The new congressman from South Carolina’s 3rd District is Republican Jeff Duncan, elected in 2010 to succeed four-term GOP Rep. Gresham Barrett, who gave up the seat to run for governor. Read More

The new congressman from South Carolina’s 3rd District is Republican Jeff Duncan, elected in 2010 to succeed four-term GOP Rep. Gresham Barrett, who gave up the seat to run for governor.

Duncan was born in Greenville, S.C. His family moved frequently, mostly in the Carolinas, as they followed his father’s job as a textile industry manager tasked with turning around underperforming plants. In his senior year in high school, Duncan met his future wife, Melody. After graduation, he went on to Clemson University, where he played wide receiver on a team coached by football legend Danny Ford. Duncan majored in political science and interned one summer for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., which Duncan called a “tremendous experience.” When he got his degree in 1988, he worked briefly for a bank and then for a real-estate auction company, which inspired him to start his own business. His company, J. Duncan & Associates, specialized in statewide real estate auctions.

When the state legislator who represented his neighborhood retired, Duncan ran for the seat in the South Carolina House and won. In office, he worked on updating the funding formula for education and lowering taxes. In 2007, he sponsored a bill allowing gun owners with concealed-carry permits to bring guns onto school campuses, arguing that if students had been armed at Virginia Tech that year, they could have returned fire on the deranged student responsible for the mass shooting of 33 people. The bill died on the House floor. In 2009, Duncan sponsored a bill creating an alternative state budget that did not use federal stimulus money, as a way of protesting President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill for the nation.

After Barrett announced his plans to run for governor, Duncan entered a six-candidate field for the GOP nomination for Barrett’s House seat. He was endorsed by the anti-tax group Club for Growth and built a 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over businessman Richard Cash. Duncan prevailed in a runoff with 51% of the vote. In the general election, he faced token Democratic opposition from Air Force veteran Jane Dyer, a FedEx pilot, who had little chance in the solidly Republican district. He won, 62% to 36%.

In an interview, Duncan told National Journal that he believes in the “Jeffersonian principles of limited governments, free markets, and individual liberties,” and thinks that the federal government has gone beyond its constitutional authority. He would shift some of the government’s powers to the states. “If the government would get out of the way, business would come back,” he said. “I don’t believe that more government and more government spending is the answer to the problems we face.” In Congress, Duncan said he would work to either suspend or eliminate the capital gains tax to encourage business growth. Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in his district, and Duncan said he favors a proposal pushed by conservatives to deny citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants living in the United States.