at the national level, the GOP was more or less nonexistent in this part of South Carolina at the local level for some time. As evidence, Spratt only faced a Republican opponent twice from 1984 to 1992, both of those times winning easily. In 1994, however, Spratt was nearly defeated by Republican Larry Bigham, only surviving by 6,300 votes. He defeated Bigham by a slightly larger margin in 1996, but from 1998 to 2008 Spratt usually won with relatively little difficulty due to his popularity and campaigning skills. Spratt typically stayed out of presidential politics while he was a congressman because the national party was not popular in his district. For instance, he did not endorse any candidates in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Nonetheless, he was rumored to be President Obama's pick as White House Budget Director; instead President Obama chose Peter R. Orszag, whom Spratt had helped hire as the director of the Congressional Budget Office. 2010 In 2010, John Spratt's re-election chances was the subject of numerous articles. He was seen as particularly vulnerable due to his ties with the Democratic party leadership, his district's double-digit unemployment rate, and the district's growing Republican base. He was defeated that year by Mick Mulvaney by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent—one of the largest margins of defeat for an incumbent in the 2010 cycle. Mulvaney successfully weaponized Spratt's bipartisan credentials against him during the election. He lamented that Spratt was no longer fiscally conservative like he had once been in 1997 when he helped balance the nation's budget and criticized his relationship with Nancy Pelosi. The National Republican Congressional Committee called John Spratt an "amnesiac" and stated he was forgetting what was going on in Washington. Notably, President Barack Obama flew into Charlotte with Spratt on Air Force One during the campaign. Spratt was among three Democratic U.S. House chairmen who lost that year to Tea Party candidates. Personal life Spratt was diagnosed in 2010 with Parkinson's disease. Since his departure from Congress, Spratt has served as Visiting Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Winthrop University. He also serves on the board of directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Spratt has 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren. Committee assignments Committee assignments in 111th Congress Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee