U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2007 In February 2007, Republican U.S. Congressman
Charlie Norwood, of
Georgia's 10th congressional district, died of cancer. Broun had announced his candidacy before Norwood's death. There was a special election open primary in June 2007, where candidates of all parties participated in the primary. A candidate needed 50% to win outright, and there would be a run-off if no candidate earned it the first time. Ten candidates filed: six Republicans, three Democrats, and a Libertarian. State Senator
Jim Whitehead was the only candidate with electoral experience, and was considered the frontrunner. He was endorsed by U.S. Senator
Saxby Chambliss. In the primary, Whitehead finished first with 44% of the vote. Broun qualified for the run-off, ranking second with 21% of the vote, with only 198 votes more than third-place finisher James Marlow, a Democrat. Broun won a plurality of just four counties:
Oconee (47%),
Jackson (42%),
Oglethorpe (37%), and
Morgan (31%). In the runoff campaign, Whitehead angered some voters by failing to appear at a debate held in Athens and then by referring to his
alma mater, the University of Georgia, as a "liberal bastion" that should be eliminated, save for the football team. In the July 17, 2007 election, Broun upset Whitehead by a margin of just 0.8%, a difference of just 394 votes. After the votes were certified, Whitehead declined to ask for a recount despite the narrow margin.
2008 Broun was challenged by Republican state representative and House Majority Leader
Barry Fleming, who had endorsed Whitehead in the 2007 election. Broun defeated Fleming in the July 2008 primary, 71%–29%. He won every county in the district. However, his weakest performance was in the Southeastern part. He won counties like Richmond with just 52% and Columbia with just 58%. He won the general election with 61% to 39% against Democrat Bobby Saxon.
2010 Broun won re-election to a second full term, defeating Democrat Russell Edwards, 67%–33%.
2012 In November 2011, Republican
Mac Collins, who had represented much of the middle portion of Broun's redrawn district in Congress a decade earlier, said he was likely to challenge Broun in the 10th District. In May 2012, Collins decided he would not challenge Broun. In July, Broun won the Republican primary, defeating retired Army officer Stephen Simpson. Broun faced no Democratic candidate in the November general election. A leaked video of a speech given at Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet on September 27, 2012, shows Broun telling supporters that, "All that stuff I was taught about
evolution and
embryology and the
Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell." In addition, Broun is a
young earth creationist, and believes that the world is only a few thousand years old, and was created in
six literal days. In response to these remarks, coupled with Broun being on the
House Science Committee, libertarian radio talk show host
Neal Boortz spearheaded a campaign to run the English naturalist and evolutionary theorist
Charles Darwin against Broun, with the intention of drawing attention to these comments from the scientific community and having Broun removed from his post on the House Science Committee. Broun won re-election on November 6, 2012, receiving 209,917 votes across the district. Charles Darwin received about 4000
write-in ballots in
Athens-Clarke County as protest votes against Broun's views on evolution, while Broun received 16,980 votes in that county.
2016 In 2016, Broun announced his candidacy for Congress. By this time, he had moved to
Gainesville, which is in the
Georgia's 9th congressional district. At the time,
Cook Political Report rated the 9th as the third most conservative district in the nation. He was running mostly in territory that he did not know and that did not know him, though he represented the district's share of Athens for much of his first stint in Congress. Broun ran in a five-candidate Republican primary race with fellow Tea Party challengers Roger Fitzpatrick, Bernie Fontaine and Mike Scupin, against
incumbent candidate
Doug Collins, who held the 9th since 2012. In the May primary, Collins won with 52,943 votes (61.3 percent of the vote), over Broun's 18,761 votes (22 percent), Fitzpatrick's 8,942 votes (10.5 percent), Scupin's 2,854 votes (3.36 percent), and Fontaine's 2,338 votes (2.75 percent).
2020 Broun ran in the primary and was defeated
2022 Broun ran in the primary and was defeated
Tenure On July 25, 2007, Broun was sworn in by
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In January 2013, at the beginning of the
113th Congress, Broun was one of a
handful of House Republicans to not vote to reelect John Boehner as
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Broun instead voted for outspoken former U.S. Representative
Allen West of Florida, even though West lost his bid for re-election in November 2012 and was no longer a member of Congress. According to
Politico reporter Charlie Mahtesian, Broun has "a flair for the provocative." Broun is part of the
Christian right. In May 2009, Broun proposed a
simple resolution that would have proclaimed 2010 "The Year Of The Bible." He also introduced a bill to ban the sale or rental of sexually explicit materials on U.S. military installations. In 2008, 2009, and 2011, Broun was the lead sponsor of the
Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the
United States Constitution to define marriage as "consisting only of the union of a man and a woman" and thus prohibit
same-sex marriage in the United States. Broun also sponsored the proposed
Balanced Budget Amendment in various congresses. Broun received a 96% rating from the
National Taxpayers Union. Broun also voted against the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and decries the high cost of the bill. In 2008, Broun signed
Americans for Prosperity's "No Climate Tax" pledge, promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes. Broun, in September 2008, voted against the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which created the
Troubled Asset Relief Program, or "TARP". Broun voted against the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. Broun supported the October 2013
U.S. federal government shutdown, which was precipitated by a group of Republican members of Congress who sought to dismantle the ACA. In 2013, Broun introduced the
Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2013 (the "audit the Fed" legislation), a bill that would direct the
GAO to conduct an audit of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the
Federal Reserve Banks. Broun has argued for continued U.S. support of Israel on both strategic and theological grounds, saying in 2014, "It's absolutely imperative that we support Israel—our brothers and sisters in the Middle East—not only because of the geopolitical reasons there, which are strong enough in themselves, but because of
a promise God made to Abraham."
2020 AR-15 campaign ad video controversy A video released by Broun's campaign in 2020 showed Broun shooting a rifle, offering to give away an
AR-15 rifle "to one lucky person who signs up for email updates" from his campaign website, and warning that during the
COVID-19 pandemic that Americans might need an AR-15 to shoot "looting hordes from Atlanta." Broun lives in
Gainesville, a white majority city about an hour outside the state capital
Atlanta, which is a majority
African American city. •
Tea Party Caucus ==2014 U.S. Senate election==