Paul Broun | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's10th district | |
| In office July 17, 2007 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Charlie Norwood |
| Succeeded by | Jody Hice |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Paul Collins Broun Jr. (1946-05-14)May 14, 1946 (age 78) Atlanta,Georgia, US |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Niki |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Paul C. Broun Sr. (father) |
| Education | University of Georgia (BS) Augusta University (MD) |
Paul Collins Broun Jr. (born May 14, 1946)[1] is an American physician and politician who served as theU.S. representative forGeorgia's 10th congressional district from 2007 to 2015. He is a member of theRepublican Party and was a member of theTea Party Caucus.
Broun unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for theU.S. Senate seat vacated bySaxby Chambliss in the2014 election.[2][3] In2020, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to representGeorgia's 9th congressional district – a seat he contested once before in 2016 – coming in fourth.[4]
Broun was born inAtlanta, Georgia, the son of Gertrude Margaret (née Beasley) andDemocraticGeorgia state senatorPaul C. Broun (1916–2005), who representedAthens and the surrounding area from 1963 to 2001.[5] His paternal grandfather was a minister.[6] Broun is a graduate ofClarke Central High School and theUniversity of Georgia at Athens (B.S., Chemistry, 1967) and earned hisDoctor of Medicine (1971) from theMedical College of Georgia inAugusta.[7]
Broun completed his medicalinternship atGood Samaritan Hospital inPortland, Oregon andresidency atUAB Hospital inBirmingham, Alabama. He then practiced general medicine; starting in 2002 he maintained a practice based solely onhouse calls.
Broun had been raised as a conservative Democrat like his father, but became a Republican sometime in the 1980s.
He first ran for public office in 1990, challenging Democratic U.S. CongressmanRichard Ray, ofGeorgia's 3rd congressional district. Ray defeated him 63%–37%.[8]
Broun ran again in 1992, but lost in the Republican primary to State SenatorMac Collins, 55%–45%. Broun won five of the district's seventeen counties.[9] Collins went on to defeat Ray, 55%–44%.[10]
In 1996, Democratic US SenatorSam Nunn decided to retired. Broun was one of six Republicans who ran for the Republican nominationin the race. Broun finished fourth, with 3% of the vote.Guy Millner, a businessman, finished first with 42% of the vote. He won the run-off election against state representativeJohnny Isakson,[11][12] who had received 35% of the vote in the primary,[13] then lost the general election to DemocratMax Cleland by one percentage point.[14]
In February 2007, Republican U.S. CongressmanCharlie Norwood, ofGeorgia's 10th congressional district, died of cancer. Broun had announced his candidacy before Norwood's death. There was a special election open primary in June 2007, where candidates of all parties participated in the primary. A candidate needed 50% to win outright, and there would be a run-off if no candidate earned it the first time. Ten candidates filed: six Republicans, three Democrats, and a Libertarian. State SenatorJim Whitehead was the only candidate with electoral experience, and was considered the frontrunner. He was endorsed by U.S. SenatorSaxby Chambliss.
In the primary, Whitehead finished first with 44% of the vote. Broun qualified for the run-off, ranking second with 21% of the vote, with only 198 votes more than third-place finisher James Marlow, a Democrat. Broun won a plurality of just four counties:Oconee (47%),Jackson (42%),Oglethorpe (37%), andMorgan (31%).[15][16]
In the runoff campaign, Whitehead angered some voters by failing to appear at a debate held in Athens and then by referring to hisalma mater, the University of Georgia, as a "liberal bastion" that should be eliminated, save for the football team.[17] In the July 17, 2007 election, Broun upset Whitehead by a margin of just 0.8%, a difference of just 394 votes. After the votes were certified, Whitehead declined to ask for a recount despite the narrow margin.[17] Broun won the counties in the Northern part of the district, while Whitehead won the counties in the southern part. Broun's best two performing counties wereClarke (90%) and Oconee (88%).[18]
Broun was challenged by Republican state representative and House Majority LeaderBarry Fleming, who had endorsed Whitehead in the 2007 election. Broun defeated Fleming in the July 2008 primary, 71%–29%. He won every county in the district. However, his weakest performance was in the Southeastern part. He won counties like Richmond with just 52% and Columbia with just 58%.[19] He won the general election with 61% to 39% against Democrat Bobby Saxon.[20]
Broun won re-election to a second full term, defeating Democrat Russell Edwards, 67%–33%.[21][22]
In November 2011, RepublicanMac Collins, who had represented much of the middle portion of Broun's redrawn district in Congress a decade earlier, said he was likely to challenge Broun in the 10th District.[23] In May 2012, Collins decided he would not challenge Broun.[24]
In July, Broun won the Republican primary, defeating retired Army officer Stephen Simpson. Broun faced no Democratic candidate in the November general election.[25]
A leaked video of a speech given at Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet on September 27, 2012, shows Broun telling supporters that, "All that stuff I was taught aboutevolution andembryology and theBig Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell."[26] In addition, Broun is ayoung earth creationist, and believes that the world is only a few thousand years old, and was created insix literal days. In response to these remarks, coupled with Broun being on theHouse Science Committee, libertarian radio talk show hostNeal Boortz spearheaded a campaign to run the English naturalist and evolutionary theoristCharles Darwin against Broun, with the intention of drawing attention to these comments from the scientific community and having Broun removed from his post on the House Science Committee.[27]
Broun won re-election on November 6, 2012, receiving 209,917 votes across the district. Charles Darwin received about 4000write-in ballots inAthens-Clarke County as protest votes against Broun's views on evolution, while Broun received 16,980 votes in that county.[28][29]
In 2016, Broun announced his candidacy for Congress. By this time, he had moved toGainesville, which is in theGeorgia's 9th congressional district. At the time,Cook Political Report rated the 9th as the third most conservative district in the nation.[30] He was running mostly in territory that he did not know and that did not know him, though he represented the district's share of Athens for much of his first stint in Congress.
Broun ran in a five-candidate Republican primary race with fellow Tea Party challengers Roger Fitzpatrick, Bernie Fontaine and Mike Scupin, againstincumbent candidateDoug Collins, who held the 9th since 2012. In the May primary, Collins won with 52,943 votes (61.3 percent of the vote), over Broun's 18,761 votes (22 percent), Fitzpatrick's 8,942 votes (10.5 percent), Scupin's 2,854 votes (3.36 percent), and Fontaine's 2,338 votes (2.75 percent).[31]
Broun ran in the primary and was defeated
Broun ran in the primary and was defeated
On July 25, 2007, Broun was sworn in byHouse SpeakerNancy Pelosi.[32] In January 2013, at the beginning of the113th Congress, Broun was one of ahandful of House Republicans to not vote to reelectJohn Boehner asSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives; Broun instead voted for outspoken former U.S. RepresentativeAllen West of Florida, even though West lost his bid for re-election in November 2012 and was no longer a member of Congress.[33] According toPolitico reporter Charlie Mahtesian, Broun has "a flair for the provocative."[34]
Broun is part of theChristian right.[35][36] In May 2009, Broun proposed asimple resolution that would have proclaimed 2010 "The Year Of The Bible."[37] He also introduced a bill to ban the sale or rental of sexually explicit materials on U.S. military installations.[38] In 2008, 2009, and 2011, Broun was the lead sponsor of theFederal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to theUnited States Constitution to define marriage as "consisting only of the union of a man and a woman" and thus prohibitsame-sex marriage in the United States.[39][40][41] Broun also sponsored the proposedBalanced Budget Amendment in various congresses.[42][43][44][45]
Broun received a 96% rating from theNational Taxpayers Union.[46]
Broun also voted against theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and decries the high cost of the bill.[47] In 2008, Broun signedAmericans for Prosperity's "No Climate Tax" pledge, promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.[48]
Broun, in September 2008, voted against theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which created theTroubled Asset Relief Program, or "TARP".[49] Broun voted against theDodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009.[47]
Broun strongly opposed theAffordable Care Act ("ACA" or "Obamacare) and supported efforts to repeal and defund thehealth care reform legislation.[50] Broun supported the October 2013U.S. federal government shutdown, which was precipitated by a group of Republican members of Congress who sought to dismantle the ACA.[50] In 2009, Broun proposed alternate health care legislation that would involve a 100% tax deduction of healthcare costs, allowing consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines, and the privatization ofMedicare.[51]
In 2013, Broun introduced theFederal Reserve Transparency Act of 2013 (the "audit the Fed" legislation), a bill that would direct theGAO to conduct an audit of theBoard of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and theFederal Reserve Banks.[52][53]
Broun has argued for continued U.S. support of Israel on both strategic and theological grounds, saying in 2014, "It's absolutely imperative that we support Israel—our brothers and sisters in the Middle East—not only because of the geopolitical reasons there, which are strong enough in themselves, but because ofa promise God made to Abraham."[54]
A video released by Broun's campaign in 2020 showed Broun shooting a rifle, offering to give away anAR-15 rifle "to one lucky person who signs up for email updates" from his campaign website, and warning that during theCOVID-19 pandemic that Americans might need an AR-15 to shoot "looting hordes from Atlanta."[55] Broun lives inGainesville, a white majority city about an hour outside the state capitalAtlanta, which is a majorityAfrican American city.[55] Broun denied that the ad or the reference to "looting hordes from Atlanta" had racial undertones or might concernAfrican-Americans.[55]
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In February 2013, Broun officially announced he would leave his house seat[57] to run for the open senate seat vacated by Republican U.S. SenatorSaxby Chambliss. Broun finished fifth in the May Republican primary.[3]
Broun has three children and two grandchildren.[58][59][60]
opponents in primaries who had strong Christian-right support, such as ... Paul Broun in Georgia.
One method by which to approximate the size of the Christian Right is to examine votes for candidates who it is believed drew almost exclusively on the evangelical community for support, such as Paul Broun, a U.S. Senate candidate in the GOP primary.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Dr. Broun has been married to his wife Niki since 1985 and has two grown daughters, a son and two grandchildren.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's 10th congressional district 2007–2015 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former US Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Representative | Succeeded byas Former US Representative |
