Broun’s zealous approach does not stop with politics

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In 1986 Paul Broun was a small-town doctor with a struggling fourth marriage, a bankruptcy not far in the rearview mirror and a conviction that there is no afterlife.

One fall morning he awoke on his office couch in Americus and noticed a Gideon Bible on the table. Recalling a banner he saw at a football game on television, he flipped to John 3:16. And everything changed.

Broun approaches religion, life and politics with the zeal of a convert. Now a Congressman battling in an underdog Republican bid for U.S. Senate, he is a hard-line conservative known for bold statements and a tea party-inspired following.

He likes to call President Barack Obama a communist, called evolution a “lie from the pit of hell” and supports the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, among other federal departments. Yet he maintains the warm demeanor and bedside manner of a country doctor.

“I realize people have other beliefs than I do; I respect their beliefs,” Broun said when asked about the role of faith in his conduct in the U.S. House. “One thing we can all believe in, though, is this country is being destroyed by both parties eroding the foundational principles of our nation.”

Broun grew up in Athens, the son of 19-term state Sen. Paul Broun Sr., a Democrat who fought for education funding and helped craft the HOPE scholarship. Broun’s path to being an “ardent original intent Constitutionalist,” in his words, came out of his love of hunting and fishing.

Broun went on safaris to Africa and became a volunteer lobbyist for the Safari Club, which exposed him to public policy. His U.S. House office is festooned with exotic animals he has killed and eaten – including a bear, a lion and a cape buffalo. He told the Internet publication Buzzfeed that the tastiest was a warthog.

On one hunt in Botswana in the 1980s, a lion had Broun cornered, but Broun felled the animal with a single rifle shot.

"Frankly, I believe God directed that bullet," he told a Baptist church in Hartwell in 2012. "Because if I had missed, that lion would have been in the back of the truck with me, and I would have been clawed up and hurt badly."

Broun was unscathed by the attack, but the safari lifestyle outstripped his general practice physician salary, and he filed for bankruptcy in 1982. His third divorce followed. He was way behind on his federal income taxes.

But, he said, his conversion set his life on the right track. He started running for office, failing twice in bids for the U.S. House and once for the U.S. Senate in 1996. In that campaign, during which he garnered 2.7 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, he advocated getting rid of Medicare and Social Security entirely. He now says the massive federal entitlement programs must be reformed significantly before they bankrupt the nation.

He caught fire politically in 2007, shocking political observers and the Republican establishment by winning a crowded special election race after Rep. Charlie Norwood’s death. Broun has held onto the seat ever since, but in late 2012 rumors were building that he was getting ready for a Republican primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Chambliss decided not to seek re-election early last year, and Broun was the first to formally leap into the race to replace him.

The aggressive approach does not stop with politics, longtime friend Mark Wiggins said. Broun doesn’t shoot the normal 200-yard targets at the shooting range; he’s hitting bulls-eyes from 1,000 yards away. He is a licensed pilot and a savant when cooking on the grill.

In the U.S. House he is known for a fast-paced gait down the hallways and for proposing scores of program-slashing amendments to spending bills — often unsuccessfully. He frequently votes with a small bloc of hard-right insurgents, including a vote against John Boehner for House Speaker in a fizzled coup attempt early last year.

“He is kind, but at the same time I would say he’s pretty fearless,” Wiggins said. “He’s not afraid to tell you where he stands and he doesn’t bounce back and forth with his positions. His principles are pretty firm and you never have to guess where he stands.”

His entry into the Senate race caused establishment Republicans heartburn, while Democrats openly hope to face him in the fall. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Broun badly trailing a hypothetical general election matchup with Democrat Michelle Nunn.

But Broun has stayed on message in this race, avoiding the kinds of verbal missteps that have dogged other Republicans. He has a different explanation for mainline GOP unease with his candidacy.

“Because Republicans want the power,” he said. “They don’t want to have the power devolve to the people, back to the states. Republicans as well as Democrats like the power and control here in Washington, D.C. and they seem to be petrified that I might get elected.”