Mark Walker (North Carolina politician)

Early life and career

Walker was born on May 20, 1969, in Dothan, Alabama. His father was an Independent Baptist minister, was the chaplain of a prison in Alabama.

Walker eventually attended Trinity Baptist College for a time before moving with his family to Houston, Texas. From there, Walker moved to the Piedmont Triad. He worked in business and finance for several years. Walker eventually returned to college to pursue the ministry and attend Piedmont Baptist College, now Piedmont International University, graduating with a B.A. in Biblical Studies. Walker was ordained in the Southern Baptist denomination. His career in ministry began at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. From there he has worked for and led churches in North Carolina and Florida. He has served as a worship pastor, executive pastor and lead pastor.

In 2008, Walker started with Lawndale Baptist Church in Greensboro as its Pastor of Arts and Worship. The church has a membership of several thousand congregants.

Elections

Walker's 2014 campaign slogan was "People Before Politics." Following the primary election, Walker and Phil Berger, Jr. advanced to a runoff election. Despite finishing second in the May primary, Walker unexpectedly won the runoff election by a significant margin.

Tenure and political views

Walker holds "deeply conservative" beliefs. He is an avowed opponent of the Affordable Care Act, and has led the conservative Republican Study Committee's efforts to repeal the health care reform legislation. He has called for "full repeal" of the legislation, and criticized 2015 Republican-sponsored legislation that would repeal only part of the act.

During the 2016 presidential election, Walker called some of Republican nominee Donald Trump's remarks "morally reprehensible" and condemned Trump's lewd remarks about women as "vile." Nevertheless, Walker still backed Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Walker opposed Trump's proposal to create a national registry to track American Muslims, but did express support for "vetting of refugees and immigrants."

In December 2016, Walker was one of only 33 Republican U.S. Representatives to vote "no" on a short-term stopgap funding measure that would appropriate millions of dollars in federal disaster relief spending in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Walker said that he opposed such stopgap funding bills.

Walker has led efforts to improve the Republican Party's outreach to African Americans, and organized a February 2017 conference between the presidents and chancellors of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Republican congressional leaders. He also worked with fellow Representative Alma Adams, a Democrat from North Carolina, to start an internship program for students from HBCUs. He is supportive of criminal justice reform initiatives, and has called for a shift in Republican approach to this issue.

In 2017, Walker became co-chair of the Congressional Prayer Caucus.

Walker has played for the Republicans in the annual Congressional Baseball Game, serving as pitcher in the 2016 game.

Republican Study Committee

In 2016, Walker launched a campaign to become chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a faction of highly conservative Republicans. Walker defeated Andy Harris of Maryland in the November 2016 election, becoming the youngest RSC chairman in history.

HB2 controversy

Walker is a proponent of North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act ("HB2"), a controversial piece of legislation which was read, amended, passed and signed in a matter of hours on March 23, 2016. On March 28, 2016, as businesses and local governments began registering opposition to HB2, Walker tweeted, "I'm growing weary of the big business and corporate bullying over HB2." At a prayer breakfast on April 2016, Walker asserted that the Democrats had emphasized opposition to HB2 as "part of a calculated strategy to retake control of the Senate, turn the state blue, and establish a base of support for the [2016] presidential election."

2014 remarks on Mexico

During his 2014 campaign, at a Tea Party forum in Rockingham County, North Carolina, Walker was asked if military force was appropriate along the U.S.-Mexican border. He stated that the National Guard might be necessary to secure the border. He added, "...if you have foreigners who are sneaking in with drug cartels, to me that is a national threat, and if we got to go laser or blitz somebody.. I don’t have a problem with that either." The moderator then asked if he had any qualms about starting a war with Mexico. Walker responded jokingly, "Well, we did it before, if we need to do it again, I don't have a qualm about it." Later, Walker met with the editors of the Greensboro News & Record to tell them, "Being someone who is not a career politician, I’ve learned there are different environments that are a little more heated in context. And when you walk into those by proxy, you have to be very concerned as well as being very upfront about what your positions are because you can be guided very easily."

Duck ramp remarks

On May 15, 2017, Walker's Twitter account posted a tweet in which he criticized the construction of specially made ramps allowing ducks to get into and out of the US Capitol Reflecting Pool. In it, he called the move "government waste." Walker subsequently faced backlash over this remark on social media.

Committee assignments

Personal life

Walker is married to Kelly Sears, a nurse practitioner. They have three children and live in Greensboro.