U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson won the 2nd District congressional seat in a special election in 2001 after the death of U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence and hasn’t faced a primary challenge until this year.

His district stretches from the center of the state along the Savannah River to the coast below Charleston.

Wilson, a 60-year-old former state senator, serves on the House Armed Services, Education and Labor, and Foreign Relations committees.

He says his top issues include strengthening national security and the economy, energy independence and improving health care, partly by promoting health savings accounts.

Wilson has a 96 rating for conservative votes in 2007 from the American Conservative Union and a lifetime rating of 94.

A lawyer, he served 17 years in the state Senate and ran four of Spence’s U.S. House campaigns. After 31 years, he retired in 2003 as a S.C. Army National Guard colonel and staff judge advocate.

Wilson faces Barnwell native Phil Black in the primary. Black, 63, is a small hardware store owner and 26-year U.S. Small Business Administration retiree.

Black says his biggest concern is the same as everyone else’s: “Fuel costs. It totally governs our economy.”

The winner will face the winner of the Democratic primary. Blaine Lotz, a retired Air Force colonel, and Rob Miller, a Marine captain who served two tours in Iraq, will face off in the primary.

Lotz capped his military service working as a Defense Department assistant secretary of defense for intelligence oversight for former Defense secretaries William Cohen and Donald Rumsfeld. Lotz, 65, retired in 2005 and now lives on Hilton Head Island and is a national security and intelligence consultant.

Lotz said his top issues are ending the war in Iraq, using money spent there to rebuild this nation’s economy and roads, and scrapping the federal No Child Left Behind public education law.

Miller, 33, resigned his commission to run for the seat in February. He lives in Beaufort and runs a small business that sells Marine-oriented gifts and souvenirs near the Marine Corps’ Parris Island training base.

He said his priorities are improving the economy and scrapping unfair trade deals, balancing the budget, health care access and education, including ending No Child Left Behind.

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