15 Facts About Lynn Westmoreland

Lynn Westmoreland has no degree beyond a high school diploma.

Lynn Westmoreland attended Georgia State University, but dropped out to work in a family construction business in which he later became an executive.

Lynn Westmoreland served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1993 to 2005, rising to the position of House Republican Leader in 2001.

Lynn Westmoreland held that position until 2003 when he stepped down in order to devote time to his Congressional campaign in late 2003.

Lynn Westmoreland continued to serve in the Georgia House until his election to the US House in 2005.

Lynn Westmoreland abandoned his opposition and was instrumental in the mid-decade redistricting that took place in 2005, after Republicans won control of the Georgia legislature in the 2004 elections.

In January 2015, the House Intelligence Committee was reorganized, and a subcommittee on Cybersecurity and the National Security Agency was created with Lynn Westmoreland appointed to be the subcommittee's first chairman.

Lynn Westmoreland sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting.

Lynn Westmoreland led a group of congressmen who opposed the 2006 renewal of certain provisions in the Voting Rights Act that require nine Southern states and a number of counties to obtain Federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue.

In 2008, Lynn Westmoreland ran unopposed in the Republican primary and was re-elected after defeating his Democratic opponent Stephen Camp.

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

On September 4,2008, Lynn Westmoreland described Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as "uppity", a term historically used to describe Americans who have made economic, social, or political progress.

Lynn Westmoreland won a plurality of votes in the Republican primary election in 2004, but faced fellow Republican Dylan Glenn in a runoff.

Lynn Westmoreland was reelected five more times from this district with no substantive opposition.

Lynn Westmoreland is an appointed member of the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan, independent committee charged with overseeing outside ethics complaints against members of Congress.