Biography

U.S. Senator (R-SC) (January 3, 2003 - present).

Member, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committe, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Senate Budget Committee.

Graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in Psychology in 1977 and from the University of South Carolina Law School with a J.D. in 1981. Upon graduating, was commissioned as an officer and judge advocate in the United States Air Force, placed on active duty and sent to Europe as a military prosecutor. Later, entered private practice as a lawyer.

U.S. Representative (R-SC) (January 3, 1995 - January 3, 2003).

When he was in college, both parents passed away a few months apart, and he took on the responsibility of raising his younger sister, who was 13 at the time.

[observation, 2015] If I'm President of the United States and you're thinking about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL, I'm not gonna call a judge. I'm gonna call a drone, and we will kill you.

[on President Trump's tweet on Mika Brzezinski's bleeding from a face-lift] Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.

[on President Trump] He can't collude with his own government. Why do you think he's colluding with the Russians?

I care about everybody. If you're a young African American, an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state. You just need to be conservative, not liberal.

Do I believe that our cops are systemically racist? No. Do I believe that South Carolina is a racist state? No. To young people of color, to young immigrants, this is a great state. The one thing I can say without any doubt, you can be an African American and go to the Senate. You just have to share the values of our state