Joe Wilson is the Republican incumbent seeking re-election in South Carolina's 2nd District, which he has represented since 2001. A Charleston native and attorney, he served in the Army Reserve and South Carolina Army National Guard, worked on the staffs of Sen. Strom Thurmond and Rep. Floyd Spence, and served 17 years in the state Senate. He serves on the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Education and the Workforce committees, and describes his priorities as a strong national defense, lower taxes and limited government spending.[1][2][3]
Wilson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and graduated from the High School of Charleston; Wikipedia gives his birth date as July 31, 1947. He earned a bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University (1969) and a law degree from the University of South Carolina (1972).[1][4][3] He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1972 to 1975, then in the South Carolina Army National Guard. He retired as a colonel in the summer of 2003, having served as a Staff Judge Advocate with the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, for 31 years of military service in total.[1] A real estate attorney, Wilson was a founding partner of the West Columbia law firm Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas. Earlier he worked on the staffs of Sen. Strom Thurmond and Rep. Floyd Spence and was Deputy General Counsel to Energy Secretary James Edwards in the Reagan administration.[1]
Wilson served in the South Carolina State Senate (District 23) from 1984 to 2001, including as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, which his official biography describes as the first Republican chairmanship since Reconstruction. He was elected to the U.S. House in 2001 and has represented South Carolina's 2nd District since.[1][3] In the House he serves on the Armed Services Committee (Subcommittees on Readiness and Strategic Forces), the Foreign Affairs Committee (Subcommittees on Europe and on the Middle East and North Africa), and the Education and the Workforce Committee (Subcommittees on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions and on Higher Education and Workforce Development). According to his official biography, he chairs the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the Republican Policy Committee's National Security Taskforce, and formerly chaired the Republican Study Committee's National Security and Foreign Affairs Task Force (116th-118th Congresses).[1][2]
Wilson won the June 9, 2026, Republican primary with 74.2% of the vote over Hamp Redmond and Sam Gibbons.[3] According to his official biography, he is married to Roxanne and they have four sons, all of whom have served in the U.S. military; his oldest son, Alan, is South Carolina's Attorney General.[1]
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.
