Roger Frederick Wicker (born July 5, 1951) is an American politician, attorney, and former Air Force officer serving as the senior United States senator from Mississippi, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, Wicker was a Mississippi State Senator from 1988 to 1995 and the U.S. representative from Mississippi's 1st congressional district from 1995 until 2007.
Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, Wicker is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law. He was an officer in the United States Air Force from 1976 to 1980 and a member of the United States Air Force Reserves from 1980 to 2003. During the 1980s, he worked as a political counselor to then-Congressman Trent Lott on the House Rules Committee. In 1987, Wicker was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, representing the 6th district, which included Tupelo.
Wicker was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, succeeding retiring 27-term Democratic Congressman Jamie Whitten. Wicker served in the House from 1995 to 2007, when he was appointed to the Senate by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the seat vacated by Lott. Wicker subsequently won a special election for the remainder of the term in 2008 and was reelected to a full term in 2012. Wicker served as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2015 to 2017 and is a deputy Republican whip. He became the state's senior senator in 2018, when Thad Cochran resigned, and was reelected later that year, defeating Democratic nominee David Baria. He was reelected again in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Ty Pinkins.
Wicker serves on four committees in the 119th Congress: the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Rules Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he chairs.
Early life and education Wicker was born on July 5, 1951, in Pontotoc, Mississippi, to Wordna Glen (née Threadgill) and Thomas Frederick "Fred" Wicker, a lawyer and onetime Mississippi state senator. At age 16, Wicker worked as a United States House of Representatives page for Representative Jamie L. Whitten of . He graduated from Pontotoc High School in 1969.
Wicker attended the University of Mississippi, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and student body president. He was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa for his student leadership and academic merit. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science in 1973 and a J.D. degree in 1975 from the university. After graduation, Wicker commissioned into the United States Air Force as a judge-advocate from 1976 to 1980. Starting in 1980, he was a member of the Air Force Reserve Command; he retired from the reserve in 2003 as a lieutenant colonel.
Early political career
Wicker began his political career in 1980 as House Rules Committee counsel to U.S. Representative Trent Lott. He was elected to the Mississippi State Senate in 1987, spending $25,000 on the race. He represented the 6th district, which included Tupelo, from 1988 to 1994. He amended a 1994 state Medicaid bill to authorize the Mississippi Attorney General to contract private attorneys on contingency.
U.S. House of Representatives Elections
In 1994, Jamie Whitten declined to seek reelection; he had represented the 1st District for 53 years, longer than any other congressman at the time. Wicker ran to succeed him, spending $750,000 on his campaign. He finished first in a crowded six-way Republican primary with 7,156 votes (26.62%) and proceeded to a runoff with attorney Grant Fox, who received 5,208 votes (19.37%). Former U.S. Attorney Bob Whitwell finished 600 votes short of the runoff with 4,606 votes (17.14%), 1992 nominee Clyde E. Whitaker came fourth with 4,602 votes (17.12%), 1986 nominee Larry Cobb came fifth with 4,162 votes (15.48%) and 1990 nominee Bill Bowlin took the remaining 1,147 votes (4.27%). In the runoff, Wicker defeated Fox, 11,905 votes (53.07%) to 10,527 (46.93%).
In the general election, Wicker defeated Fulton attorney Bill Wheeler, 80,553 votes (63.06%) to 47,192 (36.94%), making him the first Republican to represent the 1st district in over a century. This was not considered an upset, as the 1st has always been a rather conservative district (especially in the Memphis suburbs). The district had only supported the Democratic nominee for president once since 1956, when Jimmy Carter carried the district in 1976. Although Whitten had a nearly unbreakable hold on the district, it had been considered very likely that he would be succeeded by a Republican once he retired. Wicker was reelected six times without serious difficulty, never receiving less than 65% of the vote. In 2004, no Democratic candidate ran against him, only Reform Party nominee Barbara Dale Washer, whom he defeated, 219,328 votes (79.01%) to 58,256 (20.99%).
Tenure Assuming office in 1995, Wicker was president of the freshman class, which included 53 other new Republican representatives, elected as part of the Republican Revolution. Wicker was a member of the House Appropriations Committee. He was also deputy Republican whip. Wicker worked on issues related to medical research and on economic development for his home state. He advocated private-public partnerships to bring investment to rural areas. Wicker also worked for veterans' issues while serving as a member of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee.About Roger from Wicker's official U.S. Senate website In his final year as representative, Wicker topped the list in earmarks. In 2007, Wicker was criticized after securing a $6 million earmark for a defense company whose executives had made significant contributions to his campaign.
U.S. Senate
Committee assignments Committee on Armed Services (Chair) Subcommittee on Airland Subcommittee on Cybersecurity Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on Personnel Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee on Seapower Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Rules and Administration Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Chair)
Caucus memberships Congressional Human Rights Caucus Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus Congressional Caucus on Turkey and Turkish Americans International Conservation Caucus Interstate 69 Caucus (Co-Chair) Sportsmen's Caucus Tennessee Valley Authority Congressional Caucus Rare Disease Caucus (Co-Chair) Senate Taiwan Caucus
Appointment On November 26, 2007, Senator Trent Lott announced that he would resign before the end of the year to become a lobbyist. At a press conference on December 31, 2007, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour appointed Wicker to fill the Senate seat Lott vacated on December 18, 2007. He was sworn in by the Senate clerk just before that news conference.Nossiter, Adam, "Congressman Named to Fill Lott's Senate Seat" , The New York Times, January 1, 2008.
Elections 2008
Wicker ran for the remainder of Lott's term in the November 2008 special election against Democrat Ronnie Musgrove, Barbour's predecessor as governor. Wicker defeated Musgrove, 683,409 votes (54.96%) to 560,064 (45.04%). Wicker's resignation from the House also triggered a May 13, 2008, special election to fill the vacancy in the House, which was won by Democratic nominee Travis Childers.
2012
Wicker ran for reelection to a full term in 2012. He was opposed by Robert Maloney and Tea Party activist E. Allen Hathcock in the Republican primary, defeating them by 254,936 votes (89.17%) to 18,857 (6.60%) and 12,106 (4.23%), respectively. In the general election, he defeated Albert Gore, the Chairman of the Oktibbeha County Democratic Party and a distant relative of former Vice President Al Gore, 709,626 votes (57.16%) to 503,467 (40.55%).
2018
Wicker defeated Democratic nominee David Baria, a state legislator, with 58.5% of the vote.
2024
Wicker defeated two opponents in the Republican primary with roughly 60% of the vote and Democratic nominee Ty Pinkins in the general election with 62.8% of the vote.
Tenure
On September 16, 2010, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Wicker as representative of the United States to the Sixty-fifth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Wicker is a member of the Senate Republicans' whip team and repeatedly introduced a bill to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision ruling abortion bans unconstitutional. Wicker called the Affordable Care Act the "great fight for the rest of this term, maybe our lifetimes" and later introduced a bill to enable state officials to challenge the law. He also amended a fiscal 2010 transportation spending bill to allow Amtrak passengers to carry firearms and ammunition in checked baggage.
Wicker and Representative Gene Taylor pushed amendments allowing purchasers of federal flood insurance to add wind coverage to their policies. As a member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), in 2012 Wicker worked with Senator Ben Cardin to enact a bill imposing penalties on Russians accused of violating human rights. The measure led Russian President Vladimir Putin to announce a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian-born children. Wicker was one of three politicians targeted during the April 2013 ricin letters bioterrorism attack. On April 16, 2013, a letter addressed to him tested positive for the poison ricin as part of a series of letters. The letter was detected by postal officials and law enforcement and prevented from reaching the Capitol. The letter was tested three times, and each test confirmed the presence of ricin.
In July 2013, Wicker proposed that the Senate meet to discuss a controversial change to filibuster rules. The Senate held the private meeting in the Old Senate chamber to discuss Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's threat of the "nuclear option", which would change the rules for Senate votes on Obama's executive branch nominees. Wicker said he hoped the chamber's bipartisan past could serve as an inspiration for the debate about the nuclear option: "I think there are concessions that can be made on both sides. And then I would just hope that, institutionally, we can get away from this mindset." Wicker supported the Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014 (S. 2363; 113th Congress), a bill related to hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation aimed at improving "the public's ability to enjoy the outdoors". He said, "Mississippians know the importance of efforts to preserve our natural resources for future generations." On November 13, 2014, Wicker was elected chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 114th U.S. Congress.