Joe Walsh (Illinois politician)

William Joseph Walsh (born December 27, 1961) is an American politician, talk radio host, former social worker, and former 2020 Republican presidential candidate who served one term in the United States House of Representatives representing IL's 8th congressional district.

Born and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area, Walsh began his career as a social worker providing education and job skills training to students in low income areas, gradually becoming more politically active.

He graduated from Barrington High School in 1980, where he was the student body president and active in sports.

In the mid-1980s, he embarked on an acting career, taking lessons in stage, theater and television at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and Los Angeles.

He attended Grinnell College then earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Iowa in 1985.

Walsh won the Republican nomination for Illinois's 9th congressional district and faced longtime Democratic liberal incumbent Sidney R. Yates, who was 87 years old, in the general election.

Walsh campaigned by riding his bicycle through the district.

He engaged in self-admitted "outrageous" stunts during the campaign which included paying the doorman at Yates's Chicago apartment building $1,000 for being the first person to spot Yates in his district, and throwing a birthday party for Yates that included a cake decorated with 87 candles.

Walsh denied he was trying to play the "age card".

Yates responded that his own age was not a factor, and that Walsh was too young and inexperienced for the job.

Yates also commented that the district was too liberal for Walsh, and tried to tie Walsh to the conservative Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.

In the 1990s, he identified as a moderate Republican, but he later became a conservative and a Tea Party activist.

During his time in Congress, Walsh was criticized for his often personal attacks against members of the Democratic Party and, specifically, President Barack Obama.

He accused the president of abandoning the U.S.–Israel alliance and bankrupting the country.

Walsh maintained a no-compromise approach to legislating that included rejecting any tax increases.

He consistently voted against raising the federal debt ceiling and authored a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.

Walsh rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and supported tougher border control.

Later, during his presidential campaign, Walsh expressed regret for some of the comments and stances he made during his time in Congress.

He completed a Master of Public Policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies in 1991.

As a social worker, Walsh worked with the Jobs for Youth program in the inner-city Chicago area, teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills.

He later taught American government and American history at Oakton Community College and the Hebrew Theological College.

Walsh ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based, privately funded program which grants scholarships to low-income students to attend private high schools.

He raised funds for two organizations advocating school choice: the American Education Reform Council, and the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation.

In addition, Walsh raised nearly $1 million over a five-year period for the Fabretto Children's Foundation, an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to alleviate poverty among Nicaraguan children.

Walsh also worked on state and local government policy issues for The Heartland Institute, a libertarian free-market think tank based in Chicago.

He helped launch conservative organizations that seek to limit government and elect fiscal conservatives to state legislatures such as the Legislative Education Action Drive and the Americans for Limited Government.

He also did consulting work with the United Republican Fund, an Illinois political action committee helping to elect Republican state legislators.

He has raised venture capital for a living, according to the Chicago Tribune, with his campaign website indicating that he worked for Ravenswood Advisors, a Chicago boutique investment banking group which raised early-stage investment capital for new and small businesses.

It was reported that Walsh earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year in the past.

Walsh had unsuccessfully campaigned for Congress in 1996 and the Illinois House of Representatives in 1998, but was elected to the U.S. House in 2010, defeating three-term incumbent Melissa Bean.

Though he received little Republican Party support in his bid against Bean, he was popular with the Tea Party movement.

As a result of redistricting following the 2010 United States Census, Walsh's district was redrawn by the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly in 2012.

In 2010, he had a negative net worth of $317,498 according to OpenSecrets.

Walsh was defeated by Duckworth in the general election on November 6, 2012.

After leaving office, Walsh began hosting a talk radio show.

While he initially planned to run in the newly drawn 14th district against fellow Republican Representative Randy Hultgren, he eventually decided to run in the remapped 8th district against Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth.

Though initially a strong supporter of Donald Trump, Walsh became increasingly critical of the president and, on August 25, 2019, he announced his presidential campaign in opposition to Trump.

He dropped out of the race on February 7, 2020, after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus, and subsequently left the party.

He later endorsed and voted for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who won the election.

Walsh was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of North Barrington, the fifth of nine children of Susan (Stanley) and Charles Melville Walsh, a real estate mortgage banker who had an appraisal business.