Jack Kingston | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 1st district | |
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Lindsay Thomas |
| Succeeded by | Buddy Carter |
| Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference | |
| In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Leader | Dennis Hastert |
| Preceded by | Deborah Pryce |
| Succeeded by | Kay Granger |
| Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 125th district | |
| In office January 7, 1985 – January 3, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Bobby Phillips |
| Succeeded by | Eric Johnson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Heddens Kingston April 24, 1955 Bryan, Texas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Georgia (BA) |
John Heddens Kingston (born April 24, 1955) is an American businessman, lobbyist, and politician who served as U.S. representative for Georgia's 1st congressional district in southeast Georgia, serving from 1993 to 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party and was part of the House leadership (2002–06) when he served as vice-chair of the Republican Conference.[1] In 2014, he ran for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by retiring senator Saxby Chambliss and advanced beyond the May 20 primary to the July 22 runoff, where he was defeated by David Perdue.[2]
Kingston was born on April 24, 1955, in Bryan, Texas. He is the son of Martha Ann (née Heddens) and Albert James Kingston Jr., a widely published university professor, who co-founded the National Reading Conference. His father was born in Brooklyn and his mother in Los Angeles.[3] As a child, Kingston lived briefly in Ethiopia. He grew up in Athens, Georgia.[4][5] Kingston received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Georgia in 1978,[6] where he also joined Lambda Chi Alpha and the Demosthenian Literary Society.
He has lived in Savannah since 1977. Before entering politics in 1982, he sold insurance and worked in agribusiness throughout southeastern Georgia. He was vice president of Palmer, Cay and Carswell from 1979 to 1992.[7]
In 1984, Kingston defeated Democratic candidate Bobby Phillips 62%–38%.[8] He won re-election in 1986, 1988, and 1990 all unopposed.
In 1992, Kingston gave up his seat in the state house to pursue a congressional run in Georgia's 1st congressional district after five-term Democratic incumbent Lindsay Thomas announced his retirement. The district had been one of the first areas of Georgia where the old-line conservative Democratic Party voters had begun splitting their tickets and voting Republican at the national level. While conservative Democrats represented much of this area in the state legislature well into the 1990s, the district has only supported a Democratic nominee for president once since 1960, when Jimmy Carter swept every county in the state during his successful run for the presidency in 1976.
Kingston won the election with 58% of the vote, becoming the first Republican to represent this district since Reconstruction, and the first to win an undisputed election in the district in 118 years. Kingston was helped by the 1990s round of redistricting, which significantly altered the district. The 1st had been based in Savannah for over a century. However, redistricting shifted most of Savannah's African-American residents to the newly created 12th District.
Kingston was reelected 10 times, never dropping below 63% of the vote and even running unopposed in 1998 and 2004. Even when the district included all of Savannah (as was the case from 1996 to 2002 and again after the 2010s round of redistricting), Kingston was reelected without serious difficulty.[10]
From 2003 through the end of 2006, Kingston served as vice-chairman of the House Republican Conference, the sixth-ranking post among House Republicans. An early attempt to become chair of the influential House Appropriations Committee in the 112th Congress (2011–2013) was unsuccessful. Kingston was an early supporter of earmark reforms and spending reductions.[11] Throughout his tenure, Kingston has received over 40 awards on a diversity of issues from various interest groups.[12]
Kingston signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform,[13] and in 2009 he was named a "Taxpayer Hero" by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste for his votes to reduce government spending and taxes.[14]
In 2010 Kingston signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.[15]
Kingston is a supporter of Medicare prescription drug coverage. He has voted to allow HMOs to be sued, and also to limit damages and shorten time limits for medical lawsuits.[16] In 2010, he voted against the Affordable Care Act, asserting the bill would raise premiums, taxes, and cut Medicare.[17]
Kingston has voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases,[18] and voted to add pollutants to the Clean Water Act.[19] He has voted against tax incentives for renewable energy and in favor of opening the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling.[18]
Kingston voted to loosen restrictions on interstate gun purchases and to allow veterans to register unlicensed guns acquired abroad.[20]
In November 1997, Kingston was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.[21][22] The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.[22] This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.[23] On October 8, 1998, Kingston voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.[24] On December 19, 1998, Kingston voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the needed majority of votes to be adopted).[25][26][27][28]
Kingston sponsored legislation in 1999 to authorize the expansion of the Savannah harbor in order to accommodate larger vessels.[29]
Regarding the extension of the House work week from 3 days to 5 in 2006, Kingston commented, "Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families – that's what this says." He added, "Time away from Washington is just as important to being an effective member of Congress as time spent in the Capitol. When I'm here, people call me Mr. Congressman. When I'm home, people call me 'Jack, you stupid SOB, why did you vote that way?' It keeps me grounded."[30]
In an address to the Jackson County Republican Party, on December 14, 2013, Kingston, who is on the House Agricultural Committee, which oversees the federal school lunch program for the underprivileged, commented that it may be beneficial for students to "...sweep the floor in the cafeteria" to promote a work ethic and "instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch."[31]
Kingston has said he was not "allegedly" advocating that poor children be singled out but rather that all children should perform chores to learn work ethic but emphasised those students specifically that were getting free lunches as the ones that should be working. "This is not targeted to any one group. It would be very helpful for kids in any socio-economic group to do chores and learn the work ethic. Those kids aren't there because of any fault of their own and I never suggested that they were," Kingston said on CNN.[32]
Kingston has sponsored 103 bills and resolutions, including:[33]
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Kingston's committee assignments in the 113th Congress (2011–2013) were:
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Main article: 2014 United States Senate election in Georgia |
In May 2013, Kingston officially announced he would run for the open U.S. senate seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss.[35]
In the third quarter of 2013, Kingston outpaced his House colleagues in campaign fundraising for the open Senate seat.[36] He was endorsed in the race by Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz,[37] as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[38]
After advancing past the May 20 primary to the July 22 runoff, Kingston lost to David Perdue with 49% of the vote.[2]
Kingston works as a public policy principal at the firm of Squire Patton Boggs in Washington.[39] Since August 2015, he has been chairman of the Georgia Republican Party Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Georgia GOP.[40] In 2016, he endorsed Ted Cruz for president,[41] but later he served as senior advisor and spokesperson for the Donald Trump campaign.[42] In 2017, he became a CNN political commentator.[43] He was dropped from the network in February 2019.[44]
On February 18, 2018, four days after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting which left 17 people dead, in an interview with CNN, Kingston suggested that the survivors of the massacre, who had organized to oppose gun violence, were being taken advantage of by "left wing activists" and funded by George Soros.[45][46] His comments angered the survivors of the shooting who described them as "despicable" and called on Kingston to apologize.[47]
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Barbara Christmas | 75,808 | 42% | Jack Kingston | 103,932 | 58% | |||
| 1994 | Raymond Beckworth | 27,197 | 23% | Jack Kingston | 88,788 | 77% | |||
| 1996 | Rosemary D. Kaszans | 50,622 | 32% | Jack Kingston | 108,616 | 68% | |||
| 1998 | (no candidate) | Jack Kingston | 92,229 | 100% | |||||
| 2000 | Joyce Marie Griggs | 58,776 | 31% | Jack Kingston | 131,684 | 69% | |||
| 2002 | Don Smart | 40,026 | 28% | Jack Kingston | 103,661 | 72% | |||
| 2004 | (no candidate) | Jack Kingston | 188,347 | 100% | |||||
| 2006 | Jim Nelson | 43,668 | 31% | Jack Kingston | 94,961 | 69% | |||
| 2008 | Bill Gillespie | 83,444 | 34% | Jack Kingston | 165,890 | 66% | |||
| 2010 | Oscar L. Harris II | 46,449 | 28% | Jack Kingston | 117,270 | 72% | |||
| 2012 | Lesli Messinger | 92,399 | 37% | Jack Kingston | 157,181 | 63% |
