U.S. House of Representatives
Elections ;2008 In 2006, 25-year incumbent Republican
E. Clay Shaw, Jr. was defeated by Democrat
Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd Congressional District. The district was located in
Broward and
Palm Beach counties, and included parts of
Fort Lauderdale,
Boca Raton and
Palm Beach. Allen West entered politics in 2008 to regain the lost House seat, challenging freshman incumbent Klein. West received the Republican nomination without opposition. However, he lost to Klein by a margin of 9.4% of the votes. The official results were Klein with 169,041 votes (54.7%), and West with 140,104 votes (45.3%). ;2010 West ran in a rematch with Klein. He spoke at the
Conservative Political Action Conference on February 20, 2010, and was endorsed by former Alaska Governor
Sarah Palin. West was one of 32 African-American Republican candidates for Congress in 2010. He said he supported the
Tea Party movement and rejected the notion that the movement was motivated by racism, saying the accusation was a creation of liberal critics and the news media. He was described as a "tea party star" became a member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus in February 2011. In September 2010, the Florida Democratic Party produced a flyer that contained West's unredacted Social Security number. While the party called it an "oversight" and offered to pay for identity theft protection, West harshly condemned the flyer for exposing his family to identity theft. West defeated Klein by a margin of 8.8%. Along with newly elected South Carolina Representative
Tim Scott, he was one of the first African-American Republicans in Congress since
J.C. Watts retired in 2003. West raised $5.4 million for his campaign, while his incumbent opponent raised $2.5 million. According to West, "...over 97 percent of our donations have come from individual contributions." ;2012 (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. West raised more than $1.5 million in the 2011 second quarter to support his 2012 reelection bid. The
National Journals
Cook Political Report in 2011 named West one of the top 10 Republicans most vulnerable to redistricting in 2012. Redistricting made the 22nd, which already had a modest Democratic lean, even more Democratic. West faced the prospect of running against West Palm Beach mayor
Lois Frankel in the general election. On February 1, 2012, West announced that he would run for reelection in the neighboring 18th District. That district had previously been the 16th, represented by fellow Republican
Tom Rooney. However, Rooney opted to seek reelection in the newly created 17th District, a move that was considered likely to dramatically improve West's chances of reelection, although it was still a competitive race. In the new district, West received a primary challenge from
Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder. West did not debate Crowder and said "debating an uninformed opponent would waste voters' time". Incumbent West defeated Crowder in a landslide, receiving 74.4% of the vote. His general election opponent was Democrat Patrick Murphy, a political newcomer and a Republican until 2011. The campaign featured several negative ads, including one released by American Sunrise PAC that was extremely critical of West's policies and depicted him in violent cartoon action against several individuals. West issued a statement condemning the ad, stating that it "plays on stereotypes" with the goal of diverting Americans from more pressing matters at hand such as high unemployment. He claimed the ad was released by the family of his opponent. The campaign manager of his opponent, said the ad was from a third party and therefore held no liability for it. After primary opponent Crowder endorsed Murphy, a spokesman of the West campaign said "Crowder is a Democrat and a sore loser. I'm shocked he waited this long. Perhaps Crowder hopes to continue cozying up to local Democrats so he can be their nominee against Allen West in 2014." Initial vote counts showed Murphy defeating West by a narrow margin of 2,000 votes. West did not concede, citing irregularities in
St. Lucie County where some early ballots may have been counted twice. Florida state election officials unofficially certified Murphy as the winner. A partial recount of early ballots cast between November 1 and 3, 2012, in St. Lucie County slightly decreased the margin separating the candidates, and the West campaign sought further recounts. West said that if the final results show a loss, he would not cling to his title as a member of Congress, but wanted to ensure a fair election was carried out, raising the potential of a protracted legal battle. As of the November 18 state deadline, the St. Lucie County election officials had not completed a recount of all of the early ballots, and so the previously submitted vote count which showed Murphy as the winner by 2,146 votes was submitted to the state election officials. The West campaign conceded the election on November 20, 2012. Some of his statements include calling President
Barack Obama "an abject failure", ordering both pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the views of "chicken men" Democrats to "get the hell out" of the United States, opining that drivers with Obama bumper stickers are "a threat to the gene pool", and pronouncing that African American Democrats are trying to keep African Americans "on the
plantation", while casting himself as the "modern-day
Harriet Tubman" ferrying them to rescue. In a critical summation of West's style, the
liberal magazine
Mother Jones opined that "[for West] every sentence is a proxy war in the larger struggle between patriots and the 'people in this world that just have to have their butts kicked'". In February, West described
Michael Ledeen as one of his "foreign policy heroes", and implored his followers to read
Saul Alinsky's
Rules for Radicals to "understand what they're up against". Other authors West has cited in helping him shape his worldview include philosopher
John Stuart Mill and
Union Army General
William Tecumseh Sherman. Pollard was released on November 20, 2015, in accordance with federal guidelines in place at the time of his sentencing. Anne Pollard, his ex-wife, said "No one helped him. No government reduced his sentence by even one day." West attempted to cast his work overseas in historical terms, theorizing that America is following in the footsteps of
Charles Martel at the
Battle of Tours, or the 300
Spartan Hoplites at the
Battle of Thermopylae, in defending Western civilization against
Muslim threats from the Middle East. In speaking on what he believed to be
Islam's proclivity for violence, West remarked that "Something happened when
Mohammed enacted the
Hijra and he left
Mecca and he went out to
Medina, it became violence." He voted against another extension in May 2011. When asked during an interview with
The Shalom Show how he would work with others "like
Keith Ellison, who supports Islam", West stated that Ellison, a Minnesota representative and practicing Muslim, represents the "antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established". West later argued that his initial comment was misconstrued. He said the comments were "not about his Islamic faith, but about his continued support of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)". In a Boynton Beach Town Hall meeting, West told the Miami leader of CAIR that "I will always defend your right to practice a free religion under the
First Amendment, but what you must understand, if I am speaking the truth, I am not going to stop speaking the truth. The truth is not subjective." West has been on the Advisory Board of the
International Free Press Society, and has been described as a part of the
counter-jihad movement. On July 19, 2011, West sent an email to Democratic representative and
Democratic National Committee chairwoman
Debbie Wasserman Schultz in response to comments directed at him in a speech the congresswoman made on the floor of the House of Representatives after West had departed the chamber. West's email, which he copied to members of House Democratic and Republican leadership, characterized Wasserman as "the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives", said that she was "not a lady" and asked that she focus, instead, on her own congressional district. This is a long-standing dispute that West says "dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign headquarters, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach". At a town hall meeting in Palm City, Florida on April 11, 2012, West was asked by a man in the audience, "What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card carrying
Marxists or International Socialists?" West responded that "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the
Communist Party." When asked to name them, he replied "It's called the
Congressional Progressive Caucus."
Committee assignments West was appointed to the
House Armed Services Committee and the
Small Business Committee. •
Committee on Armed Services •
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities •
Committee on Small Business •
Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce •
Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations Caucus memberships •
Republican Study Committee •
Tea Party Caucus •
Congressional Black Caucus When West joined the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on January 5, 2011, he became the first Republican to join the CBC since former Congressman
Gary Franks of Connecticut retired in 1997. ==Post-congressional career (2013–present)==