Joe Walsh

William Joseph Walsh (born December 27, 1961) is an American politician, talk radio host, former social worker, and 2020 Republican Party presidential candidate who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013. He left the Republican Party and registered as a Democrat in 2025.

Born and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area, Walsh began his career as a social worker providing education and job skills training to students in low-income areas, gradually becoming more politically active. Walsh had unsuccessfully campaigned for Congress in 1996 and the Illinois House of Representatives in 1998, but was elected to the U.S. House in 2010, defeating three-term incumbent Melissa Bean. Though he received little Republican Party support in his bid against Bean, he was popular with the Tea Party movement. In the 1990s, he identified as a moderate Republican but later became a conservative and a Tea Party activist.

During his time in Congress, Walsh was criticized for his often personal attacks against members of the Democratic Party and, specifically, President Barack Obama. He accused the president of abandoning the U.S.–Israel alliance and bankrupting the country. Walsh maintained a no-compromise approach to legislating that included rejecting any tax increases. He consistently voted against raising the federal debt ceiling and authored a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. Walsh rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and supported tougher border control. Later during his presidential campaign, Walsh expressed regret for some of the comments and stances he made during his time in Congress.

As a result of redistricting following the 2010 United States census, Walsh's district was redrawn by the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly in 2012. While he initially planned to run in the newly drawn 14th district against fellow Republican representative Randy Hultgren, he eventually decided to run in the remapped 8th district against Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth. Walsh was defeated by Duckworth (who would also later go on to become a Senator) in the general election on November 6, 2012. After leaving office, Walsh began hosting a talk radio show. Though initially a strong supporter of Donald Trump, Walsh became increasingly critical of him and, on August 25, 2019, he announced his presidential campaign in opposition to Trump. He dropped out of the race on February 7, 2020, after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus, and subsequently left the party. He later endorsed and voted for the Democratic nominee Joe Biden; Walsh formally joined the Democratic Party in 2025.

Early life and education Walsh was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of North Barrington, the fifth of nine children of Susan (Stanley) and Charles Melville Walsh, a real estate mortgage banker who had an appraisal business. He graduated from Barrington High School in 1980, where he was the student body president and active in sports. Yates defeated Walsh 63%–37%.

1998 In 1998, Walsh challenged incumbent Democrat Jeffrey Schoenberg for the 58th district seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, which represents the Chicago North Shore suburbs of Wilmette and Evanston, Illinois. Walsh again ran as pro-choice on abortion.

Political positions

In his failed 1996 congressional bid, Walsh was more socially liberal, favoring abortion rights and gun control.

Economics On taxes, Walsh stated he favors extending the Bush tax cuts, abolishing the estate tax, and cutting both the capital gains and corporate tax rates. He blamed joblessness on a reluctance by small businesses to hire and traced that reluctance to an uncertainty on tax policy.

Medicare and Social Security On entitlement reform, he suggested cuts would have to be made. "The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that everybody is going to have to give on Social Security reform and Medicare reform," he said. Walsh opposes the extension of unemployment benefits. He said the benefits have already been extended for too long and that attention should be paid to the cost. Walsh was often critical of Black Lives Matter.

Walsh initially supported LGBT rights during his first two congressional campaigns in the 1990s, but then shifted rightward on the issue after he was elected to Congress in the 2010s. In 2014, Walsh referred to the LGBT community as "constitutional terrorists". Walsh opposed same-sex marriage as a member of Congress.

Foreign affairs Walsh holds strongly pro-Israel views. In a May 2012 op-ed for the Washington Times, Walsh opposed the two-state solution, saying it has "failed" and was "insanity"; he advocated for total Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territories, arguing that the Palestinians living there could be given "limited voting power" within the Jewish state and encouraging them to move to Jordan. This led to accusations that Walsh advocated apartheid and the "soft" ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their ancestral home. He wrote a column in The Daily Caller stating that President Obama is "not Israel's friend" and should not have criticized Israel for continuing to build settlements in the occupied territories.

In 2012, Walsh campaigned to get Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, a diplomatic visa to the United States, which had previously been denied to him due to allegations of violations of religious freedom against Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Walsh said that Modi had "quite a successful track record" of fiscal responsibility, described him as "kind of like a Tea Party free market guy in India, which I found very appealing," and noted that he "has been recognized across the world for establishing Gujarat as the most business-friendly state in India and is widely believed to be a serious contender for the 2014 election for Indian Prime Minister." Modi did win the 2014 general election, becoming Prime Minister of India.

2012

During the 2011 redrawing of Illinois' election districts by the Democratic-controlled state legislature, Walsh's home, along with most of the McHenry County portion of his old district, was drawn into the 14th district, represented by fellow Republican Randy Hultgren. The 8th was reconfigured to favor a Democratic candidate. Walsh and nine other Republican Illinois Representatives filed a lawsuit alleging that the new borders discriminated against Republican and Latino voters.

In late July 2011, Walsh was endorsed by the Club for Growth to run against Hultgren. In December 2011, Walsh decided to run in the redrawn 8th district instead, where he would likely face Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, a former assistant secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, in what posed a tough race for Walsh. In January 2012, the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity gave Walsh a 100 percent rating.

The ensuing campaign between Walsh and Duckworth emerged as a bitter race. At a July 2012 campaign event, Walsh accused his opponent of politicizing both her military service as a helicopter pilot and her Iraq War injuries, which cost her both legs and the partial use of one arm. He said, "My God, that's all she talks about. Our true heroes, the men and women who served us, it's the last thing in the world they talk about." Walsh later suggested that she was, in fact, a "true hero," but that she should not talk about her service so frequently, and that her service should not command votes. Walsh decided to skip the 2012 Republican National Convention, distancing himself from establishment Republicans. In September 2012, Americans for Limited Government gave $1,950,000 to the Now or Never PAC, which then spent $2,022,039 to support Walsh and oppose Duckworth. Over $6.6 million in outside spending was reported in the race, with Walsh receiving more than $6 million of that total. Overall, Walsh outspent her $7 million to $4.7 million. Despite his spending advantage, on November 6, 2012, Duckworth unseated Walsh 55% to 45%.

Tenure

Several days before being sworn into Congress, Walsh was criticized by The New York Times for his willingness to accept donations from political action committees and lobbyists.

During the election season, Walsh was asked what his approach to bipartisanship would be if elected. He replied it would "not be the time right now to extend your hand across the aisle". In November 2011, Walsh was videotaped meeting with his constituents, becoming visibly aggressive and swearing at a woman who questioned him about his comment that the marketplace and the banks were not responsible "for the mess we're in right now." He later apologized for being "too passionate". While in Congress, Walsh held 363 town hall meetings, more than any other member of Congress.

Committee assignments For the 112th Congress, Walsh was appointed to leadership positions on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security (vice chairman), and the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth (chairman). A list of all of his former committee assignments follows: Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications Subcommittee on Transportation Security (Vice Chair) Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access (Chair) Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations

Caucus memberships Walsh held other memberships related to his work as a congressman including: the Congressional Hockey Caucus, the House Republican Israel Caucus, the Republican Study Committee and the Tea Party Caucus. He stated that Trump's behavior in office motivated him to declare his candidacy. Walsh admitted that some of his past comments might have "helped create Trump" and that Trump "made me reflect on some of the things I said in the past." He stated he would not vote for Trump again and that he had not decided on whether to vote for a Democrat to prevent Trump's re-election. Following his announcement, Salem Radio Network said it would cancel its national distribution of his talk show on September 26, 2019, and that Walsh will be free to sign up with a different syndicator if he chooses. Walsh commented, "No more radio show, but that's OK. I'm going to campaign full time."

On November 13, 2019, Walsh filed to challenge Trump in the New Hampshire primaries. On February 7, 2020, Walsh announced on CNN that he was ending his presidential campaign after receiving only 1.1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. He called the Republican Party a "cult" and said he was leaving the party. According to Walsh, no one could beat Trump in a Republican primary, because Trump supporters had become "followers" who think that Trump "can do no wrong", after absorbing misinformation "from 'conservative' media. They don't know what the truth is and – more importantly – they don't care." In an interview with Fox News, Walsh reiterated he was willing to support a socialist over Trump in the general election, and he repeated this sentiment in later comments.

2025 party change and 2026 Senate campaign After joining the Democratic Party in 2025, Walsh described himself as a "conservative Democrat" who felt the party should be a big tent for those who "believe in freedom, democracy [and] the rule of law." In June, he publicly expressed interest in moving to South Carolina and running against Lindsey Graham for the state's Senate seat as a Democrat.

Electoral history

Post-congressional career On March 25, 2013, Walsh aired his first radio show, The Joe Walsh Show, on Chicago's talk station WIND as a conservative political commentator. After less than a year on the air in Chicago, The Joe Walsh Show also began airing on WNYM in New York City. In April 2015, WNYM dropped Walsh from its radio platform. As of September 2016, Walsh's radio talk show is aired in several major U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York City, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver. On December 19, 2015, Walsh announced that, should Democratic presidential candidate, and later the nominee, Hillary Clinton win the 2016 United States presidential election, he would run for the office himself in 2020. However, Republican nominee Donald Trump won the 2016 election, defeating Clinton.

In February 2017, The Joe Walsh Show received national syndication by the Salem Radio Network. Walsh joined Newsmax TV in May 2018. On August 26, 2019, a day after announcing his campaign for president, Walsh announced he had lost his radio show. After concluding his run for president, Walsh resumed broadcasting in June 2020 with a two-hour call-in talk show on the GAB Radio Network and its Chicago flagship station WCGO. On May 26, 2021, Walsh announced that he lost that radio show because he was "anti-Trump". In October 2021, Walsh launched his new podcast White Flag, which he claimed had been in the works for months. His first guest on the podcast was Andrew Yang.

Walsh also operates a Substack political blog called The Social Contract.

Controversial statements According to various media outlets, Walsh has a history of making controversial statements. On August 8, 2012, while serving in the House, Walsh appeared at a town hall in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Walsh made several comments about the dangers of "radical Islam" and suggested that the danger was in nearby towns, and that Muslims are "trying to kill Americans every week."

On June 19, 2014, Walsh was removed from his radio show for using racial slurs. He was on air again the next day. WIND general manager Jeff Reisman commented: "During the segment Joe intended to cite several common racial slurs as examples. He did not in any way use them in a defamatory or derogatory manner, simply as examples. However, AM 560 The Answer did not allow them to go on the air. AM 560 The Answer has a policy of not using certain words on the air that are highly inflammatory and offensive even in the context of a discussion of why those words are offensive. We will continue that policy." On January 14, 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo shooting, in a tweet which he described as satirical, Walsh called for Islamists to "behead" reporters on CNN and MSNBC and referred to them as "appeasing cowards" for not airing cartoons published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which depicts prophet Muhammad. In another tweet, Walsh stated that not showing cartoons of Muhammad would lead to more attacks. After deleting the tweet (by his account, it was deleted by Twitter), Walsh wrote later, "I wasn't calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama's words and BLM's deeds have gotten cops killed. Time for us to defend our cops." The next morning, Walsh stated in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that Twitter suspended his account and deleted the tweet itself: "The pre-condition for me reopening my account was they had to delete that tweet." He said, "Of course I didn't mean 'let's go kill Obama and Black Lives Matter.' I was not trying to incite violence against Obama and Black Lives Matter. That's crazy and stupid and wrong. It would end my career and it's wrong." Rep. Keith Ellison also called for the investigation of Walsh following the tweet.

On October 24, 2016, Walsh wrote on Twitter, "On November 8th, I'm voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I'm grabbing my musket. You in?" When Jake Tapper asked him what he meant, Walsh responded, "It means protesting. Participating in acts of civil disobedience. Doing what it takes to get our country back." The New York Post wrote that "some took his tweet as a call for violent insurrection." On May 2, 2017, Walsh wrote on Twitter, "Sorry Jimmy Kimmel: your sad story doesn't obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else's health care," in reference to a 13-minute monologue delivered by late night host Jimmy Kimmel discussing his son's congenital heart defect and his belief that covering pre-existing conditions is an important part of healthcare in the United States. On September 23, 2017, Walsh described Stevie Wonder as "Another ungrateful black multi millionaire" after Wonder had taken a knee at his concert in protest of what he termed police brutality. In 2018, Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical television program Who Is America? premiered showing Walsh supporting the hoax "kinderguardians program" which supported training toddlers with firearms. In August 2019, he stated that while he did not consider himself a racist, "I've said racist things on Twitter."

Personal life Walsh has been married twice, and has three children and two stepchildren. His second marriage, in 2006, is to Helene Miller, who served as an Illinois state representative from 2018 to 2019. He is Catholic. Following Walsh's victory in the 2010 Republican primary, it was reported that a bank had foreclosed on his condo and he had been evicted in October 2009, but that he and his family were living in a rented house in the Chicago North Shore suburb of Winnetka at the time. A GOP spokesman said that voters would likely identify with Walsh's financial troubles. He was also reportedly facing a lawsuit by a former campaign manager who claimed Walsh owed him $20,000 for services On April 20, 2012, a settlement was reached, and the case dismissed. As part of the settlement, Walsh issued a statement on behalf of himself and his ex-wife which read, in part, "Having resolved these issues together and cleared up these mistakes in private, we now agree that Joe is not and was not a 'deadbeat dad' and does not owe child support."

Publications F*ck Silence: Calling Trump Out for the Cultish, Moronic, Authoritarian Con Man He Is (2020)