Wonder: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
| predecessor4 = [[Jess Reed]] | | predecessor4 = [[Jess Reed]] | ||
| constituency4 = 5th District (16th Assembly-present) | | constituency4 = 5th District (16th Assembly-present) | ||
| office5 = [[Dixie State Cabinet|Dixie Secretary of Education]] | | office5 = Speaker of the [[Dixie General Assembly]] | ||
| | | term_start5 = June 10, 2021 | ||
| | | term_end5 = | ||
| | | predecessor5 = [[Victoria Keating]] | ||
| | | office6 = [[Dixie State Cabinet|Dixie Secretary of State]] | ||
| term_start6 = May 23, 2021 | |||
| term_end6 = June 10, 2021 | |||
| predecessor6 = [[Jibble Shucker]] | |||
| successor6 = [[Charles Bacon]] | |||
| office7 = [[Dixie State Cabinet|Dixie Secretary of Education]] | |||
| term_start7 = November 22, 2020 | |||
| term_end7 = January 28, 2021 | |||
| predecessor7 = [[Soren Dillinger]] | |||
| successor7 = [[Charles Bacon]] | |||
| office8 = Federal Chair of the <br> [[Libertarian-Republican Party]] | |||
| term_start8 = May 15, 2021 | |||
| term_end8 = | |||
| predecessor8 = [[Howard Elkridge]] | |||
| successor8 = | |||
| birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee | | birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee | ||
| party = [[Second Libertarian Party|Libertarian-Republican Party]] | | party = [[Second Libertarian Party|Libertarian-Republican Party]] |
Revision as of 13:18, 2 July 2021
James Wonder | |
---|---|
House Minority Leader | |
Assumed office March 13, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Sysadmin |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Dixie | |
Assumed office January 14, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Jeb! |
Constituency | 4th District (133rd Congress-present) |
39th United States Secretary of Defense | |
Assumed office May 6, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Victoria Keating |
Deputy White House Chief of Staff | |
Assumed office March 12, 2021 | |
President | Christian Bo |
Preceded by | Bruce Hill |
Member of the Dixie General Assembly | |
Assumed office December 8, 2020 | |
Preceded by | Jess Reed |
Constituency | 5th District (16th Assembly-present) |
Speaker of the Dixie General Assembly | |
Assumed office June 10, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Victoria Keating |
Dixie Secretary of State | |
In office May 23, 2021 – June 10, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Jibble Shucker |
Succeeded by | Charles Bacon |
Dixie Secretary of Education | |
In office November 22, 2020 – January 28, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Soren Dillinger |
Succeeded by | Charles Bacon |
Federal Chair of the Libertarian-Republican Party | |
Assumed office May 15, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Howard Elkridge |
Personal Details | |
Born | Nashville, Tennessee |
Political party | Libertarian-Republican Party |
Education | College of William and Mary |
James Earl Wonder is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for Dixie's 4th congressional District. A Libertarian-Republican, he also serves in the Dixie State Assembly, and as Deputy White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense in the Bo Administration. He is the Speaker of the Dixie Assembly. He has consistently been elected in landslides and has been an effective legislator while in his positions.
Early Life
Wonder was born January 4th, 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee (Now Dixie) to Tiberius Wonder Jr., a Professor at Nashville State Community College, and Gloria Etemo-Wonder, a 5th Grade Elementary School Teacher in Nashville. Wonder spent much of his childhood studying and partaking in school debates. He attended the College of William and Mary where he got an undergraduate degree in Education. After being unable to find work he took a job teaching 1st graders from very rural areas with high poverty rates. He taught there for several years before working his way up to become Superintendent of the Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Political Career
Dixie State Cabinet
Wonder first became interested in politics when offered the position of Secretary of Education by Governor Drunk in which Wonder accepted. He was confirmed in a 7-0 vote by the Dixie General Assembly and got to work immediately on working with legislators to produce legislation on School issues, such as bus safety, wake-up times, and other things. These actions helped bring Wonder to the state spotlight and encouraged him to run for office.
Dixie General Assembly
Wonder ran for the Dixie General Assembly in the December Elections facing Representative Moonguy. The two debated heavily and campaigned very much. Pundits noticed the race was a very negative one with both candidates willing to get into the mud when debating. In the end, Wonder came in with a blowout winning over 80% of the vote. In his first term, he immediately got to work and produced several pieces of legislation and worked bi-partisanly across the aisle especially on education issues which he took deep into his heart. At the time he has elected the Libertarian-Republican Party held a supermajority in the Assembly which allowed Wonder to quickly move up the ranks and pass legislation very easily. However, as the term went on, many Libertarian-Republican Party members left and became the Minority in the Assembly.
When Wonder ran for re-election in the Dixie General Assembly, the Libertarian-Republicans faced statewide losses and a split party. He was easily renominated for his seat but faced a veteran politician Bruce Hill and many pundits put his race at a disadvantage for Wonder. Several news outlets in the coming weeks for the election had it at a complete tossup or a very close race. Wonder ran an aggressive campaign that focused on what he called the inaction of when Bruce Hill was in the Assembly. During the election the early results had him losing by a 10 point margin but as more and more results came in the gap dwindled and had Wonder winning re-election by 51.03%. In his second term with him as the only Libertarian-Republican, he became the Minority Leader of the Assembly and Speaker Pro Tempore. He was able to still pass lots of legislation bi-partisan and got much recognition for his intense questioning of Soren for his position of Associate Justice of the Dixie Supreme Court. On March 26th he announced his re-election bid for a 3rd term in the Assembly.
Wonder was easily re-elected to a third term in the Dixie General Assembly, which at the time made him the most senior incumbent Libertarian-Republican in the Assembly. Many thought he would become Speaker of the Assembly with many news organizations making such predictions. In the end, it was the freshmen Assemblywoman Victoria who was well known for their partisan figures who became the Speaker which effectively shocked many political pundits. He started the third term proposing the School Jazz Resolution which recognized the importance of Jazz in Dixie. He currently serves as the Assembly Majority Leader, after exiting the position of Speaker Pro Tempore. He would later take up a more important figure in the Assembly after the Libertarian-Republicans took a supermajority and he was brought on again to be Speaker Pro Tempore. In this term, Wonder was not afraid to criticize legislation from his own party members especially regarding the State Cuisine Act which was quickly defeated in part thanks to Wonder and his analysis on the legislation. His third term was regarded as one heavily involved in the partisanship that largely affected the session. While most sessions in the General Assembly were bi-partisan, this one was divisive and had large amounts of bickering over issues that most would agree on. Wonder had his most effective session yet passing large amounts of legislation much more than his previous sessions.
Wonder served out his third term in great fashion before being re-elected to a fourth term in another landslide, which saw a sweep for the Libertarian-Republican Party. With a supermajority in Wonder's hands, he was able to become Dean and Speaker and sought to not carry on the divisiveness of the former Assembly. Wonder planned on introducing and passing Online Internet Bullying Protection Act to combat bullying on people like femboys. As the most senior in the Dixie General Assembly he had great influence over other members and went on the attack against the incumbent Governor for failing on certain policy issues. Wonder regarded his time in the Dixie General Assembly as some of the happiest he has had.
Congress
After his large victory in the Assembly, he attempted to run for Dixie’s 4th Congressional District being vacated by Jeb! who was running for Senate at the time. Wonder faced a political newcomer who had very little name recognition and even dropped out in the middle of the race leaving Wonder to be unopposed. The Libertarian-Republican Party was able to make several gains in the House of Representatives but ultimately lost the Senate which was critical for President Sandoval's agenda. At the beginning of the term, he was quickly elected to the head of the Liberty Caucus and stayed that for the rest of the term. As several members left the Libertarian-Republican Party he became the sole member of that party to represent the House of Representatives. He was able to pass some modest reforms and decided to run for re-election after originally not wanting to.
He was easily re-elected after beating former Representative Kevin by a landslide victory which saw the Libertarian-Republican Party make several large gains. He was elected House Minority Leader by his caucus and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff by President Bo. He faced some heavy opposition as members of opposition parties tried to produce a Constitutional Convention to get rid of the Electoral College which he along with the rest of the caucus opposed. The attempts were quickly defeated and came as a victory for the party. Throughout his second term, he worked closely with President Bo to pass key policies that the Libertarian-Republicans wanted to pass. This was most notable in the April Budget which was seen as a huge win for the right as it scored many victories on policies that passed a left majority Congress. Throughout the term Congress was not a supermajority of either party and house control was only decided by 2-3 people which set up good chances for the May elections in the right taking control of Congress. Wonder was expected to play a large part in the May elections and work to find a majority in congress.
In his third and final term in the House of Representatives, he again served as House Minority Leader in a hotly contested Congress decided by just 2 seats. The Libertarian-Republican Party had gained the most amount of seats it ever had in the May elections and pushed large policy changes like abolishing the Department of Agriculture and a smaller government. Tensions came ahead when a federal government shutdown was about to occur due to the left coalition in the house stalling the passing of the budget due to the provisions in it. Wonder decided not to run for a fourth term in the House where he was among some of the most senior serving at that time. He announced his candidacy for the special election in the Dixie Senate Race to fill former Senator Jeb's seat who resigned.
Political Beliefs
Wonder is known as a moderate Libertarian-Republican who is more left-leaning on certain social issues. This has helped him with certain voters on the left which may have helped him win re-election in several of his close races.
Personal Life
Wonder is married to his wife Melvakia, and together they have six children. Ivana, James Jr, Erica, Tiffa, Barron, and Omarosa Ludacris (O.L.). Wonder has a private residence in Nashville and a home in Hilton Head, South Carolina where he resides during the Summer recess. He also had a distant uncle who worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Professor.
Electoral History
Dixie General Assembly
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 81.48 | +81.48 | ||
UL | Moonguy | 17.04 | +17.04 | ||
Independent | Poliman | 1.48 | +1.48 | ||
LP gain from UL |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 51.03 | -30.45 | ||
SDP | Bruce Hill | 48.97 | +48.97 | ||
LP hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 82.92 | +30.89 | ||
Independent | Write in | 17.08 | +17.08 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 78.69 | -4.23 | ||
Independent | Write in | 21.30 | +21.30 |
House of Representatives
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 6,957,004 | 86.55 | +4.6 | |
Other | Write-Ins | 1,081,129 | 13.45 | +13.45 | |
LP gain from GLP |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 7,280,949 | 90.58 | +3.45 | |
UL | Kevin | 757,193 | 9.42 | -9.42 | |
LP hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LP | Wonder | 10,938,558 | 68.07 | -22.51 | |
Other | Write-Ins | 5,127,464 | 31.92 | +22.45 | |
LP gain from GLP |