republican
Spouse Roxanne Wilson
Religion Presbyterian

Addison Graves Wilson, Sr., usually known as Joe Wilson (born July 31, 1947) is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina, currently representing the state's 2nd congressional district (map), in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district is based in the state capital, Columbia, and stretches to the resort towns of Beaufort and Hilton Head Island.

Contents

[edit] Political, legal, military, and state senate career

Wilson was born in Charleston, South Carolina to Hugh de Veaux Wilson and Wray Graves Wilson. At age fifteen, Wilson joined a Republican political campaign, and while still a teenager he was the first staffer to join the campaign of Congressman Floyd Spence, later working as an aide to Senator Strom Thurmond.

Wilson graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1969, obtained a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1972, worked as a real estate attorney, and co-founded the law firm Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas in West Columbia, where he practiced for over 25 years. Wilson was also a Judge in Springdale.

From 1972 to 1975, Wilson served in the United States Army Reserve, and then as a Staff Judge Advocate in the South Carolina Army National Guard assigned to the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade until retiring from military service as a Colonel in 2003.

In 1981 and 1982, during the Reagan Administration, Wilson served as Deputy General Counsel for former Governor Jim Edwards at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wilson was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1984 as a Republican from Lexington County, and never missed a statutory session in 17 years. He became the first Republican to serve as Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. Wilson was a member of the Columbia College Board of Visitors and Coker College Board of Trustees.

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives

After Congressman Spence died in 2001, Wilson ran for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the December 18 special election easily and was sworn in the next day.

Wilson assumed Spence's seat on the House Armed Services Committee where he serves on the Terrorism and Tactical Air and Land subcommittees. He is also a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce (serving on the Education Reform and Employer-Employee Relations subcommittees), the International Relations Committee, and the House Republican Policy Committee.

Wilson has continued Spence's pattern of conservative voting and strong support for the military. Unlike Spence however, he has attracted attention for controversial remarks. In September 2002, during a debate on the possibility of going to war in Iraq, Wilson called Congressman Bob Filner "viscerally anti-American" and claimed that he had a "hatred of America" after Filner suggested the United States supplied chemical and biological weapons to Saddam Hussein. Wilson said later that he didn't intend to insult Filner. [1]

Wilson ran unopposed for a full term in 2002. Wilson was mentioned as a possible candidate for retiring Senator Fritz Hollings' seat in 2004, but he decided to run for a second full term and beat his opponents, Democrat Michael Ray Ellisor and Constitution Party nominee Steve Lefemine. In the 2006 elections, he defeated Ellisor again and kept his House seat.

[edit] Claims Democrats aid terrorists

In June 2005, Wilson responded to calls by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Government Reform ranking member Henry Waxman for an independent commission to investigate the alleged abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, saying that it "is just inconceivable and truly incorrigible that in the midst of the war, that the Democratic leaders would be conducting guerrilla warfare on American troops." Wilson called the proposal "another example of some Democrat leaders trusting the words of terrorists over the proven decency of U.S. troops."

[edit] Bills

Rep. Wilson has sponsored dozens and co-sponsored hundreds of bills, issuing press releases regarding seven of them, concerning teacher recruitment and retention, college campus fire safety, National Guard troop levels, arming airline pilots, tax credits for adoption and living organ donors, and state defense forces, most of which are still in committee. As of January 2006, eight bills co-sponsored by Wilson have been signed by the president, including H.R.1973, the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, making safe water and sanitation an objective of U.S. assistance to developing countries.

[edit] Family

Joe and his wife Roxanne Dusenbury McCrory Wilson have four sons, all Eagle Scouts, three of whom serve in the U.S. military, and two grandsons. His oldest son Alan McCrory Wilson is also a lawyer, working as an assistant county prosecutor, and a Captain in the Army National Guard, recently having served a year as an intelligence officer in southern Iraq. Addison G. "Add" Wilson, Jr. is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and is now an Ensign attending the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Julian Dusenbury Wilson is a recent graduate of Clemson University and is a Second Lieutenant in the Army National Guard. Hunter Taylor Wilson currently attends Airport High School.

Joe's father Hugh was a member of the Flying Tigers in World War II. For several generations, the Wilson family has sat in the back pew of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia.

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Floyd Spence		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for South Carolina's 2nd district
December 19, 2001 – present		 Incumbent
South Carolina's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators: Lindsey Graham (R), Jim DeMint (R)

Representative(s): Henry E. Brown, Jr. (R), Joe Wilson (R), J. Gresham Barrett (R), Bob Inglis (R), John M. Spratt, Jr. (D), Jim Clyburn (D)

All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands
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