Rep. Jeff Duncan

Former Representative forSouth Carolina’s 3rd District

pronouncedjef // DUN-kun

Duncan was the representative forSouth Carolina’s 3rd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2011 to 2024.

Photo of Rep. Jeff Duncan [R-SC3, 2011-2024]
Elections must be decided by counting votes

Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. After the 2020 Presidential Election, President Trump, his advisors and associates, and Republican legislators collaborated in a failed coup to have the election decided by themselves rather than by voters.

Duncan was among the Republican legislators who participated in this. Shortly after the election, Duncanjoined acase before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election. In the case, Republicans proffered lies and a novel legal theory which the Supreme Courtrejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the casecalled for violence.) On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Duncanvoted to omit Arizona and/or Pennsylvania from the counting of presidential electors, whichcould have altered the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor.
In 2023, Trump associates and top advisors pleaded guilty tosubmitting a fraudulent slate of electors to Congress from Georgia,making false statements about purported widespread fraud in the election, andtampering with voting machines after the election, admitted in civil court toposing as fake electors in Wisconsin, and were convicted ofcontempt of Congress for withholding documents during its investigation andassaulting police officers at the Capitol. Trump associates and top advisors are also currently facing charges for submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress inMichigan,Nevada,Arizona, andWisconsin. Trump himself facesrelated criminal charges in state court, and a federal investigation which terminated because he won re-election alleged thatTrump sought to ignore true vote counts, manufactured fraudulent slates of presidential electors, and used the January 6 riot to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election. Trump was impeached but not convicted in 2021 for incitement of insurrection related to the same events. (He was also impeached but not convicted of using the presidency to solicit the help of a foreign government to benefit his reelection in 2019, and he wasconvicted in state court in 2024 for falsifying business records to cover up acts that he believed might have hurt him in the 2016 election.) TheJanuary 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol,led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups one member of which wasconvicted of sedition, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our2024 Report Card for Duncan.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Duncan is shown as a purple triangle▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below.Each dot was a member of the House of Representativesin 2024positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills legislators sponsored and cosponsoredfrom Jan. 3, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2024.See fullanalysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Duncan was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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Does 4 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Duncan sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Energy (23%)Government Operations and Politics (13%)Science, Technology, Communications (12%)Health (12%)Immigration (12%)Crime and Law Enforcement (12%)Commerce (10%)International Affairs (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Duncan recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » |View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Duncan votedNay

Duncan votedYea

Passed 310/107 on July 22, 2020.

Duncan votedNo

Duncan votedNay

Duncan votedNo

Passed 304/117 on June 23, 2011.
The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2011 to Dec 2024, Duncan missed 237 of 8,538 roll call votes, which is 2.8%.This ison par withthe median of 2.2%among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2024.The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absences, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Time PeriodVotes EligibleMissed VotesPercentPercentile
2011 Jan-Mar21231.4%53rd
2011 Apr-Jun28131.1%42nd
2011 Jul-Sep24700.0%0th
2011 Oct-Dec20800.0%0th
2012 Jan-Mar15100.0%0th
2012 Apr-Jun29931.0%37th
2012 Jul-Sep15210.7%29th
2012 Nov-Dec5100.0%0th
2013 Jan-Jan 112th Congress500.0%0th
2013 Jan-Mar8900.0%0th
2013 Apr-Jun21500.0%0th
2013 Jul-Sep20000.0%0th
2013 Oct-Dec13700.0%0th
2014 Jan-Mar14810.7%24th
2014 Apr-Jun21900.0%0th
2014 Jul-Sep14710.7%30th
2014 Nov-Dec4900.0%0th
2015 Jan-Mar14496.2%83rd
2015 Apr-Jun244124.9%84th
2015 Jul-Sep13910.7%33rd
2015 Oct-Dec17721.1%55th
2016 Jan-Mar137107.3%73rd
2016 Apr-Jun20494.4%74th
2016 Jul-Sep23241.7%64th
2016 Nov-Dec4800.0%0th
2017 Jan-Mar208188.7%94th
2017 Apr-Jun13642.9%70th
2017 Jul-Sep19910.5%40th
2017 Oct-Dec16731.8%53rd
2018 Jan-Mar1291310.1%91st
2018 Apr-Jun18421.1%28th
2018 Jul-Sep102109.8%94th
2018 Nov-Dec854047.1%97th
2019 Jan-Mar13610.7%33rd
2019 Apr-Jun29410.3%21st
2019 Jul-Sep12510.8%55th
2019 Oct-Dec14610.7%31st
2020 Jan-Mar10222.0%49th
2020 Apr-Jun31722.6%92nd
2020 Jul-Sep8056.2%83rd
2020 Oct-Dec401742.5%97th
2021 Jan-Mar9755.2%90th
2021 Apr-Jun10710.9%42nd
2021 Jul-Sep10843.7%86th
2021 Oct-Dec13700.0%0th
2022 Jan-Mar10232.9%84th
2022 Apr-Jun19700.0%0th
2022 Jul-Sep17884.5%95th
2022 Nov-Dec7222.8%75th
2023 Jan-Mar18231.6%74th
2023 Apr-Jun10700.0%0th
2023 Jul-Sep22410.4%29th
2023 Oct-Dec21110.5%22nd
2024 Jan-Mar10432.9%61st
2024 Apr-Jun23100.0%0th
2024 Jul-Sep12097.5%81st
2024 Nov-Dec621219.4%90th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: