Rep. Ron Paul (R) Elected 1996, 4th term
Born:	Aug. 20, 1935, Pittsburgh, PA
Home:	Surfside
Education:	Gettysburg Col., B.A. 1957, Duke U., M.D. 1961
Religion:	Protestant
Marital Status:	married (Carol)
Elected  Office:	U.S. House of Reps., 1976, 1978-84.
Military Career:	Flight Surgeon, Air Force, 1963-68.
Professional Career:	Practicing physician, 1968-96.
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Retreating east from the Alamo, the ragtag army led by Sam Houston passed over what would become, after their bloody and conclusive victory at San Jacinto, some of the prime cropland in the new Republic and later the state of Texas. The hilly and river-crossed land between Houston and Austin, both named after Texas' first leaders, was settled early. The first capital of the Republic of Texas was in Brazoria County. The flat coastal plains, steamy and humid so much of the year, were settled later when the railroads came in. The Gulf of Mexico coastline, though it has plenty of inlets, never had any important ports in the stretch between Houston and Corpus Christi until the discovery of oil here made it worthwhile to build channels to ship the oil out.

This is the land of the 14th Congressional District. Made up of rural countrysides, small towns and a couple of small cities, it runs along the Gulf Coast and inland toward the old Texas German country. It is a district between the big metropolitan areas of Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi, including some of their suburban fringe. Victoria, which passes for the urban center of the district, is a rail hub that serves Gulf ports; it also includes large industrial plants, including DuPont, Union Carbide, Alcoa and BP Chemicals. This country is ancestrally Democratic except for a couple of counties settled by Texas Germans, who were pro-Union in the Civil War and have remained Republican ever since. But it has trended Republican since the 1980s, culminating in 66% for George W. Bush in 2000.

The congressman from the 14th District is Ron Paul, a Republican elected in 1996, but also once a Libertarian candidate for president. Paul grew up in Pennsylvania, graduated from Duke Medical School, served as a Air Force flight surgeon, then moved to Texas to practice obstetrics and gynecology in Brazoria County, just southwest of Houston. Paul was dismayed when Richard Nixon cut the connection between the dollar and gold in 1971 and became interested in politics. After winning election to the House in 1976 and serving four terms, he ran for the Senate in 1984 and lost the primary to Phil Gramm 73%-16%. His House seat was won by a young legislator and exterminating firm owner, Tom DeLay. In 1988, as the Libertarian candidate for president, Paul ran third with 432,000 votes, 0.47% of the total (more than Patrick Buchanan's 0.43% in 2000, which was achieved with the help of $12 million in federal funding). In his first stint in the House, Paul advanced some ideas that in the mid-1990s became mainstream--term limits and abolition of the income tax. Other Paul ideas remain outside the political pale--endorsing a group that wants to end all government funding of education, cutting $150 billion from the defense budget and returning to the gold standard. Paul practices what he preaches. He will not accept payment by Medicare or Medicaid, he wouldn't let his children accept federal student loans and he refuses his congressional pension.

Following his presidential campaign, Paul reentered politics after 14th District Congressman Greg Laughlin switched parties and became a Republican in June 1995. Laughlin had a moderate voting record, by no means the most conservative of Texas Democrats. Republicans offered him a seat on Ways and Means if he switched, and he did. Paul decided to run again in 1996, raising money from his nationwide network of Libertarians, gold bugs and subscribers to the Ron Paul Political Report. After Laughlin led the primary with 43%, Paul won the runoff 54%-46%. This set up an excruciating situation for Republican leaders. They did not want to lose the seat to Democrat Charles "Lefty" Morris, who ran as a "conservative Democrat," but omitted from his resume the fact that he had been president of the state trial lawyers' association. Nor did they want to be associated with Paul's wackier-seeming views. Morris ("Lefty is right") hit Paul for favoring abolition of the minimum wage, repealing federal anti-drug laws and anti-prostitution laws. Researchers reported that Paul's newsletter in 1992 said that 95% of black men in Washington, D.C. are "semi-criminal or entirely criminal" and that black teenagers are "unbelievably fleet of foot." Paul ran 1% ahead of Bob Dole and won 51%-48%.

With his libertarian views, Paul's voting record is anything but rock-solid Republican; National Journal ratings place him near the middle of the House. Frequently, his insistence on limited government made Paul the House's lonely dissenter--against bills to require states to report on their progress in improving student achievement, to award Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II with Congressional Gold Medals, to pass the Patriot Act for increased law-enforcement authority after September 11. He was the only Republican to vote "present" on the resolution expressing support for the military forces at the start of the war with Iraq. He filed a lawsuit challenging the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act as a violation of the First Amendment. He supports virtually no role for the U.S. government overseas--from military defense to international trade; he calls himself a "non-interventionist," not an isolationist. His iconoclasm has reached the point that he is probably the least dependable and persuadable Republican in the House--all the more frustrating for Tom DeLay in his role as majority whip and now majority leader. Interestingly, many liberals have begun to praise him.

Paul has appeared on House Democrats' target lists, but easily survived in 1998 and 2000 against Loy Sneary, a local rice farmer. Redistricting made many changes at the edges of the district, but none that caused him any problem in 2002, when he was reelected with 68% of the vote. Democrats do not really have a chance in this district; more regular Republicans may have their eyes on it, but have not yet made a serious challenge in the primary: it may not be wise to underestimate someone who, however offbeat, has managed to be elected to the House eight times, at least once in each of the past four decades.

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DC Office
203 CHOB 20515, 202-225-2831; Fax: 202-226-4871; Web site: www.house.gov/paul

State Offices
Freeport, 979-230-0000; Victoria, 361-576-1231.

Committees

• Financial Services (12th of 37 R): Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade & Technology; Oversight & Investigations (Vice Chmn.).
• International Relations (17th of 26 R): Asia & the Pacific; Western Hemisphere.
• Joint Economic Committee (6th of 10 Reps.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	30	67	38	50	99	38	88	50	76	89	50
2001	20	--	44	36	--	--	88	62	70	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	49%	--	52%		47%	--	52%
Social	50%	--	50%		49%	--	51%
Foreign	75%	--	26%		58%	--	42%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights * 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Ron Paul (R)	102,905	68%	$1,309,118
	Corby Windham (D)	48,224	32%	$40,410
2002 primary	Ron Paul (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Ron Paul (R)	137,370	60%	$2,353,816
	Loy Sneary (D)	92,689	40%	$1,033,842
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (55%); 1996 (51%); 1982 (99%); 1980 (51%); 1978 (51%); 1976 (56%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	136,460	66%
	Gore (D)	71,434	34%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fourteenth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +16
• District Size: 16,067 square miles
• Population in 2000: 651,620; 55.1% urban; 44.9% rural
• Median Household Income: $35,966; 15.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 30.3% blue collar; 52.1% white collar; 17.6% gray collar; 13.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 58.2% White, 7.7% Black, 0.8% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 32.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.1% German, 6.2% Irish, 5.3% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.