Page "J. C. Watts" Paragraph 2

Watts became a Baptist minister and was elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the first African American in Oklahoma to win statewide office.

He successfully ran for Congress in 1994 and was reelected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins.

Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998.

He retired in 2003 and turned to lobbying and business work.