Subcommittee Chairman U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (File/Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson has received a pacemaker after being taken to the hospital Tuesday night in Washington for an unspecified illness.
Wilson’s official X, formerly Twitter, account posted on Friday afternoon that he had received the pacemaker, was recovering well and should be discharged from the hospital within days.
Wilson’s son, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, posted on social media Tuesday evening that the congressman had “experienced stroke-like symptoms.”
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) wears a pin with the Israeli and American flags as he greets family members of hostages being held by Hamas on Capitol Hill Nov. 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia held a roundtable meeting with the families of hostages being held by Hamas. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“I was able to speak with him moments ago and I am incredibly thankful that he is stable and being monitored by medical professionals,” the attorney general wrote on X.
Wilson’s office has declined for several days to provide additional details about the illness, other than to say he is stable and in good spirits.
The 77-year-old Republican congressman from Lexington County has represented the 2nd District since winning a special election in 2001. He was previously a state senator for 17 years. In 2003, he retired from the South Carolina Army National Guard as a colonel.
Wilson is the senior member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia subcommittee.
He is running for re-election in November against Democratic challenger David Robinson II. The district stretches from Aiken and Barnwell counties at the Georgia border to northern Richland County.