Biography

“Not yet having served three full terms in Congress, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller already has become a respected national figure.”
- News and Record, May 3, 2008

The News and Record says Miller also has his pulse on the pocketbook issues affecting North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District. “Miller’s concern for the common man has led him to take a leadership role in unraveling and finding remedies for the subprime mortgage crisis.”

Brad Miller is North Carolina's first elected representative to the 13th and newest Congressional District, which stretches from the state capitol of Raleigh, along the Virginia border counties, to Greensboro's Piedmont Triad Region. 

Personal Background
For Brad Miller, North Carolina values are the values he learned from his church, from North Carolina public schools, and at his mother’s knee.

Brad’s father grew up on a farm outside of Spring Lake, North Carolina, one of eleven children. His mother grew up at the Baptist Orphanage in Thomasville, North Carolina. Brad’s father and mother were both children of the Depression, both were valedictorians of their high school classes, and both began college but could not afford to complete their degrees.

Brad’s parents met and married in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Brad was born in 1953. Brad’s father was a branch manager of the neighborhood post office, and his mother was a bookkeeper. His father died in 1965, when Brad was 12.

With support from his mother and student loans, Brad was able to earn the education that his parents could not afford for themselves. After completing public school in Fayetteville, Brad earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master's degree from the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Columbia University. He served as law clerk to Judge J. Dickson Phillips, Jr. of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals for one year following his graduation from law school, and practiced law in Raleigh for more than twenty years before his election to Congress.

A Call to Public Service
Brad’s parents instilled an early interest in public service. At age 11, Brad passed out literature at a polling place for a family friend from church who was running for local office. That night Brad’s father took him to the Cumberland County Courthouse to watch election returns tallied.

Brad was elected the Chair of the Wake Democratic Party in 1985, when he was 31 years old.

In 1992, Brad was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he served two years. He was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1996, where he served six years. As a member of the state legislature, Brad wrote North Carolina’s safe gun storage law, which dramatically curbed juvenile gun deaths. He also introduced legislation to expand North Carolina’s domestic violence law; to reduce air pollution from cars and trucks; to limit the influence of political patronage in state government hiring; and to protect consumers from dishonest automobile mechanics.

The Raleigh News and Observer called Brad "a workhorse for public education and a conscientious voice for integrity in government" as a North Carolina legislator.

Brad Miller’s Work in Congress
In 2002, Brad was elected to Congress to represent a new district gained by North Carolina after the 2000 Census. Brad now serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Science and Technology Committee. He also serves on the Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Brad quickly became a leader in Congress in protecting consumers from predatory financial practices. He is the lead sponsor of legislation to protect homeowners from predatory mortgage lending.

He has been an outspoken critic of pay inequity between workers and top corporate executives. The Wall Street Journal said that Brad is "among the most outspoken [Democrats] on the issue of inequality."

In his new role as Chairman on the Science Subcommittee, Brad has led investigations into efforts to alter scientific research for political advantage and into waste and fraud in government agencies. He has continued to push for innovation and research into alternative energy sources on the Science and Technology Committee.