The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas,but also due to Texas's plural executive.
Thomas Chester Edwards is an American politician who was a United States Representative from Texas,representing a district based in Waco,from 1991 to 2011. Previously,he served in the Texas Senate from 1983 to 1990. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Edwards was on Barack Obama's vice presidential shortlist in 2008.
The 2003 Texas redistricting was a controversial intercensus state plan that defined new congressional districts. In the 2004 elections,this redistricting supported the Republicans taking a majority of Texas's federal House seats for the first time since Reconstruction. Democrats in both houses of the Texas Legislature staged walkouts,unsuccessfully trying to prevent the changes. Opponents challenged the plan in three suits,combined when the case went to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006).
Thomas Russell Craddick is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives representing the 82nd district. Craddick was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from January 2003 to January 2009. He was the first Republican to serve as Speaker since Reconstruction.
James Earl "Pete" Laney is a former American politician of the Democratic Party. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 to 2007. A resident of Hale Center,Texas,Laney served as House Speaker from 1993 to 2003. As of 2023,Laney is the most recent Democrat to serve as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
Kirk Preston Watson is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 59th mayor of Austin,Texas since 2023,previously holding the office as the 54th mayor from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party,he ran unsuccessfully for Texas Attorney General in the 2002 election,when he was defeated by Republican Greg Abbott,later governor of Texas. In 2006,Watson was elected to the Texas Senate from District 14.
Tom DeLay,a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas from 1979–83,and from 1985–2006 and the House Majority Leader from 2003–05,was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities aimed at helping Republican candidates for Texas state office in the 2002 elections. In 2013,a Texas Court of Appeals panel acquitted DeLay when it overturned his conviction. This decision was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 1,2014. DeLay had three years from that date,i.e. until October 1,2017,to file any lawsuits for wrongful action.
Patrick M. Rose is a former Texas Democratic politician,who from 2002 to 2010 served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from House District 45,which then consisted of Blanco,Caldwell,and Hays counties in Central Texas.
Lionel Aron Peña,Jr., known as Aaron is an American attorney and politician who for 10 years represented House District 40 in the Texas House of Representatives,a seat he was first sworn into on January 14,2003. On November 25,2011,Rep. Aaron Peña announced that he would not seek re-election to a sixth term in office. He ended his tenure with the Texas House of Representatives on January 8,2013 and returned to his work as an attorney and advisor in the private and public sectors. Currently Peña is employed with the Texas General Land Office,serving under the leadership of Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
Aaron Robert Schwartz,better known as A. R. Schwartz or "Babe" Schwartz,was an American politician,lawyer,and lobbyist who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1955 to 1959 and in the Texas Senate from 1960 to 1981,representing his native Galveston,Texas. He was known for being a liberal "yellow-dog" Democrat.
James R. Pitts,known as Jim Pitts,is an American state politician and lawyer who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2015. He was the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee for four legislative sessions. He is a Republican from Waxahachie in Ellis County,south of his native Dallas,Texas.
Joseph Richard Straus III is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 2009 to 2019. A Republican,he represented District 121,which comprises northeastern Bexar County,including parts of San Antonio and several surrounding communities,from his first election to the House in 2005 until his retirement in 2019. He chose not to seek re-election to the state House in 2018.
Paul Lindsey Sadler is an American attorney from Henderson,Texas,now residing in Bandera,Texas who served from 1991 to 2003 in the Texas House of Representatives. He was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 2012. In the November 6 general election,he lost against the Republican Ted Cruz,a former state Solicitor General.
Cecil Ivan Bell Jr. is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 3,which initially encompassed Waller County and is now entirely a portion of populous Montgomery County in Southeast Texas.
Christi Leigh Craddick is an American politician. She is one of three members of the Railroad Commission of Texas,the elected regulatory body over oil,natural gas,utilities,and surface mining first established in 1891. She is a Republican. The commission ended all controls over railroads in 2005 but is still known as the "Railroad Commission" for historical reasons.
Richard Lynn Hardcastle,known as Rick Hardcastle,is an American businessman and rancher who is a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 68 in the eastern South Plains.
Kelly Gene Hancock is an American businessman and Republican State Senator for District 9,which encompasses portions of Tarrant and Dallas counties,including all or part of the following communities in Tarrant County:Arlington,Bedford,Blue Mound,Colleyville,Euless,Fort Worth,Grand Prairie,Grapevine,Haltom City,Hurst,Keller,North Richland Hills,Richland Hills,Saginaw,Southlake,Trophy Club,Watauga and Westlake. In Dallas County,Senate District 9 includes portions of Dallas,Grand Prairie,and Irving. Hancock was elected to the Texas Senate in November 2012,having previously served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives.
Jeffrey Curtis Leach,known as Jeff Leach,is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 67,representing a portion of Collin County.
Matthew Daniel Rinaldi is an American attorney and politician serving as the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Rinaldi was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for district 115 in Dallas County from 2015 to 2019 when he was defeated by Democrat Julie Johnson.
Dale B. Tillery is an American judge,politician,and lawyer and currently serves as the judge of the 134th Judicial District Court in Dallas County. He was first elected to the bench in 2010.
