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American politician (born 1942)

John McKee Spratt Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is an American politician who was the U. S. representative for from 1983 to 2011. The 5th Congressional District covers all or part of 14 counties in north central South Carolina. The largest cities are Rock Hill and Sumter. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Spratt was the dean of the South Carolina congressional delegation, chairman of the U. S. House Committee on the Budget, and the second ranking Democrat on the U. S. House Committee on Armed Services, where he served on three subcommittees: Oversight and Investigations, Strategic Forces, and Air and Land Forces. In addition to his committee work, he co chaired the Textile Caucus, the Bearing Caucus, and the Nuclear Energy Caucus. On November 2, 2010, he lost his seat to Republican challenger Mick Mulvaney.

Spratt was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and raised in York, South Carolina. His father founded the Bank of Fort Mill and the York law firm where he would eventually practice. His only sibling is Jane Bratton Spratt McColl, wife of Hugh McColl, former chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of America Corporation. After graduating from York High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in history from Davidson College in 1964. He served as student body president at both schools. Spratt then earned an MA degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University (Corpus Christi College) in 1966 while studying on a Marshall Scholarship, and an LLB degree from Yale Law School in 1969. Spratt was a captain in the Army from 1969 to 1971, serving in the Operations Analysis Group in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) at the Pentagon, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. Spratt returned to York in 1971 to practice at the law firm of Spratt, McKeown, and Spratt. He was county attorney and school board attorney, and president of the Bank of Fort Mill. He also ran a small insurance agency and owned a farm in Fort Mill. Spratt married Jane Stacy of Filbert, South Carolina. They have three daughters named Susan, Sarah, and Catherine. They also have five grandchildren named Lily, Jack, Max, Grace, and James. Spratt has long been a member of First Presbyterian Church in York, South Carolina. He has also been active in the United Way and other civic and charity organizations.

Spratt became active in Democratic politics at an early age, and was elected delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Spratt was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, succeeding fellow Democrat Kenneth Holland. He was reelected 13 more times. Although parts of the district were becoming friendlier to Republican candidates 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.

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.

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.