Bob Inglis

Robert Durden Inglis Sr. (born October 11, 1959) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for SC's 4th congressional district from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2011.

He is a moderate member of the Republican Party.

Proving just how Republican this district had become, Inglis was re-elected in 1994 and 1996 with no substantive opposition, both times winning more than 70 percent of the vote.

Inglis had promised during his initial bid for the seat to serve only three terms.

Accordingly, he vacated the seat in 1998 to run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Ernest Hollings, who had been in office since 1966, as successor to Olin Johnston.

Inglis gave Hollings his second close race in a row, holding the longtime Senator to 53 percent of the vote.

After losing the race, Inglis returned to work as a lawyer, practicing commercial real estate and corporate law.

He was succeeded in the House by Jim DeMint, who had been an informal adviser to Inglis.

In 2004, DeMint opted to run for Hollings's open Senate seat instead of seeking re-election to the House.

Inglis chose to try for his old House seat.

He easily won a three-way Republican primary with 85 percent of the vote, all but assuring his return to Congress.

He faced the founder of the HBCU Classic and first African American Democratic candidate to run for the 4th District seat, Brandon P. Brown from Taylors, in the general election.

Inglis was re-elected with little difficulty in 2006 and 2008.

Inglis faced four challengers in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district.

It was the first time he faced substantive primary opposition as an incumbent.

The challengers included 7th Circuit (Spartanburg) Solicitor Trey Gowdy, state Senator David L. Thomas, college professor and former Historian of the U.S. House Christina Jeffrey, and businessman Jim Lee.

He was one of seventeen House Republicans who voted for a Democratic resolution opposing the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and spoke against climate change denial, offshore oil drilling and warrantless surveillance after his return to the House.

In response, Inglis pointed to his 93.5% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union and his endorsements from the NRA Political Victory Fund and National Right to Life Committee.

On climate change, Inglis said that conservatives should go with the facts, and the science, and accept the National Academy of Sciences' conclusion that climate change is caused by human activities and poses significant risks, which 97 percent of climate scientists agree with.

Although he had "racked up a reliably conservative record" during his six terms in the House, Inglis had been criticized by his primary opponents for certain votes, including his support for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (which earned him the nickname "Bailout Bob") and his opposition to the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and was portrayed as removed from the interests of the district.

Inglis had attacked Gowdy's conservatism and questioned his opponent's support for creating a costly lake in Union County, South Carolina.

In the runoff, Gowdy defeated Inglis in a landslide, 71–29 percent.

Following his defeat in the Republican primary, Inglis criticized the Tea Party movement, which had supported his opponent's campaign, as well as the Republican Party for courting the movement, stating, "It's a dangerous strategy, to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible."

Inglis was unseated in the Republican primary runoff in 2010 by a landslide.

In the June 8, 2010, primary election, Inglis finished second with 27 percent of the vote, well behind first-place finisher Gowdy's 39 percent.

Inglis was forced into a June 22 run-off election against Gowdy.

Inglis's 2010 Republican primary opponents asserted that his voting record in his second House tenure was more moderate than his first.

In 2012, Inglis launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a nationwide public engagement campaign promoting conservative and free-enterprise solutions to energy and climate challenges.

E&EI is based in George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and attempts to build support for energy policies that are dictated by conservative concepts of limited government, big business, accountability, reasonable risk-avoidance, and free enterprise capitalism.

Inglis was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Helen Louise (née McCullough) and Allick Wyllie Inglis Jr. His ancestry is Scottish and English.

He grew up in Bluffton, South Carolina, near Hilton Head Island.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

He obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Upon his graduation from law school, he worked for a number of years as a lawyer in private practice, and served on the executive committee of the Greenville County Republican Party.

In 2015, he signed an amicus brief calling for the recognition of same-sex marriage.

Inglis made his first run for elected office when he won the Republican nomination for the 4th District.

In the general election, he defeated three-term incumbent Democrat Liz J. Patterson, who had earlier defeated Bill Workman and Knox H. White, two Republicans who were successive mayors of Greenville, with White still in the position.

In this election, incumbent President George H. W. Bush carried the state with 48% of the vote, although he lost nationally, and South Carolina's majority of voters made it one of the strongest Republican-voting states.

Although the 4th District had been trending Republican for some time, Patterson had deep family ties in the district as the daughter of the late, longtime U.S. Senator Olin D. Johnston.

Additionally, she had won her first three terms under unfriendly conditions for Democrats.