Jeffrey Darren Duncan (born January 7, 1966) is an American politician who served as the United States representative for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2025.
Duncan graduated from Clemson University with a BA in political science in 1988 and was a member of the school's football team.
After graduation, Duncan served as branch manager and an assistant vice president during his seven years working in community banking.
He was an early Tea Party favorite and was endorsed by the Club for Growth and the National Right to Life Committee.
In the Republican primary, businessman Richard Cash ranked first with 25% but failed to reach the 50% threshold to win outright.
Duncan was reelected, exceeding his 2014 election margin with 72.8% of the vote, over Democratic nominee Hosea Cleveland.
This bill made it U.S. policy to use a comprehensive strategy to counter Iran's growing hostile presence in the Western Hemisphere by working together with U.S. allies and partners in the region to deter threats to U.S. interests by Iran, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah.
On November 19, 2012, Duncan wrote Obama a letter discouraging him from nominating Susan Rice as secretary of state.
On April 18, 2013, Duncan introduced the Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act (H.R.
4228; 113th Congress), a bill that directed the United States Department of Homeland Security to improve the accountability, transparency, and efficiency of its major acquisition programs.
The bill specified procedures for DHS to follow if it failed to meet timelines, cost estimates, or other performance parameters for these programs.
Duncan argued, "for years, DHS's purchases of major homeland security systems have been late, cost more, and done less than promised.
In June 2017 Duncan added the HPA to the wide-ranging Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act, of which he was also the lead sponsor.
[9] In the House chamber, Duncan wore a mask reading "Let's Go Brandon", a popular coded message in Republican circles for an obscene insult to Joe Biden.
[10] Duncan is firmly opposed to abortion and exceptions for rape, incest, or saving the life of the mother.
[citation needed] In addition to introducing the Hearing Protection Act, he has co-sponsored bills to expand concealed carry reciprocity rights.
[16] Duncan voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.
[citation needed] He supported the Department of Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's January 2018 decision to allow more access to the Outer Continental Shelf.
[20][21] In 2019, Duncan signed a letter led by Representative Ro Khanna and Senator Rand Paul to President Trump.
The letter asserted that it is "long past time to rein in the use of force that goes beyond congressional authorization" and that they hoped this would "serve as a model for ending hostilities in the future—in particular, as you and your administration seek a political solution to our involvement in Afghanistan.
[24] In 2020, Duncan voted against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, which would prevent the president from withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan without congressional approval.
[25] In July 2021, Duncan voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase by 8,000 the number of special immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military during its invasion of Afghanistan, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed in the House 407–16.
[27][28] In December 2020, Duncan was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated[29] Trump.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.