Jack Kingston

John Heddens Kingston (born April 24, 1955) is an American businessman, lobbyist, and politician who served as U.S. representative for Georgia's 1st congressional district in southeast Georgia, serving from 1993 to 2015.

Kingston was born on April 24, 1955, in Bryan, Texas.

He is the son of Martha Ann (née Heddens) and Albert James Kingston Jr., a widely published university professor, who co-founded the National Reading Conference.

His father was born in Brooklyn and his mother in Los Angeles.

As a child, Kingston lived briefly in Ethiopia.

He grew up in Athens, Georgia.

He has lived in Savannah since 1977.

Kingston received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Georgia in 1978, where he also joined Lambda Chi Alpha and the Demosthenian Literary Society.

He was vice president of Palmer, Cay and Carswell from 1979 to 1992.

Before entering politics in 1982, he sold insurance and worked in agribusiness throughout southeastern Georgia.

In 1984, Kingston defeated Democratic candidate Bobby Phillips 62%–38%.

He won re-election in 1986, 1988, and 1990 all unopposed.

While conservative Democrats represented much of this area in the state legislature well into the 1990s, the district has only supported a Democratic nominee for president once since 1960, when Jimmy Carter swept every county in the state during his successful run for the presidency in 1976.

Kingston won the election with 58% of the vote, becoming the first Republican to represent this district since Reconstruction, and the first to win an undisputed election in the district in 118 years.

Kingston was helped by the 1990s round of redistricting, which significantly altered the district.

The 1st had been based in Savannah for over a century.

In 1992, Kingston gave up his seat in the state house to pursue a congressional run in Georgia's 1st congressional district after five-term Democratic incumbent Lindsay Thomas announced his retirement.

The district had been one of the first areas of Georgia where the old-line conservative Democratic Party voters had begun splitting their tickets and voting Republican at the national level.

Even when the district included all of Savannah (as was the case from 1996 to 2002 and again after the 2010s round of redistricting), Kingston was reelected without serious difficulty.

In November 1997, Kingston was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.

The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.

This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

Kingston was reelected 10 times, never dropping below 63% of the vote and even running unopposed in 1998 and 2004.

The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.

On October 8, 1998, Kingston voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.

He is a member of the Republican Party and was part of the House leadership (2002–06) when he served as vice-chair of the Republican Conference.

From 2003 through the end of 2006, Kingston served as vice-chairman of the House Republican Conference, the sixth-ranking post among House Republicans.

Kingston signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform, and in 2009 he was named a "Taxpayer Hero" by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste for his votes to reduce government spending and taxes.

In 2010 Kingston signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.

Kingston is a supporter of Medicare prescription drug coverage.

He has voted to allow HMOs to be sued, and also to limit damages and shorten time limits for medical lawsuits.

In 2010, he voted against the Affordable Care Act, asserting the bill would raise premiums, taxes, and cut Medicare.

Kingston has voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, and voted to add pollutants to the Clean Water Act.

He has voted against tax incentives for renewable energy and in favor of opening the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling.

Kingston voted to loosen restrictions on interstate gun purchases and to allow veterans to register unlicensed guns acquired abroad.

An early attempt to become chair of the influential House Appropriations Committee in the 112th Congress (2011–2013) was unsuccessful.

Kingston was an early supporter of earmark reforms and spending reductions.

Throughout his tenure, Kingston has received over 40 awards on a diversity of issues from various interest groups.

However, redistricting shifted most of Savannah's African-American residents to the newly created 12th District.

In 2014, he ran for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by retiring senator Saxby Chambliss and advanced beyond the May 20 primary to the July 22 runoff, where he was defeated by David Perdue.