Floyd Spence

Floyd Spence
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1971 – August 16, 2001
Preceded by	Albert Watson
Succeeded by	Joe Wilson
Personal details
Born	April 9, 1928(1928-04-09) Columbia, South Carolina
Died	August 16, 2001(2001-08-16) (aged 73) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic (c. 1946–1962) Republican (1962–2001)

Floyd Davidson Spence (April 9, 1928 – August 16, 2001) was a Republican politician from South Carolina.

Early life and education

Spence was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1928, but spent most of his life in nearby Lexington County. Shortly after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, retiring as a captain in 1988. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in English in 1952 and earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law four years later.

Electoral history

Just after leaving law school, Spence was elected to represent Lexington County in the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Democrat. He was reelected in 1958 and 1960. However, on April 14, 1962, Spence announced he was switching to the Republican Party. He was very uncomfortable with the national Democrats' increasingly liberal platform, and also opposed a loyalty oath required by the state Democrats. On the same day, he announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for the state's 2nd congressional district, based in Columbia. He'd been asked by several of his friends to run before his switch, especially after the death of its previous congressman, John J. Riley, but declined. He faced fellow state representative Albert Watson of Columbia in November and wasn't given much of a chance.

At the time, the Democratic Party was virtually the only party in South Carolina, and Democratic presidential candidates frequently won the state with close to 90% of the popular vote. Indeed, Spence's party switch made him the first Republican in either house of the state legislature since 1902. However, he lost to Watson by only 5%. In 1966, Spence was elected to the South Carolina Senate, becoming minority leader of a six-member caucus. He was reelected in 1968.

In 1970, Spence ran for the 2nd Congressional District again. Watson, who had defeated Spence eight years before, had become a Republican in 1965 and was running for governor. This time, it was Spence who won a narrow victory. He became the first freshman Republican congressman from South Carolina since 1896, and only the second to win an undisputed victory in a House election held in the state since Reconstruction. He was unopposed for reelection in the gigantic Republican landslide of 1972 and reelected 14 times thereafter.

In 1974, Spence defeated Matthew J. Perry, who later became South Carolina's first African American U.S. District Court judge, in what was otherwise a very bad year for Republicans. He faced no credible opposition again until 1980, when state Senator Tom Turnipseed ran against him. However, one of Spence's consultants, Lee Atwater, ran several "push polls"—a new tactic at the time—informing voters that Turnipseed was a member of the NAACP and made an issue of treatments Turnipseed had undergone as a teenage, telling reporters the Democrat had been hooked up to "jumper cables". In a letter to Turnipseed after his diagnosis for brain cancer, Atwater called the jumper cable incident "one of the low points" of his career. This episode is covered in the award-winning documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. Due to this and Ronald Reagan's strong performance in the district, Spence was reelected with 55 percent of the vote. After cruising to reelection in 1982 and 1984, he won by only 7% in 1986. He faced another tough campaign in 1988. However, he faced no other Democratic opponent again until 1998.

Congressional career

For his first 11 terms, Spence represented a relatively compact district in the central portion of the state. However, the 1990s round of redistricting shifted nearly all of his black constituents to the majority-black 6th District. To make up for the loss in population, Spence's district was pushed well to the south and west, as far south as Hilton Head Island and as far west as the fringes of the Augusta suburbs.

Spence became ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee in 1993; he'd been a member of the committee since his first term. The 2nd includes several military bases, including Fort Jackson. He became the committee's chairman in 1995 after the Republicans took control of the House. He renamed the Armed Services Committee the "Committee on National Security" when he took over as chairman. He focused on military readiness, calling it "the best insurance we have both for peace and freedom." Spence was also a strong advocate for missile defense. He stepped down as chairman after the 106th Congress due to caucus-imposed term limits. He later served as chairman of the House Armed Services' subcommittee on military procurement.

Death and succession

Spence died on August 16, 2001, at the age of 73 from complications following brain surgery. He had been admitted to St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, three weeks earlier for testing and treatment for nerve pain in his face and neck. It was also at St. Dominic Hospital that Spence received a double lung transplant in 1988.

He was succeeded by State Senator Joe Wilson, who had been an aide to Spence in the 1970s.

References

• Floyd Spence at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Albert Watson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 2nd congressional district January 3, 1971 – August 16, 2001	Succeeded by Joe Wilson
Political offices
Preceded by Ron Dellums California	Chairman of the House National Security Committee 1995–2001	Succeeded by Bob Stump Arizona