Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) currently scores a 95% on our Legislative Scorecard and was first elected during the Tea Party wave in 2010.
Rep. Mulvaney was born in Alexandria, VA in 1967, but grew up in Charlotte, NC before settling in Indian Land, SC. He received his Bachelors degree in International Economics, Commerce and Finance from Georgetown University with honors in 1989. He received a full scholarship to attend the law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His focus was on anti-trust law, and he graduated in 1992. In 2006, he completed the Harvard Business School's Owners and Presidents Management Program.
Rep. Mulvaney then practiced law with the James, McElroy & Diehl law firm before starting his own law firm. He then began running his family's homebuilding and real estate business. He was also a minority shareholder and Owner-Operator of Salsarita's Fresh Cantina, a local restaurant chain.
In 2006, Rep. Mulvaney ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives and became the first Republican to ever be elected to that position in his district. In 2008, Rep. Mulvaney decided to run for the state Senate after the incumbent Senator unexpectedly retired. He won that seat in a hard-fought election, and served on the Judiciary Committee, the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, the Medical Affairs Committee, the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and the Corrections Committee. With all those responsibilities, he was named the Freshman Legislator of the Year by the Palmetto Family Council for his work on the South Carolina ultrasound bill. He was named the Legislator of the Year in 2010 for supporting the state's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and received one of the few A+ ratings in the legislature from the Club for Growth.
In 2010, Rep. Mulvaney ran against Democratic incumbent John Spratt for South Carolina's 5th congressional district. Rep. Mulvaney went on to defeat Spratt, who had been in Congress since 1983, with 55% of the vote. He is able to focus on fewer issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, sitting on just three committees: Budget, Small Business and Joint Economic. He is also a member of the Republican Study Committee and the Tea Party Caucus.
He remains active in his community, as a founding member of both the Indian Land Rotary and of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Mission. He is also a youth baseball coach, a Board member at Springs Memorial Hospital, and a member of the Board of Visitors at USC-Lancaster, the Forth Mill Area Chamber of Commerce and of St. Philip Neri Catholic Church.
Even with all his extracurricular activities, he is still a loving husband to his wife, Pam and their triplets!