was challenged by Onslow County Commissioner Joe McLaughlin. Jones defeated the poorly funded McLaughlin 59–41%. In the general election, Jones defeated Craig Weber 66–34%. 2010 In the general election, he defeated Johnny Rouse with 73% of the vote. 2012 He faced Frank Palombo, a former New Bern police chief in the Republican primary on May 8 and won. He won against Marine Corps Veteran Erik Anderson in the general election. 2014 He faced Taylor Griffin, a former aide to President George W. Bush, who was heavily supported by outside money, and won the Republican Party primary on May 6. 2016 He defeated Democrat Ernest Reeves by 67–32%. 2018 Jones was re-elected to his final term in November 2018 unopposed. Tenure Jones had a lifetime rating of 84.69 from the American Conservative Union. However, his voting record had become somewhat more moderate in the years prior to his death, according to the group's ranking. In recent years, he had received some of the lowest ACU ratings of any Republican from the South. In 2006, he received a 79, in 2007 he received a 71, in 2008 he received a 58, in 2009 he received an 83, in 2010 he received a 65, and in 2011 he received a 60. The former five ratings were the lowest recorded in those years for a Republican from North Carolina. Jones was ranked as the 37th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party). Jones said that his father was able to vote his conscience until he became a member of the House Democratic leadership, at which time he had to vote with the party line. For instance, his father voted for the 1975 federal bailout of a bankrupt New York City even though he personally opposed it. Jones said of that vote, "He had to vote it that way. I would rather do what I think is right than to sell my political soul." Jones drifted towards the libertarian