Jack Kingston

Early life, education, and business career

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, New York and his mother in Los Angeles, California. As a child, Kingston lived briefly in Ethiopia. He grew up in Athens, Georgia. Kingston received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in economics from the University of Georgia in 1978, where he also joined Lambda Chi Alpha and the Demosthenian Literary Society. He has lived in Savannah, since 1977 and sold insurance and worked in agribusiness throughout southeastern Georgia, before entering politics in 1982. He was vice president of Palmer, Cay and Carswell. from 1979–1992.

Elections

In 1984, he defeated Democratic candidate Bobby Phillips 62%–38%. He won re-election in 1986, 1988, and 1990 all unopposed.

Committee assignments

Elections

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. While conservative Democratic politicians 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 percent of the vote, becoming the first Republican to represent this district since Reconstruction. 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. But redistricting shifted most of Savannah's African-American residents to the newly created 11th District. Kingston was reelected 10 times. Since his initial run for the seat, he never received less than 63 percent of the vote. Even when the district included all of Savannah, most of it was added back to the district from 1996 to 2002, and was restored again after the 2010s round of redistricting, Kingston was reelected; even running unopposed in 1998. He was also reelected unopposed in 2004.

Tenure

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

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 HMO's 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.

Kingston sponsored legislation in 1999 to authorize the expansion of the Savannah harbor in order to accommodate larger vessels.

Regarding the extension of the House work week from 3 days to 5 in 2006, Kingston commented, "Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families – that's what this says." He added, "Time away from Washington is just as important to being an effective member of Congress as time spent in the Capitol. When I'm here, people call me Mr. Congressman. When I'm home, people call me 'Jack, you stupid SOB, why did you vote that way?' It keeps me grounded."

In an address to the Jackson County Republican Party, on December 14, 2013, Kingston, who is on the House Agricultural Committee, which oversees the federal school lunch program for the underprivileged, commented that it may be beneficial for students to "...sweep the floor in the cafeteria" to promote a work ethic and "instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch."

Kingston has said he was not advocating that poor children be singled out but rather that all children should perform chores to learn work ethic. "This is not targeted to any one group. It would be very helpful for kids in any socio-economic group to do chores and learn the work ethic. Those kids aren't there because of any fault of their own and I never suggested that they were," Kingston said on CNN.

Legislation

Kingston has sponsored 103 bills and resolutions, including:

103rd Congress (1993–1994)

105th Congress (1997–1998)

106th Congress (1999–2000)

107th Congress (2001–2002)

109th Congress (2005–2006)

110th Congress (2007–2008)

111th Congress (2009–2010)

112th Congress (2011–2012)

113th Congress (2013–2014)

Committee assignments

Kingston's committee assignments in the 113th Congress (2011–2013) were:

Caucus memberships

2014 U.S. Senate election

In May 2013, Kingston officially announced he would run for the open senate seat vacated by Republican U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss.

In the third quarter of 2013, Kingston outpaced his House colleagues in campaign fundraising for the open Senate seat. He was endorsed in the race by Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

After advancing past the May 20 primary to the July 22 runoff, Kingston lost to David Perdue with 49% of the vote.

Personal life

Kingston is married to Libby Morris. They have four adult children. He appeared as an extra in The Last Song, a movie filmed in Savannah and Tybee Island.