Drew Ferguson (politician)


Anderson Drew Ferguson IV is an American politician who is the U.S. Representative for. The district stretches from the southern suburbs of Atlanta to the northern suburbs of Columbus.
A Republican, he previously served as the mayor of West Point, Georgia, a city located between LaGrange and Columbus.

Early life and education

Ferguson was born in Langdale, Alabama in 1966 and graduated from the University of Georgia, and the Medical College of Georgia.

Career prior to Congress

Ferguson's was a dentist with a family dental practice. He served as an alderman for West Point, Georgia, and then as mayor of that city from 2008 through 2016. He resigned in 2016 to focus on his race for the House of Representatives.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2016

In 2016, Ferguson ran for the Georgia third district seat being vacated by Republican incumbent Lynn Westmoreland. He placed in the top two in the May Republican primary, and faced State Senator Mike Crane in the runoff; the two had finished within 100 votes of each other; both had about 27% of the vote.
For the runoff, Ferguson had the support of business-oriented Republicans, including the retiring Westmoreland. The primary and its runoff were expensive and bitterly contested GOP; Super PACs and other groups outside of Georgia spent more than $2 million on the race.
On July 26, 2016, Ferguson defeated Crane with 54% of the vote. In the November 2016 general election, Ferguson defeated Democratic Party nominee Angela Pendley, getting 68% of the vote.

2018

In the May 2018 Republican primary, Ferguson faced Philip Singleton of Sharpsburg, a former Army helicopter pilot; Ferguson won with 74% of the vote.
In November 2018, running for re-election, Ferguson won by nearly a 2-to-1 margin over Democrat Chuck Enderlin with 191,700 votes, 66 percent of the votes cast.

Tenure

Ferguson was sworn into office January 3, 2017.
In November 2018, after he won re-election, Ferguson was appointed as chief deputy whip for the House Republican conference by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
In February 2019, Ferguson removed from his office a biography of Robert E. Lee that had been displayed in a glass case, open to a page highlighting the Confederate general's racist ideology. Ferguson said that his staff had decorated his office and that he had been unaware of the displayed book.
Vote Smart reports that Conservative Review has given Ferguson a 55% evaluation, Americans for Prosperity has given him a lifetime evaluation of 100%, Campaign for Working Families has given him a 100% evaluation, Heritage Action Freedom Index gave him a 77% evaluation, the American Conservative Union gave him a lifetime evaluation of 93%, and the John Birch Society Freedom Index gave him a 57% evaluation.

Committee assignments

Running for election in 2016, Ferguson's main issues were securing the borders, destroying the Islamic State, strengthening the military, replacing the current income tax with a flat tax, repealing Obamacare, and supporting a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits.

Personal life

Ferguson and his wife Elizabeth have four children.