J.d. Hayworth

He was a television sportscaster and radio journalist before being elected to the House. He currently hosts a conservative talk show radio program in Phoenix.


Early life, education, and broadcasting career
Hayworth was born in High Point, North Carolina.

His grandfather, Ray Hayworth, was a Major League Baseball catcher from 1926-1945. Hayworth received a bachelor's degree in speech communications and political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh in 1980.
Hayworth is an Eagle Scout, which led to his first radio job at age 14. He was a sportscaster for WFBC-TV (now WYFF-TV), the NBC station in Greenville, South Carolina, from 1981 to 1986.

While in Greenville, he was a member of Edwards Road Baptist Church. From 1987 to 1994, he was the sports anchor on the news reports of KTSP-TV (later KSAZ-TV), which was then the CBS affiliate in Phoenix.
Hayworth married in 1989. He and his wife Mary have three children.
U.S.House of Representatives
Hayworth served on the Resources and the Ways and Means committees during his term in the House.
Campaigns
In 1994, Hayworth ran in what was then the 6th District and defeated incumbent Democrat Karan English, taking 54 percent of the vote to English's 42 percent. Hayworth criticized English's support for the Clinton budget plan, which Hayworth termed the largest tax increase in history.

English had been endorsed in her successful 1992 campaign by the former Arizona Republican icon, Barry Goldwater when she ran against Doug Wead but not in 1994 when she ran against Hayworth.
In 1996, Hayworth fired two of his campaign aides for their part in forging his signature to file a campaign affidavit on time. He again defeated Owens, 52 percent to 45 percent.
His next three elections he won handily: He won in 2000 against Larry K.

Nelson, 60 percent to 37 percent; in 2002, against Craig Columbus, getting 61 percent of the vote; and in 2004, against Justice Elizabeth Rogers, getting 60 percent.
During his first four terms, Hayworth represented a district that took in most of the northeastern portion of the state, including Flagstaff. After the 2000 census, his district was renumbered the 5th District, and was made a much more compact district centered more in the Phoenix area.
Media profile
Known for his outspoken nature — he called President Clinton an "unprincipled philandering president" who had "the most corrupt administration in U.S.He sometimes substitutes as host of the nationally syndicated Laura Ingraham political commentary show on the Talk Radio Network.
In 1998, Hayworth was voted the second biggest "windbag" in Congress in Washingtonian magazine's survey of 1,200 congressional staff members of both parties. In the same campaign letter in which he criticized Clinton, he said his Democratic opponent was "bankrolled by trial lawyers, radical homosexual rights groups, environmental extremists ...

along with almost every other left-wing wacko group you can think of."
Political positions
Like most Republicans elected in the 1994 landslide, Hayworth was an ardent conservative. He has said he believes border security and interior enforcement of immigration laws are the solutions — not a temporary worker program as proposed by President George W.

In the book, Hayworth said that Bush is too close to GOP contributors from the agribusiness, meat packing and construction industries, who he calls "addicted" to a steady stream of workers from Mexico and Central America to keep wages down. Hayworth also argues that current immigration law misinterprets the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, says that a child of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S.In 2002, a spokesman for Hayworth said that his wife handled bookkeeping and many administrative details for the PAC.
Hayworth's wife had been the only employee of TEAM PAC after December 1999. Through the end of 2004, the fund had paid $107,000 for her salary and payroll taxes, or roughly 26 percent of its $411,000 in revenue.

The PAC also paid $70,000 to an outside political consultant and a California bookkeeper, bringing fundraising and administrative expenses 43 percent of the total revenue.
In 2002, the Phoenix New Times questioned whether a variety of TEAM PAC expenditures were in fact for personal use of Hayworth and his wife.
Between January 2001 and February 2006, TEAM PAC took in $538,109. Administrative costs for the period were about $165,000, about 30 percent of contributions during the period, including $102,000 for Hayworth's wife.

We loved you before we met Jack Abramoff, and we love you after Jack Abramoff, and we think it would be foolish of you to (give back) the money.'" Hayworth was co-chairman of the Native American Caucus in Congress. In the spring of 2005, Napolitano was enjoying a 79 percent favorable job rating..
On October 27, 2006, after endorsing Hayworth in previous Congressional races, the Arizona Republic newspaper withdrew its support and instead endorsed Harry Mitchell, his opponent. Harry Mitchell was a former State Democratic Chair, and also a former mayor of Tempe. In explaining its shift of endorsement, the paper cited Mitchell's long record of public service and ability to work collaboratively across partisan divides.spokesman Carl Forti suggested that Hayworth's defeat was caused by the "scandal factor".
Radio talk show host
On April 23, 2007 it was announced on Phoenix radio station KFYI that Hayworth would begin hosting an afternoon drive time (4–7 PM) radio talk show on the station starting April 26, 2007.
In November 2009, Rasmussen Reports released the results of a poll of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona showing a statistical tie in in a hypothetical primary challenge to incumbent John McCain for the 2010 Republican US Senate nomination in Arizona. Hayworth says he is considering running against McCain because he has "a profound disagreement with Senator John McCain over the concept of amnesty, whether he wants to call it comprehensive immigration reform or a pathway for guest workers to remain." Hayworth has yet to announce a decision about whether he would enter the race. One factor may be John McCain's formidable fundraising advantage. Hayworth at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Campaign website
Associated Press profile
Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
SourceWatch Congresspedia — J.D.