David Joyce

The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy ranked Joyce the 29th most bipartisan member of the House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress and the most bipartisan member of the House from Ohio.

David Patrick Joyce (born March 17, 1957) is an American politician and attorney currently serving in the United States House of Representatives for Ohio's 14th congressional district since 2013.

A member of the Republican Party, Joyce was previously the prosecutor of Geauga County, Ohio.

He chairs the Republican Governance Group.

Joyce was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Irish Catholic family.

His father was a coal salesman.

In high school, he played football, and considered joining the priesthood.

In 1975, Joyce enrolled at the University of Dayton, a Catholic university, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting in 1979, and later his Juris Doctor.

From 1983 to 1984, Joyce was a public defender for Cuyahoga County, and from 1985 to 1988 a public defender for Geauga County.

In 1989, he was hired as an assistant county attorney in Lake County.

He assisted County Prosecutor Steven C. LaTourette in prosecuting serial murderer and cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren for the Kirtland cult killings.

By 2012, Joyce had been appointed prosecutor of Geauga County.

He prosecuted the 2012 Chardon High School shooting of six students that took place on February 27, 2012.

The defendant, Thomas "T.J."

Lane, 17 years old at the time of the crime, was charged as an adult with three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated attempted murder, and one count of felonious assault.

In July 2012, Representative Steve LaTourette of Ohio's 14th congressional district announced that he would retire in 2012 rather than seek reelection.

Because LaTourette announced his retirement after the primary, local Republican party leaders chose Joyce as the replacement nominee.

Joyce ran in the November general election against Democratic nominee Dale Virgil Blanchard, Libertarian David Macko and Green Party nominee Elaine Mastromatteo.

He won with 54% of the vote.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2013 to three life sentences without parole.

In February 2013, Roll Call reported that Steve Israel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, had identified the 14th congressional district as one of the party's top four targets in 2014.

The House Majority PAC made Joyce one of its top targets to oust in the 2014 elections.

In 2014, according to one news source, Joyce "survived a grueling primary against a Tea Party-backed candidate" before facing "an equally tough challenge from Michael Wager."

Joyce won with 63.3% of the vote to Wager's 33% and independent David Macko's 3.7%.

Joyce defeated Wager again, 62.6% to 37.4%.

Asked about his legislative priorities in March 2016, Joyce cited terrorist threats, job growth, government spending, the national debt, environmental protection of the Great Lakes, and health care.

In April 2017, Betsy Rader, a Democrat, announced that she would run against Joyce in 2018.

She is a lawyer who represents victims of employment discrimination.

Rader said she supported "much" of the Affordable Care Act, but that she needed to study health care more as an issue.

She criticized Joyce for opposing an increase in the minimum wage and for wanting to defund Planned Parenthood.

In October 2017, Darrell Scott, a pastor involved in President Donald Trump's political operation, and who served as CEO of the semi-official "National Diversity Coalition for Trump" organized by Trump's attorney Michael Cohen, said he would consider a primary challenge to Joyce.

In July 2017, Joyce said that U.S. political discourse had reached a "vitriolic" level.

"I do know there's a level of frustration out there," he said.

"But we need to work together. [President Donald Trump] has gotten into this tug-of-war with the national media. Now we're six months into his presidency ... and infrastructure improvements, tax changes and healthcare law are not getting covered. They are dealing with the tweet du Jour ... and [Trump's tweets] certainly don't help."

Joyce is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus, Veterinary Medicine Caucus, and the Climate Solutions Caucus.

He co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

During Donald Trump's presidency, Joyce voted in line with Trump's stated position 91.8% of the time.

As of September 2021, Joyce had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 30.6% of the time.

Joyce opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and has voted 31 times to repeal it.

In 2017, he voted against a Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying it "was too partisan".