Who is Steve Scalise?

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 6/14/2017, 8:38 a.m.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip Wednesday morning during a baseball practice in Virginia.
Steve Scalise

By Tom LoBianco

CNN

(CNN) -- House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip Wednesday morning during a baseball practice in Virginia.

Scalise, a five-term Republican from Louisiana, rose quickly through the ranks of leadership early in his career.

In 2012, he won a hard-fought battle to lead the Republican Study Committee -- at the time, the most conservative bloc of Republicans in the House. Later, when then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was upset in a 2014 primary race, Scalise ran and won the spot as House majority whip -- the third-ranking Republican in the House.

Inside Congress, Scalise has been described as a pragmatic conservative and has helped bridge the widening rifts between stark conservatives and more traditional Republicans.

As he was running for House Majority Whip, a scandal emerged when it was revealed Scalise had spoken to a group led by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in 2002. Scalise called it a mistake and apologized. Then-House Speaker John Boehner supported Scalise and Rep. Cedric Richmond, a black Democrat from Louisiana, also supported Scalise.

Scalise won the House seat in Louisiana that was vacated by Bobby Jindal when he ran for governor in 2007.

He is avid baseball fan and has played on the congressional team since he entered Congress. His leadership office is lined with pictures from past years' games.

Scalise, 51, was a computer systems engineer before joining Congress. He and his wife, Jennifer Scalise, have two children.

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