Bob Inglis | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2008 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Jim DeMint |
| Succeeded by | Trey Gowdy |
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Liz Patterson |
| Succeeded by | Jim DeMint |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Durden Inglis (1959-10-11)October 11, 1959 (age 66) Savannah, Georgia, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Mary Anne Inglis |
| Education | Duke University (BA) University of Virginia (JD) |
Robert Durden Inglis Sr. (born October 11, 1959) is an American politician who was theU.S. representative forSouth Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2011. He is a moderate member of theRepublican Party. Inglis was unseated in the Republicanprimary runoff in 2010 after losing toTrey Gowdy by a landslide.
In 2012, Inglis launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a nationwide public engagement campaign promoting conservative and free-enterprise solutions to energy and climate challenges.[1] E&EI is based inGeorge Mason University inFairfax,Virginia, and attempts to build support forenergy policies that are dictated byconservative concepts oflimited government,big business, accountability, reasonable risk-avoidance, andfree enterprisecapitalism. He argues that conservatives should accept thescientific consensus on climate change and advocates market-based solutions like a revenue-neutralcarbon tax, to be paid for by a reduction in income and payroll taxes.[2] He is executive director of republicEN, a group of conservatives promoting free market fixes to climate change.[3]
Inglis was born inSavannah, Georgia, the son of Helen Louise (née McCullough) and Allick Wyllie Inglis Jr. His ancestry isScottish andEnglish.[4] He grew up inBluffton,South Carolina, nearHilton Head Island. He earned his undergraduate degree fromDuke University inDurham,North Carolina. He obtained hisJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law inCharlottesville, Virginia. Upon his graduation from law school, he worked for a number of years as a lawyer in private practice, and served on the executive committee of the Greenville County Republican Party.[5]
Inglis made his first run for elected office when he won the Republican nomination for the 4th District. In the general election, he defeated three-term incumbentDemocratLiz J. Patterson, who had earlier defeatedBill Workman andKnox H. White, two Republicans who were successive mayors of Greenville, with White still in the position. In this election, incumbent PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush carried the state with 48% of the vote, although he lost nationally, and South Carolina's majority of voters made it one of the strongest Republican-voting states. Although the 4th District had been trending Republican for some time, Patterson had deep family ties in the district as the daughter of the late, longtimeU.S. SenatorOlin D. Johnston. Additionally, she had won her first three terms under unfriendly conditions for Democrats.
Proving just how Republican this district had become, Inglis was re-elected in 1994 and 1996 with no substantive opposition, both times winning more than 70 percent of the vote.
Inglis had promised during his initial bid for the seat to serve only three terms. Accordingly, he vacated the seat in 1998 to run for the Senate against Democratic incumbentErnest Hollings, who had been in office since 1966, as successor to Olin Johnston. Inglis gave Hollings his third close race in a row, holding the longtime Senator to 53 percent of the vote. After losing the race, Inglis returned to work as a lawyer, practicing commercial real estate and corporate law. He was succeeded in the House byJim DeMint, who had been an informal adviser to Inglis.
In 2004, DeMint opted to run for Hollings's open Senate seat instead of seeking re-election to the House. Inglis chose to try for his old House seat. He easily won a three-way Republican primary with 85 percent of the vote, all but assuring his return to Congress. He faced the founder of theHBCU Classic and first African AmericanDemocratic candidate to run for the 4th District seat, Brandon P. Brown fromTaylors, in the general election. Inglis was re-elected with little difficulty in 2006 and 2008.
Inglis faced four challengers in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district. It was the first time he faced substantive primary opposition as an incumbent. The challengers included 7th Circuit (Spartanburg) Solicitor Trey Gowdy, state SenatorDavid L. Thomas, college professor and formerHistorian of the U.S. HouseChristina Jeffrey, and businessman Jim Lee.[6]
In the June 8, 2010, primary election, Inglis finished second with 27 percent of the vote, well behind first-place finisher Gowdy's 39 percent. Inglis was forced into a June 22run-off election against Gowdy.[7] Although he had "racked up a reliably conservative record" during his six terms in the House,[8] Inglis had been criticized by his primary opponents for certain votes, including his support for theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (which earned him the nickname "Bailout Bob")[9] and his opposition to theIraq War troop surge of 2007, and was portrayed as removed from the interests of the district.[7][10] Inglis had attacked Gowdy's conservatism and questioned his opponent's support for creating a costly lake inUnion County, South Carolina.[7]
In the runoff, Gowdy defeated Inglis in a landslide, 71–29 percent.[11] Following his defeat in the Republican primary, Inglis criticized theTea Party movement, which had supported his opponent's campaign, as well as the Republican Party for courting the movement, stating, "It's a dangerous strategy, to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible."[12]
Inglis's 2010 Republican primary opponents asserted that his voting record in his second House tenure was more moderate than his first. He was one of seventeen House Republicans who voted for a Democratic resolution opposing theIraq War troop surge of 2007, and spoke againstclimate change denial,offshore oil drilling andwarrantless surveillance after his return to the House.[13] In response, Inglis pointed to his 93.5% lifetime rating from theAmerican Conservative Union[14] and his endorsements from theNRA Political Victory Fund[15] andNational Right to Life Committee.[6] He touts his conservative credentials: "Ninety-threeAmerican Conservative Union lifetime rating, 100% Christian Coalition, 100%National Right to Life, A with the NRA, zero with theAmericans for Democratic Action, the liberal group, and 23, by some mistake, with theAFL-CIO, the labor union - I was really hoping for a zero."[16]
Onclimate change, Inglis said that conservatives should go with the facts and the science, and accept theNational Academy of Sciences' conclusion that climate change is caused by human activities and poses significant risks, which 97 percent of climate scientists agree with.[17] He proposes eliminating all energy subsidies and replacing income and payroll taxes with a revenue neutralcarbon tax.[18] In 2009, he introduced the Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act.[19]
Inglis is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition ofonline poker. He also supported actions to aid people inwar-tornDarfur. In 2006, he co-sponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act[20] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.[21]
In October 2007, before the South Carolina2008 Republican presidential primary, Inglis told presidential candidateMitt Romney, aMormon, "[Y]ou cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity; you cannot say, 'I am a Christian just like you.'" Inglis stated "If he [Romney] does that, every Baptist preacher in the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the differences."[22][23]
On September 15, 2009, Inglis was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines in voting to disapprove fellow South Carolina RepublicanJoe Wilson for a lack of decorum during President Obama's address to ajoint session of Congress.[24] He was one of eight House Republicans to support theDREAM Act.
In the111th Congress:
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South Carolina's 4th congressional district,1992:[25]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,1994:[26]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,1996:[27]
United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1998 – Republican primary:[28]
United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1998:[29]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,2004:[30]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,2006:[31]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,2008 – Republican primary:[32]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district, 2008:[33]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district,2010 – Republican primary:[34]
South Carolina's 4th congressional district, 2010 – Republican primary runoff:[35]
On December 27, 2008, Inglis andArt Laffer coauthored an op-ed inThe New York Times in support of a revenue neutralcarbon tax: "We need to impose a tax on the thing we want less of (carbon dioxide) and reduce taxes on the things we want more of (income and jobs). A carbon tax would attach the national security and environmental costs to carbon-based fuels like oil, causing the market to recognize the price of these negative externalities."[2] He made the case in aBloomberg Businessweek op-ed, noting that "small particulates from coal-fired plants cause 23,600 premature deaths in the U.S. annually, 21,850 hospital admissions, 26,000 emergency room visits for asthma, 38,200 heart attacks that are not fatal, and 3,186,000 lost work days". He writes:
conservatives know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, we know that we’re paying for those deaths and illnesses. We pay for them through government programs for the poor and elderly, and when the costs of the uninsured are shifted onto the insured. We pay all right, but just not at the electric meter.
We pay the full cost of petroleum in hidden ways, too. We pay to protect the supply lines coming out of the Middle East through the blood of the country’s best and though the treasure that comes from our taxes or, worse, from deficit financing. We pay in the risk to our national security. We pay the cost of lung impairments when the small-particulate pollution comes from tailpipes just like we pay when the small particulates come from power plants. We just don’t pay at the pump.
What if we attached all of the costs -- especially the hidden costs -- to all fuels? What if we believed in accountability? What if we believed in the power of free markets?[18]
He "figures prominently"[36] in the 2014Merchants of Doubt documentary as an interviewee exposing the methods of science deniers. He also appears in the documentary seriesYears of Living Dangerously.
He made the case in aTED talk: "We want to insist that polluters pay. They pay for these emissions, and the marginal harm they are causing for that last ton of CO2." He proposes ending energy subsidies, including "the biggest subsidy of all: the ability to belch and burn for free without accountability."[37]
Inglis was the recipient of the 2015Profile in Courage Award from theJohn F. Kennedy Library Foundation "for the courage he demonstrated when reversing his position on climate change after extensive briefings with scientists, and discussions with his children, about the impact of atmospheric warming on our future."[38]
Inglis and his wife Mary Anne have five grown children, and they live on a small farm nearTravelers Rest, north of Greenville. He is a member of St. John in the Wilderness, an Episcopal congregation in Flat Rock, NC. In 2015, he signed anamicus brief calling for the recognition ofsame-sex marriage.[39]
On October 2, 2023, Inglis wrote an op-ed in theNew York Times urging his fellow Republicans to consider the long range consequences of their votes, and arguing that when they "grow up" and look back on their careers they will ask themselves "Was I an agent of chaos in a house divided, or did I work to bring America together, healing rifts and bridging divides?"[40]
In October 2016, Inglis was one of thirty GOP ex-lawmakers to sign a public letter condemning Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump.[41][42] He had previously said, in a May 2016 interview withChris Hayes, that "under no circumstances" could he vote for Trump.[43][44] Commenting on Trump's campaign after the election, Inglis said: "It's one thing to represent people and give a voice to their fears. It is quite another to amplify those fears—that is surely the worst possible kind of leadership. It's demagoguery. The real sadness for me is that we knew it, and yet we voted for it. In a very real sense, the whole country has lost this election."[45]
Six months later, afterHouse SpeakerPaul Ryan accused Democrats of partisan bias in calling for Trump's impeachment over thefiring of FBI director James Comey, then investigatingpossible links between Trump's campaign and Russia, Inglis chastised Ryan onTwitter, saying, "you know this isn't true" since Republicans would have had, in his opinion, ample grounds for considering impeachment if a Democratic president had done the things Trump was accused of.[46] Reminded that he had, as a member of theHouse Judiciary Committee, voted toimpeach President Bill Clinton in 1998, he said that was "for matters less serious than the ones before us now."[47]
In 2024, Inglis endorsedKamala Harris over Trump in the presidential election. According to him, if Harris wins, it would be great for the Republican Party, restoring its rationality to be the credible free enterprise, small government party again.[48]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's 4th congressional district 1993–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's 4th congressional district 2005–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromSouth Carolina (Class 3) 1998 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
