Rep. Joe Wilson
Representative for South Carolina’s 2nd District
pronounced joh // WIL-sun
Wilson is the representative for South Carolina’s 2nd congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Dec 18, 2001. Wilson is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 75 years old.
![Photo of Rep. Joe Wilson [R-SC2]](/static/legislator-photos/400433-200px.jpeg)
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his senior government advisors, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided instead by incumbent politicians running in the very same election. Their attempts to suppress entire state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and using a disinformation campaign of lies and conspiracy theories was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Wilson was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. Shortly after the election, Wilson joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election, based on lies and a preposterous legal argument which the Supreme Court rejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence.) On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Wilson voted to reject the state-certified election results of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania (states narrowly won by Democrats), which could have changed the outcome of the election. These legislators have generally changed their story after their vote, claiming it was merely a protest and not intended to change the outcome of the election as they clearly sought prior to the vote. The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.
Earmarks
Wilson did not request any earmarks for fiscal year 2024.
Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. More about FY2024 earmark requests from Demand Progress Education Fund »
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Wilson.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Wilson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Wilson has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Jun 1, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Joe Wilson sits on the following committees:
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House Committee on Foreign Affairs
- Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia subcommittee Chair
Europe subcommittees -
House Committee on Armed Services
Readiness, Strategic Forces subcommittees
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House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions subcommittees
Enacted Legislation
Wilson was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 7611 (117th): Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022
- H.R. 6753 (117th): Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022
- H.R. 553 (116th): Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act
- H.R. 6141 (115th): To require the Secretary of Energy to develop a report on a pilot program to site, construct, and operate micro-reactors at critical national security locations, and for …
- H.R. 2487 (115th): Military Family Stability Act
- H.R. 497 (110th): Brigadier General Francis Marion Memorial Act of 2007
- H.R. 917 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1830 South Lake Drive in Lexington, South Carolina, as the “Floyd Spence Post Office Building”.
Does 7 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Wilson sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (68%) Armed Forces and National Security (19%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Wilson recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 3792: To modify and extend certain authorities relating to cooperation between the United States …
- H.Res. 397: Expressing the approval of Congress for the 50th anniversary celebration of the homecoming …
- H.R. 3308: Farm Operations Support Act
- H.R. 3202: Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act of 2023
- H.R. 3035: Iran Human Rights and Accountability Act of 2023
- H.Res. 332: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on Ukrainian victory.
- H.Res. 322: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on Ukrainian victory.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Dec 2001 to May 2023, Wilson missed 298 of 14,000 roll call votes, which is 2.1%. This is on par with the median of 1.6% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
