Barton Jennings "Bart" Gordon, (born January 24, 1949) is a lawyer and former U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 6th congressional district, serving from 1985 until 2011. The district includes several rural areas and fast-growing suburbs east of Nashville. He was Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology from 2007 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He announced on December 14, 2009 that he would not seek re-election in 2010.

Gordon was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he has lived all of his life. He served in the United States Army Reserve in 1971 and 1972. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1971, earning a law degree from the University of Tennessee in 1973. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. He then entered private practice in Murfreesboro.

Active in Democratic politics early on, he was briefly executive director of the Tennessee Democratic Party in 1979 and state party chairman from 1981 to 1983.

When 6th District Congressman Al Gore announced in 1983 that he would run for the United States Senate in 1984, Gordon stepped down as state party chairman to run for the seat. He initially faced a hard-fought race against the brother of the publisher of Nashville's former conservative newspaper, the Nashville Banner. However, he won handily in November 1984, riding Gore's coattails in the midst of Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in that year's presidential election. Gordon is regarded as a moderate. He has favored the repeal of the inheritance tax and the "marriage tax penalty".

Antonin Gregory Scalia (ⁱ/skəˈlijə/; born March 11, 1936) is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice currently on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice. Appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia has been described as the intellectual anchor of the Court's conservative wing.

Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and attended public grade school and Catholic high school in New York City, where his family had moved. He attended Georgetown University as an undergraduate and obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from Harvard Law School. After spending six years in a Cleveland law firm, he became a law school professor. In the early 1970s, he served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, first at minor administrative agencies, and then as an assistant attorney general. He spent most of the Carter years teaching at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the first faculty advisers of the fledgling Federalist Society. In 1982, he was appointed as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Ronald Reagan.

Patrick Timothy McHenry (born October 22, 1975) is the U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 10th congressional district. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives for a single term. The district is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and includes Hickory, Morganton, Lincolnton, Shelby, and part of Gastonia.

McHenry was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. He grew up in suburban Gastonia, North Carolina, the son of the owner of the Dixie Lawn Care Company, and attended Ashbrook High School. A Roman Catholic, McHenry was the youngest of five children. His parents are now deceased.

Halfway through North Carolina State University, McHenry transferred to Belmont Abbey College. At Belmont, McHenry founded the school's College Republican chapter, then became chair of the North Carolina Federation of College Republicans and served as treasurer for the College Republican National Committee.

His first run for public office was for the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1998, while still a junior in college; he won the primary but lost in the general election. The Democratic winner was the father of a high school classmate.

Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) is the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since January 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007–2011) and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He worked as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote. He has been re-elected ever since by wide margins. In 1987 he came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. From 2007 to 2011, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, where he remains the ranking Democrat.

On November 28, 2011, Frank announced that he would retire from the Congress at the conclusion of his term in 2013. On January 26, 2012 it was announced in The Hill that Frank would marry his partner James Ready.

Michael Stephen Steele (born October 19, 1958) is an American politician who served as the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee from January 2009 until January 2011. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. During his time as Lieutenant Governor, he chaired the Minority Business Enterprise taskforce, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world.

In 2006, Steele made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, losing to Democrat Ben Cardin. He then served as chairman of GOPAC, the political training organization of the Republican party, was a political commentator for Fox News and a partner at the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP before making his bid for RNC Chairman. He co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, a "fiscally conservative and socially inclusive" political action committee, in 1993. On December 13, 2010, he announced his intentions to seek a second term as Republican National Committee Chair. On January 14, 2011, after four rounds of voting, Steele dropped out of the race and endorsed Maria Cino. Reince Priebus went on to win the election to succeed Steele. He commenced as a columnist for online magazine The Root in May 2011.