Joe Wilson

Biography & Campaign Analysis

Background

Joe Wilson, whose full name is Addison Graves Wilson Sr., was born on July 31, 1947, in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of Wray (née Graves) and Hugh deVeaux Wilson.

He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Washington and Lee University in 1969, joining Sigma Nu there, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1972.

Wilson served in the United States Army Reserve from 1972 to 1975 and later as a staff judge advocate in the South Carolina Army National Guard, retiring from military service as a colonel in 2003.

Career

Before entering elective office, Wilson 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.

He served as an aide to Senator Strom Thurmond and to Congressman Floyd Spence, and in 1981 and 1982 he was deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wilson was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1984 and served from 1985 to 2001, becoming the first Republican to chair the Senate Transportation Committee after his party gained control of the chamber in 1996.

Wilson has represented South Carolina's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House since 2001. He serves on the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and he is co-chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

In September 2009, during a speech by President Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress, he shouted "You lie!", and the House later approved a resolution of disapproval against him by a vote of 240 to 179.

2026 race

Joe Wilson is seeking re-election in the 2nd district, which spans central South Carolina from Columbia to the South Carolina side of the Augusta, Georgia, metropolitan area, including North Augusta. He was re-elected with 59.5% of the vote in 2024.

In the 2026 Republican primary, Wilson won renomination with 74.2% of the vote against building contractor Hamp Redmond and Marine veteran Sam Gibbons.

In the general election on November 3, 2026, he faces Democrat Zyon Khalifa, an attorney and Air Force veteran who won the Democratic nomination in a runoff against businessman David Robinson.