Joel Thomas Broyhill (November 4, 1919 – September 24, 2006) was an American politician aligned with the Republican Party who served as a Congressman from Virginia for 11 terms, from 1953 to 1974.
He represented Virginia's 10th congressional district, consisting of suburbs of Arlington, Falls Church and sections of Fairfax County and Alexandria, and became known for his advocacy for federal workers (and constituent services) as well as his opposition to integration in the 1950s and 1960s.
Joel's father Marvin Talmadge Broyhill Sr. moved his family to Hopewell, Virginia, to follow an uncle who worked for the DuPont Powder Company.
Broyhill & Sons Corporation (in part developing housing near Front Royal, Virginia, where DuPont established a cellulose factory).
He narrowly escaped death when Allied planes bombed the Nazis, and suffered what proved to be lifetime partial hearing loss from the explosions.
In 1952 he ran for Congress in a bid to become the first representative of Virginia's new 10th district, located in the inner suburbs of Washington, D.C. Broyhill won on his 33rd birthday, defeating Democrat Edmund D. Campbell by 322 votes and riding the coattails of the Dwight D. Eisenhower and Republican Party landslide that year.
In this relationship, the two men reflected a trend that in years to come would be of singular significance in the politics of the South: the passing of the conservative mantle and the power that went with it from Old Guard Democrats to a new generation of Southern Republicans.After taking office, Broyhill developed a reputation for assisting federal employees,[4] as well as constituent service that became legendary.
He was an unrelenting and outspoken opponent of home rule for the District, arguing that the U.S. Constitution placed ultimate responsibility for the nation's capital with Congress, and he battled for years against measures to increase the authority of city residents to manage D.C. affairs.
But he won widespread support in Northern Virginia, where his stand was interpreted as a first line of defense against any attempt by the city to levy taxes on suburban commuters.
In 1963, he was joined in the House by his distant cousin Jim Broyhill, also a Republican and who had won an unexpected victory in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, and who would also become known for his constituent services.
[5] After leaving office, he served as campaign manager for Republican John W. Warner's successful first run for U.S. Senate in the 1978 election,[13] but primarily he was involved with real estate.