A former lobbyist and state lawmaker who once worked for North Carolina’s archconservative Sen. Jesse Helms, David Rouzer has been a consistently conservative voice in Congress, speaking against gay marriage, gun control and abortion rights. But many of his other efforts in the House have focused on local issues like water and agriculture. Rouzer is no stranger to Washington. After college he worked on Capitol Hill for Helms for most of the next eight years and was a senior adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R). President George W. Bush appointed Rouzer to senior-level jobs with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked on rural development from 2005 to 2006.