The congressman from the 3rd District is Gregg Harper, a Republican elected in 2008 to succeed the retiring Chip Pickering, also a Republican. Harper was born in Jackson, where his father was a petroleum engineer and his mother was a homemaker. The family moved frequently because of his father’s job, but always came back home to Mississippi. By the time he’d finished high school, Harper had attended 10 different schools. Harper became a Christian after attending a youth rally in high school, and later met his wife, Sidney, at a church function. They have a daughter, Maggie, and a son, Livingston, who suffers from a developmental disorder called fragile X syndrome. Read More

The congressman from the 3rd District is Gregg Harper, a Republican elected in 2008 to succeed the retiring Chip Pickering, also a Republican. Harper was born in Jackson, where his father was a petroleum engineer and his mother was a homemaker. The family moved frequently because of his father’s job, but always came back home to Mississippi. By the time he’d finished high school, Harper had attended 10 different schools. Harper became a Christian after attending a youth rally in high school, and later met his wife, Sidney, at a church function. They have a daughter, Maggie, and a son, Livingston, who suffers from a developmental disorder called fragile X syndrome.

Harper has long experience in politics. He was the chairman of the Rankin County Republican Party and worked on several local and state campaigns. As a young man, he campaigned for Pickering’s father when he ran for the state Senate. Harper was also a delegate to the 2000 and 2008 national Republican conventions. When the 2000 presidential election was in limbo and hinged on results in Florida, Harper volunteered as a legal observer for George W. Bush’s recount efforts. Until his election, he was the prosecuting attorney for the cities of Brandon and Richland.

He jumped into the primary contest for the House seat as soon as Pickering announced his retirement. Harper’s toughest Republican competitors were state Sen. Charlie Ross, considered the early favorite, and wealthy businessman David Landrum. On the Democratic side, popular former Rep. Ronnie Shows pondered a run but ultimately decided against it.

Ross shored up endorsements from local leaders and national groups such as the anti-tax Club for Growth, and both he and Landrum outspent Harper. But Harper rallied a hardworking core of young volunteers and family members, and focused on door-to-door campaigning. He also got one important endorsement, from former U.S. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, who appeared at a January fundraiser for him. In the March 2008 primary, Ross emerged as the top vote-getter with 33%, and Harper finished second with 28%. Because no candidate won more than 50%, the contest went to a runoff in April. In the runoff campaign, Ross portrayed Harper as too inexperienced for the job, but Harper emphasized his conservative stances against abortion rights and same-sex marriage in an appeal to the district’s small-town voters. He won with 57% of the vote to Ross’s 43%. Ross narrowly edged Harper in pivotal Meridian and Lauderdale County by 128 votes, but Harper won 63%-37% in Ross’ native Rankin, the district’s largest county.

In the November general election, Harper faced Democrat Joel Gill, a rancher and a Pickens alderman. Gill ran folksy ads that referred to him as “Joel the Cattleman.” Still, a catchy ad was not enough in this Republican district, and Harper easily won with 63% of the vote. He had even less trouble in a 2010 rematch with Gill, drawing 68%.

In Washington, Harper has been a dependable conservative vote and has impressed Republican leaders. He was the only freshman elected to serve on the Republican Steering Committee in 2009, and was the only first-term lawmaker appointed to the House Administration Committee. After the 2010 election, he joined the Tea Party Caucus, and joined that group’s members in frequently blasting Democratic policies.

But with his son in mind, he is bipartisan on governmental efforts to help children with special needs. Harper worked with Democrats to secure $1.9 million for fragile X syndrome research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and he also got the disorder added to the list eligible for Defense Department medical research.

After the Republican takeover in 2010, Harper became chairman of House Administration’s elections panel. He introduced a bill to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, a nine-year-old group setting voluntary voting system guidelines for states as well as distributing funds to update voting equipment. He said the move would save $14 million annually. He also landed a plum spot on the Energy and Commerce Committee.