The new congressman from the 17th District is Bill Flores, a Republican who toppled 10-term Democrat Chet Edwards in one of the big upsets of 2010. Read More

The new congressman from the 17th District is Bill Flores, a Republican who toppled 10-term Democrat Chet Edwards in one of the big upsets of 2010.

The oldest of six children, Flores was born at Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. After his father’s military tour of duty, the family moved back to Stratford, a small town in the northern tip of the Texas Panhandle. From age 9, Flores helped work cattle on the family’s ranch. Those early-life experiences made an impact. “I watched my Dad work real hard to put food on the table, and I got to see first hand what you can do when you start with nothing but you work really hard,” Flores told National Journal. “I didn’t want to be poor. I didn’t want to be hungry.” He said he also learned never to expect a handout. “I was always taught that you don’t turn to the government for anything. You create your own opportunities,” he said.

Flores helped pay his way through Texas A&M, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, the student body government and the honor guard. Flores counts his time at Texas A&M as formative and has remained active as an alumnus, donating millions of dollars to his alma mater to fund scholarships. He graduated in 1972, and went to work for the KPMG accounting firm. Over three decades, Flores built a career as a financial manager for several large corporations, eventually settling in the oil-and-gas industry in Houston. He was the president and chief executive officer of Phoenix Exploration until late 2009, when he left the job to run for Congress.

He had four opponents in the March 2010 Republican primary. He finished ahead of 2008 nominee Rob Curnock, 33%-29%. Curnock carried Waco and Johnson County, but Flores had a bigger margin over him in College Station and Brazos County, where another candidate, Dave McIntyre, finished second. Flores appears to have rallied other candidates’ supporters for the April runoff, and beat Curnock 65%-35%.

In the general election, he faced Edwards, a 20-year incumbent with considerable political skills. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he served in the Texas state Senate and then won a seat in the U.S. House in 1990, when incumbent Democrat Marvin Leath retired. He retained the seat even as the district’s voters became more Republican, taking care to cast conservative votes on some issues and to tend to the needs of sprawling Fort Hood. But his standing with conservatives was hurt in July 2008, when liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned him as a possible Democratic vice presidential candidate. That year, Republican Curnock held him to a 53%-46% victory, even though Edwards outspent him $2 million to $96,000.

Edwards had also taken some recent unpopular stands. Flores targeted his vote for the 2009 economic stimulus bill. And he emphasized his own business credentials, saying he would bring the discipline of a successful accountant to his work in government. In particular, Flores touted his role in the early 1990s helping to turn around a financially struggling oil and gas company called Marine Drilling. However, The Dallas Morning News reported that a Marine subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in 1992, leaving the government with $7.5 million in unpaid debt. Edwards assembled a “Vets for Chet” parade with retired generals attesting to his work for Fort Hood, and attacked Flores as a Houston interloper.

It was a high-dollar race, with Edwards spending $3.8 million and Flores $3.3 million (1.5 million of it his own money), with outside groups spending another $720,000 against Edwards and $1 million against Flores. By summer, Edwards was trailing badly; his own poll showed him behind 46%-42%, a disastrous result for a 20-year incumbent. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee mostly pulled out of the race to focus resources on more winnable contests. Flores won 62%-37%, carrying all but one small county. He won with just 52% in Waco’s McLennan County, but got 64% in College Station’s Brazos County and 71% in Johnson County south of Fort Worth.

In the House, Flores’ first bills were measures to set more stringent deadlines for government approval of offshore oil and gas drilling and to extend for 12 months all oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico affected by the Interior Department’s drilling moratoriums after the massive BP spill.