Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock	Retiring
	Rep. Myra Crownover	Retiring
	Sen. Kevin Eltife	Retiring
	Rep. Joe Farias	Resigned effective 8/10/15
	Rep. Allen Fletcher	Retiring
	Sen. Troy Fraser	Retiring
	Rep. Patricia Harless	Retiring
	Rep. Bryan Hughes	Seeking another office
	Rep. Jim Keffer	Retiring
	Rep. Susan King	Seeking another office
	Rep. Marisa Márquez	Retiring
	Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer	Seeking another office
	Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon	Resigned effective 1/31/16
	Rep. Elliott Naishtat	Retiring
	Rep. John Otto	Retiring
	Rep. David Simpson	Seeking another office
	Rep. Scott Turner	Retiring
	Rep. Sylvester Turner	Resigned effective 1/1/16; sworn in as Mayor of Houston on 1/2/16

This entry was posted on January 27, 2016 at 2:14 PM and has received 2511 views. Print this entry.

A fun story came to us from Emily Richardson, a reading clerk in the Texas House. She recently discovered that her great grandfather, George E. Adams, served in the Texas Legislature during the 1940s. At the urging of one of her co-workers, she looked him up in the library's Texas Legislators: Past and Present database, and was pleasantly surprised to find not only information about his terms of service and committee appointments, but also a resolution honoring her grandmother (George's daughter) that mentioned Emily and her sister!

We love to hear stories like these, especially when they involve our Texas Legislators database. Librarians have worked on this database for more than a decade, compiling a wealth of information on current and former Texas Legislators. Need to know the committees on which a particular member served during the 55th Legislature? Or who represented Zavala County in 1995? Texas Legislators: Past and Present is your one-stop shop for this information, and, as Emily's story demonstrates, is great for looking up family members who served in the Texas Legislature. Thanks, Emily, for sharing your story!

 

George E. Adams served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1945 to 1947. He represented Brazos County.

Emily Richardson, great granddaughter of George E. Adams, and currently a Reading Clerk in the Texas House of Representatives.

This entry was posted on February 16, 2015 at 3:33 PM and has received 1486 views. Print this entry.

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The 2014 election will feature contests for at least six statewide offices, including governor. Texas has not seen such possible turnover in statewide office in 16 years, and the last open governor’s race was more than 20 years ago. (Read our blog post about past open races for Texas governor).

Several state legislators have announced they are running for statewide seats. Below is a list of declared candidates as of Sept. 10, 2013 who are current or former members. Click on the links to view information about each legislator, including terms of service.

Attorney General

• Rep. Dan Branch
• Sen. Ken Paxton

Commissioner of Agriculture

• Rep. Brandon Creighton

Comptroller of Public Accounts

• Sen. Glenn Hegar
• Rep. Harvey Hilderbran
• Former Rep. Raul Torres

Lieutenant Governor

• Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst
• Sen. Dan Patrick
• Former Sen. Jerry Patterson (current Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office)
• Former Sen. Todd Staples (current Texas Commissioner of Agriculture)

Railroad Commissioner

• Rep. Stefani Carter
• Former Rep. Wayne Christian
• Former Rep. Ray Keller

Did You Know?

2014 Election Dates of Note

• November 9, 2013: first day candidates for statewide office may file to be on the primary ballot
• December 9, 2013: filing deadline to be on the primary ballot
• March 4, 2014: primary election
• November 4, 2014: general election

This entry was posted on September 10, 2013 at 8:50 AM and has received 1214 views. Print this entry.

Since statehood, 5,451 people have served in the Texas Legislature.  Most didn't serve for very long, particularly during the 19th century. The average length of consecutive service by House members is slightly under four years; Senators' average tenure is closer to five years.

The youngest senator ever was Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston.  As a young man, he built a reputation as a brilliant speaker, a talented lawyer, and a quick draw with a pistol. Temple Houston took the oath of office on January 13, 1885, when he was only 24 years old.  

It is not uncommon for Legislators to serve non-consecutive terms, but Walter P. Acker, Sr., stands out for the length of time between his terms.  His first term, during the 18th Legislature, ended in 1885; 40 years later, he became a member of the 39th Legislature.  

This entry was posted on August 13, 2012 at 8:00 AM and has received 7020 views. Print this entry.

How will the percentage of new legislators going into the 2013 legislative session compare to previous years? We used data compiled from the library's Texas Legislators: Past and Present database to create a graphic displaying the percentage of new legislators (freshmen) in the House and Senate going back to the 38th Regular Session in 1923.

The graphic begins with the 38th Regular Session since this was the first legislature to reach 150 members in the House. The Constitution of 1876, Article 3, section 2 provided for a 31-member Senate and a 93-member House, which was to be increased incrementally to 150 members as the state population grew.

Turnover appeared to be more common during the 1920s through the 1950s, possibly due to World Wars I and II.  Factors that may have led to increases or unusually high turnover in subsequent years include:

• Redistricting, called apportionment, is accomplished by the Legislature at the first session following the federal census. The subsequent regular session may see a spike in new members as a result. See for example the percentage of new freshmen in the 78th R.S.(2003), 73rd R.S. (1993), and the 68th R.S. (1983). For additional history on reapportionment in Texas, please see Overview of Texas Redistricting, by the Texas Legislative Council.
• Texas Constitution, Art. III, §3 provides that a new Senate should be chosen after every apportionment, and the Senators elected after apportionment "draw terms," with some senators drawing two-year terms and other senators drawing four-year terms.
• Sharpstown stock fraud scandal led to the election of 73 new legislators in the 1972 election. This caused the percentage of new House members during the 63rd R.S. (1973) to jump to 46.7%. The Senate also experienced unusually high turnover that session with the percentage of new freshman increasing to 48.4% in contrast to 12.9% in the previous session.

Hover over individual bars to get the session, year, and percent of the total body in the chamber that were freshmen. We defined freshmen as new legislators sworn in during the first day or week of the regular session. Members who first served during a called session of a legislature are counted as freshmen members of that legislature. Excluded are members who were elected to a legislature but never sworn in due to death, resignation or other factors.

This entry was posted on June 20, 2012 at 8:50 AM and has received 7761 views. Print this entry.

Who represented Travis County in the House and Senate in 1905?  What were their party affiliations?  Which Senate and House districts did Travis County belong to that year?

If you're researching questions like these, you may want to check the library's Texas Legislators: Past & Present database. We've recently added information about the counties represented by each member of the Legislature, allowing you to find things like all members who have represented all or part of a county since the county's creation, or which counties were in a particular member's district at any given time. While you're researching, keep in mind that county boundaries have shifted over the years. Bexar County used to include all of west Texas, along with parts of New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado.  In the database, members are linked to the counties as they were at the time the member was elected, not as they are today. If you need information on historical county boundaries, a great source to look at is the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

In addition to county information, we've also added party affiliation for members back to the 12th Legislature (1870), making it possible to see the party breakdown in any one session back to that cutoff date, or to view the party affiliation of any member in particular. As with the county information, party information reflects the member's affiliation at the time he/she was elected.  We are currently researching and verifying party affiliations, so if a member's record does not yet include that information, it will be added as it becomes available.

This entry was posted on November 8, 2011 at 4:22 PM and has received 1428 views. Print this entry.

In our ongoing research for the Texas Legislators database, we often uncover interesting bits of Texas legal history. Recently, two early legislators stood out for their pioneering role in the history of the Texas Supreme Court. Brothers Oliver Cromwell Hartley (House of Representatives, 4th Legislature) and Rufus K. Hartley (House of Representatives, 8th Legislature; Texas Senate, 9th-10th Legislatures) not only had legislative careers, but were involved as reporters of Texas Supreme Court decisions.  In 1846, six years after the Supreme Court had its first term, the state began appointing court reporters to publish the decisions of the court. Oliver Cromwell Hartley was appointed that year as court reporter, and held the position until his death in 1859. Both brothers' names can be seen in early volumes of the Texas Reports, which were the only source of Supreme Court opinions until the appearance of the Southwestern Reporter in 1886. 

In addition to their work with the Texas Supreme Court, the Hartley brothers published Digest of Texas Laws in 1850.  The digest comprised "all the public laws of the republic and state of Texas, which are now in force, except Acts for the incorporation of cities and towns, and the establishment of counties…" This compilation of Texas statutes greatly aided lawyers and legislators at the time, since no official collection of Texas laws had yet been published.

If you're interested in learning more about Oliver Cromwell Hartley or Rufus K. Hartley, you can view their member records in our Texas Legislators: Past & Present database.

 

Oliver Cromwell Hartley			Rufus K. Hartley

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