RightDataUSA


Joe Wilson

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 31, 1947 in Charleston, SC

Education:

  • High School of Charleston (Charleston, SC)
  • Washington & Lee University, B.A., 1969
  • University of South Carolina, J.D., 1972

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Reserve, 1972-1975
  • SC Army National Guard, 1975-2003

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Counsel, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 1981-1982
  • Staff, SC Senator Strom Thurmond and SC Rep. Floyd Spence

Elected Office:

  • SC Senate, 1984-2001

Other notes:

  • Reprimanded by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 15, 2009, for interrupting the President's remarks before a Joint Session which was a "breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings" of the Joint Session


Election Results for Joe Wilson


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2001 53 SC R U.S. House District 02 Special Primary 1 34,646 75.5%
2001 53 SC R U.S. House District 02 Special 1 40,355 73.1%
2002 54 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 144,149 84.1%
2004 56 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 181,682 64.9%
2006 58 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 127,811 62.6%
2008 60 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 44,783 85.1%
2008 60 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 184,583 53.7%
2010 62 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 64,973 83.4%
2010 62 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 138,861 53.5%
2012 64 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 23,062 80.6%
2012 64 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 196,116 96.3%
2014 66 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 43,687 81.6%
2014 66 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 121,649 62.4%
2016 68 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 183,746 60.2%
2018 70 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 144,642 56.3%
2020 72 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 55,557 74.1%
2020 72 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 202,715 55.7%
2022 74 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 147,699 60.0%
2024 76 SC R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 34,292 73.9%
2024 76 SC R U.S. House District 02 General 1 211,514 59.5%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Joe Wilson


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
2001 53 House 2 0 R 2 0 2 0 0
2002 54 House 97 3 R 82 18 99 10 92
2003 55 House 95 2 R 93 5 98 5 88
2004 56 House 98 1 R 88 12 97 0 96
2005 57 House 97 3 R 89 11 99 0 100
2006 58 House 89 3 R 92 5 93 5 91
2007 59 House 98 2 R 89 10 99 10 96
2008 60 House 97 2 R 80 18 97 11 92
2009 61 House 98 2 D 19 81 99 0 96
2010 62 House 97 3 D 24 76 98 5 96
2011 63 House 95 2 D 15 83 98 5 96
2012 64 House 98 1 D 15 85 99 10 100
2013 65 House 97 3 D 11 89 99 5 88
2014 66 House 93 1 D 14 82 94 0 86
2015 67 House 96 2 D 13 86 97 0 75
2016 68 House 99 1 D 6 94 99 0 92
2017 69 House 99 1 R 100 0 99 0 89
2018 70 House 96 3 R 100 0 98 0 76
2019 71 House 93 5 R 98 0 97 6 76
2020 72 House 91 1 R 89 6 92 11 83
2021 73 House 91 2 D 6 78 95 0 78
2022 74 House 95 4 D 23 77 99 74
2023 75 House 92 7 D 99 85
2024 76 House 90 6 D 95 85
Lifetime conservative rating:   88%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.