Rep. Gresham Barrett (R)

The congressman from the 3rd District is Gresham Barrett, a Republican elected in 2002. Barrett grew up in Westminster in Oconee County and graduated from The Citadel in Charleston. After serving as an artillery captain in the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, he returned home to run his family’s furniture store. In 1996, he was elected to the state House. In 2001, when Lindsey Graham, the first Republican to hold this seat since Reconstruction, started running for the Senate, Barrett became the frontrunner to succeed him. He opposed abortion rights, defended gun owner rights, called for a national missile defense system and new weapons technology as part of the effort to “hunt down scum like Osama bin Laden and wipe their kind from the face of the Earth.” He told voters that government should operate more like his business. Government should work “like Barrett’s Furniture, where you get service, you get simplicity and people are there to help you.” With a superior grass-roots organization, he led the six-candidate primary with 43% of the vote. In the two-week runoff campaign, state Rep. Jim Klauber argued that Barrett would not be sufficiently tough in supporting a crackdown on illegal immigrants. Barrett insisted that military issues were paramount. He raised more money, won more endorsements and won the runoff 65%-35%. He won the general election 67%-31%.

In the House, Barrett had a solidly conservative voting record, especially on cultural issues, and is a member of the Republican Study Committee, a group of the most conservative members of the House. Ever the Citadel graduate (his father, brother and two nephews are also graduates), he is distinguished by his crisp, military bearing. “With his pressed suits and posture as perfect as the Washington Monument’s, Gresham Barrett is perhaps Congress’ most starched member,” wrote The State newspaper. He was one of the 15 House Republicans who voted against both the Republican Medicare prescription drug deal in 2003 and the GOP leadership-backed omnibus appropriations bill in late 2003. He was the only lawmaker from South Carolina to vote against an extension of the Voting Rights Act, and he introduced the Public Prayer Protection Act to permit public officials to pray in public as they see fit.

On fiscal issues, Barrett has called for a Taxpayer Bill of Rights “to ensure that Washington will become more efficient and accountable to the taxpayers that pay for it.” Seeking “fresh air and sunshine” for federal spending, he made public in 2008 his requests for local spending projects. The practice of earmarking money in the appropriations bills for individual districts had become controversial, with critics deriding it as a waste of taxpayer money. In January 2009, Barrett, citing the nation’s economic recession, announced he would donate his yearly congressional pay raise to a local charity. Barrett won passage in the House of an amendment for the Energy Department to study the feasibility of commercial nuclear energy production at Savannah River.

This has been a safe district for Barrett. In March 2009, he announced his campaign for governor in 2010, when Republican Mark Sanford is term-limited. He said that he would emphasize economic development and his experience in “bringing people together.” Several local office-holders were considering campaigns for the House seat, which likely will remain Republican.