Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2019

49 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ReadMPM.com feature I t’s not unusual to run into someone I know when I’m back in Charleston, but when the man who had been following his toddler through the refrigerated aisle at Harris Teeter picked up the boy and waved at me, it took me a second to place him. The only other time we’d met, I was the one trying to keep up with him as we walked from his office to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. “Hi Joe,” I said, waving back. These days, Congressman Joe Cunningham is always in motion. When he’s not walking back and forth between his office and the Capitol building for votes, or running off to his committee assignments for hearings and then back to his office again to meet with constituents, he’s flying home to Charleston every weekend to be with his wife, Amanda, and their young son, Boone. When I first caught up with Congressman (“call me Joe”) Cunningham in July, our scheduled sit-down interview became an Aaron Sorkin-esque walk-and-talk from his office to the House chamber when an unexpected vote was called late in the day. Walking through the labyrinth of hallways, elevators, stairs, tunnels and more elevators, Cunningham described his abrupt transition from candidate to congressman. “It’s been a whirlwind, all in a good manner. When we walked into this role we were in the middle of the longest government shutdown in history, and so we walked right into it and started negotiating a resolution to that,” said Cunningham. “In the first four or five days, we introduced a bill that would stop offshore drilling.” His offshore drilling bill has since passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, a remarkable feat for a freshman congressman to accomplish in his first nine months. Perhaps even more remarkable was the “victory lap” press conference following the vote in the House that was attended by Democrats as well as prominent Republicans, including Governor Henry McMaster and former Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford, Cunningham’s predecessor in the House. Politicos may be surprised by Cunningham’s crossover appeal, but he’s unfazed by it. BY BRIAN BARRIE Meet Congressman Joe Cunningham Photos provided.