KEI Contributor

Congressman Addison “Joe” Graves Wilson is the Representative of the Second Congressional District of South Carolina. In this role, Congressman Wilson is committed to promoting peace through a strong national defense, decreasing taxes for all Americans, and limiting the size and spending of the federal government. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and completed his law degree at the University of South Carolina. A real estate attorney by trade, Congressman Wilson was a founding partner of the West Columbia law firm Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas.

His career in public service officially began when he served on the staffs of South Carolina legends Senator Strom Thurmond and Congressman Floyd Spence. As part of the visionary Ronald Reagan administration, Congressman Wilson was Deputy General Counsel to the United States Department of Energy Secretary and former South Carolina Governor, Jim Edwards.

Throughout his life, Congressman Wilson has had a tremendous passion to serve his country, serving as a member of the United States Armed Forces. After serving in the United States Army Reserves from 1972-1975, he also served in the South Carolina Army National Guard. In the summer of 2003, Joe retired as a Colonel, having served as a Staff Judge Advocate assigned to the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade. At the time, he was the only active Guard member serving in Congress.

Before being elected to the United States Congress in 2001, he served 17 years in the South Carolina State Senate where he was elected Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, the first Republican Chairman since the Reconstruction Era.

He serves as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is the Chair of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Subcommittee and a member of the Subcommittee on Europe. He is also the most senior member of the House Armed Services Committee where he is on the Subcommittees on Readiness and also Strategic Forces. Additionally, he serves on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions. Congressman Wilson is the Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Since the 111th Congress, he has been appointed to the highly influential Republican Policy Committee. He chairs the Republican Study Committee's National Security and Foreign Affairs Task Force for the 118th Congress. He serves as Co-Chair of the Bulgaria, French, UK, Korea, Ethiopia, Türkiye, Belarus, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Qatar, Republican Israel, Composites, and Counter-Kleptocracy caucuses, in addition to being a founding member and co-chair of the EU Caucus.