Joe Cunningham

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Joe Cunningham (2019)

Joseph Kendrick Cunningham (born May 26, 1982 in Caldwell County , Kentucky ) is an American Democratic Party politician . Since 2019 he heard for the first congressional district of South Carolina the United States House of Representatives on.

Family, education and work

Joe Cunningham's mother, Paula, runs a print shop in Kuttawa , western Kentucky. His father, Bill, a lawyer, worked for decades for the Democratic Party in elected offices, including the City Attorney (about: Town Counsel ), Judge of the District Court (circuit court) of western Kentucky and most recently from 2007 to 2019 at the Supreme Court of Kentucky. He decided against a contemplated congressional candidacy in the 1st constituency of Kentucky in the 1980s. Joe Cunningham grew up as the youngest of five brothers in Kuttawa who accompanied his father's career in office and took part in his election campaigns and appearances. In his youth he was an Eagle Scout .

At Lyon County High School in Eddyville, Kentucky, Cunningham was a freshman student representative and was a member of the school's basketball team. After graduating in 2000, he attended college in Charleston (South Carolina) until 2002 and then studied marine biology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton , which he obtained in 2005 with a B.Sc. completed. He then worked for a consultancy firm in Naples, Florida, specializing in coastal, environmental and marine engineering. After almost five years, he was laid off in 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession .

In 2011 he returned to Kentucky and studied law at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights , where he was elected first year chairman of the Student Bar Association and then vice chairman of its nationwide organization and the student section of the American Bar Association . In 2014 he graduated with the Juris Doctor . He moved back to South Carolina, worked as a construction law attorney, and ran a yoga studio with his wife, Amanda . They have been parents to a son since February 2018 and live in West Ashley , part of Charleston.

Political career

Map of South Carolina's 1st Congressional Constituency, Cunninghams Constituency

On September 25, 2017, Cunningham announced that he would run for the United States House of Representatives in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District in the Democratic primary . At the time, Republican Mark Sanford held the mandate , who had previously been the state governor and, as an independent, uncomfortable conservative , had drawn criticism from President Donald Trump . Cunningham prevailed in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2018 with 71.5 percent of the vote. In the Republican primary, Sanford was defeated by State Senator Katie Arrington , who used harsh rhetoric, especially in immigration policy, and was supported by President Trump. She said she wanted to become the " Kellyanne Conway of Congress". At the beginning of the election campaign, Arrington had spoken out in favor of the oil production planned by the Trump administration off the coast of South Carolina ( offshore ), but this was unpopular in this maritime district. The Congressional electoral district extends from Hilton Head Island in the south to McClellanville north of Charleston in the north along the Atlantic coast .

In the main election campaign, Cunningham's campaign against offshore oil production became his central theme. Unlike other congressional candidates of his party, he did not polemicize against Donald Trump's presidency , but emphasized his centrism. Most political observers assumed that Cunningham would be defeated; the political website FiveThirtyEight estimated Cunningham's chance of victory to be less than ten percent before the election. In the second quarter of 2018, Cunningham raised five times more campaign donations than his Republican rival, and that summer the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , the Democrats' campaign arm in the US House of Representatives, elevated his congressional district to one of the most important Republican held in the 2018 congressional election. The Charleston Post and Courier newspaper and other media outlets have declared their support for Cunningham, as have some local Republican officials who oppose offshore oil claims out of concern for tourism such as Cunningham.

Cunningham won the main election in November 2018 with 50.62 to 49.21 percent (just under 145,000 to 141,000 votes) by gaining over 57 percent of the vote in urban and populous Charleston County , which Arrington achieved thanks to its lead over the four other counties of the Congressional electoral district ( Beaufort , Dorchester , Berkeley , Colleton ) could not compensate. The seat was last held by a Democrat in 1981. Cunningham's win has been cited as a motivational boost for the long-marginalized South Carolina Democrats. In the remaining contemporaneous elections , Republican candidates had won all state-wide offices.

In the 116th Congress , Cunningham serves on the Veterans Affairs , Natural Resources Committees and four of its subcommittees. As a member of the Committee on Natural Resources, Cunningham led the Democratic initiative in the House of Representatives to ban offshore oil drilling. Cunningham was left with the initiative, observers put down to the fact that, as one of the most vulnerable congressmen in his party, he was to be given a political platform for the upcoming 2020 election , which affected his central election promise. Together with the Californian US Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris , he introduced a bill in March 2019 to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in public housing.

As announced during the campaign, Cunningham refused to approve Nancy Pelosi when she ran again as House Speaker for the 116th Congress and instead voted for Cheri Bustos , who is active in recruiting and supporting Democratic candidates in Republican-leaning areas. Until the end of May 2019, Cunningham did not vote in any case with President Trump in Congress.

Positions and Actions

Cunningham advocates moderate political positions that are rather conservative for a Democrat. He advocates non-partisan cooperation and pragmatic solutions. The gun owner is committed to protecting the right to carry guns, which is codified in the Second Amendment to the Constitution . However, it supports some restrictions, such as mandatory background checks of gun buyers and the ban on bump stocks . In line with the left-liberal mainstream of his party, he advocates not denying women their own decision about abortion ( Pro-Choice ). In the 2018 election campaign, he spoke out against left-wing party friends in favor of not dissolving the immigration authority Immigration and Customs Enforcement .

In 2018, he caused a stir with some election campaigns. He had health care a major topic when he read the entire text of Republican health reform in a video that lasted more than three hours after Sanford admitted he hadn't read all of it. To reach young voters, he published a personal Spotify list and offered an ongoing brewery tour of the Congressional constituency.

Web links

Commons : Joe Cunningham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Steve Flairty: Kentucky by Heart: Joe Cunningham, Chase grad, flips US house seat in S. Carolina for dems. In: Northern Kentucky Tribune , November 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ Berry Craig: A Cunningham in Congress - but it's Joe, not Bill. In: Forward Kentucky , November 2, 2018; Steve Flairty: Kentucky by Heart: Joe Cunningham, Chase grad, flips US house seat in S. Carolina for dems. In: Northern Kentucky Tribune , November 13, 2018; Justice Bill Cunningham. In: Kentucky Court of Justice.
  3. ^ Caitlin Byrd: Can Joe Cunningham go to Congress? 'I've learned not to underestimate him'. In: The Post and Courier , August 26, 2018.
  4. ^ Caitlin Byrd: Can Joe Cunningham go to Congress? 'I've learned not to underestimate him'. In: The Post and Courier , August 26, 2018.
  5. ^ Caitlin Byrd: Can Joe Cunningham go to Congress? 'I've learned not to underestimate him'. In: The Post and Courier , August 26, 2018; Berry Craig: A Cunningham in Congress - but it's Joe, not Bill. In: Kentucky Forward , November 2, 2018.
  6. ↑ Cunningham, Joe. In: OurCampaigns.
  7. ↑ Berry Craig: A Cunningham in Congress - but it's Joe, not Bill. In: Kentucky Forward , November 2, 2018.
  8. ↑ Steve Flairty: Kentucky by Heart: Joe Cunningham, Chase grad, flips US house seat in S. Carolina for dems. In: Northern Kentucky Tribune , November 13, 2018; 2018 House Forecast: South Carolina 1st. In: FiveThirtyEight .
  9. ^ Caitlin Byrd: Can Joe Cunningham go to Congress? 'I've learned not to underestimate him'. In: The Post and Courier , August 26, 2018.
  10. ^ Bill Burr: Democrat Joe Cunningham scores Republican endorsements for anti-offshore drilling stance. In: ABC News , June 20, 2018; Berry Craig: A Cunningham in Congress - but it's Joe, not Bill. In: Forward Kentucky , November 2, 2018.
  11. ^ Tim Smith: How a Democrat won South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, and why it matters. In: The Greenville News , November 7, 2018.
  12. ↑ Joe Cunningham's Biography. In: Vote Smart.
  13. ↑ Emma Dumain: Dems give vulnerable Joe Cunningham a gift: A chance to deliver a top campaign pledge. In: McClatchy DC , March 25, 2019.
  14. ^ Adam Manno: Rep. Joe Cunningham and Sen. Kamala Harris file bill to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in public housing. In: Charleston City Paper , March 12, 2019.
  15. ↑ Emma Dumain: Joe Cunningham votes no on Pelosi as speaker, backs House campaign head instead. In: McClatchy DC , January 3, 2019.
  16. ↑ Tracking Congress In The Age Of Trump: Joe Cunningham. In: FiveThirtyEight .
  17. ^ Caitlin Byrd: Can Joe Cunningham go to Congress? 'I've learned not to underestimate him'. In: The Post and Courier , August 26, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Cunningham, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cunningham, Joseph Kendrick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Democratic Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Caldwell County , Kentucky