James Edwards

Cofounder, Olive, Edwards, & Cooper, LLC

James R. Edwards, Jr., is a Principal and Cofounder of Olive, Edwards, & Cooper, LLC, a Washington-based government relations consulting firm. Dr. Edwards has been involved in policy issues and legislative battles while serving both on Capitol Hill and off, including health care, homeland security, intellectual property, law enforcement, technology, education, and tort reform. He consults on government relations, public affairs, and strategic planning. He’s a long-time strategist advancing market-based health care and social policies like immigration in the national interest. In 2006, he launched the initiative to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” working closely with Let Freedom Ring, Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Jimmy Duncan, and others.

Dr. Edwards spent five years on Capitol Hill, beginning his career with Sen. Strom Thurmond and ending as Legislative Director to Rep. Ed Bryant of Tennessee. He also handled legislative and press duties for Tennessee Congressman Jimmy Duncan. His congressional staff responsibilities included activities related to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and the House Banking, Transportation, and Select Aging Committees. During his congressional tenure, Dr. Edwards helped enact the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Defense of Marriage Act, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, and a National Day of Prayer for U.S. Troops in the Middle East Resolution. He also was centrally engaged in judicial discipline, digital copyright, patent reform issues, and oversight activities.

In addition, Dr. Edwards helped promote market-based solutions in health care policy at the Healthcare Leadership Council. He did a stint as Senior Speechwriter at the Republican National Committee, where he developed a reputation as an able polemicist. He has advised a number of campaigns, including Ed Bryant’s successful election to Congress as part of the famed Class of 1994. Dr. Edwards has taught on the college level at Union University, Carson-Newman College, and in the Claremont McKenna College Washington Semester Program and at Regent University’s Washington Campus. He was selected as a Lincoln Fellow by the Claremont Institute in 1998 and is an Adjunct Fellow with the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee.

Coauthor of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, Dr. Edwards has contributed to several published volumes, penned more than 150 opinion essays and articles which have appeared in some 40 publications nationwide, and authored a number of policy papers, including Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Connection Between Legal and Illegal Immigration and Keeping Extremists Out: The History of Ideological Exclusion, and the Need for Its Return. He has appeared on national TV such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs, CBS News, CBN, radio programs including National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Justice Talking,” and talk radio across the nation.