Rep. Ron Paul (R) Elected 1996, 5th 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.
DC Office	203 CHOB20515, 202-225-2831; Web site: www.house.gov/paul
State Offices	Lake Jackson, 979-285-0231; Victoria, 361-576-1231.
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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 Republic and later the state of Texas. The hilly and river-crossed land between Houston and Austin, named after Texas' first two 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 of Texas. With rural countrysides and the cities of Victoria and El Campo, it runs along the Gulf Coast between Corpus Christ and Port Arthur. Victoria is a rail hub that serves Gulf ports; it also includes large industrial plants, including DuPont, Union Carbide, Alcoa and BP Chemicals. Redistricting in 2003 removed parts of the old Texas German country and added most of hurricane-prone Galveston, on a barrier island on the Gulf. It was an immigrant port known as the Ellis Island of the West until a 1900 hurricane devastated the area and killed thousands; the city is now guarded by a 17-foot seawall and connected to the mainland by a hurricane-resistant bridge. This is a district that is mostly small-city Texas, but much of it now surrounds the suburban fringes of metropolitan Houston. This country is ancestrally Democratic but it has trended Republican since the 1980s, and voted 67% for George W. Bush in 2004. Despite the shift in redistricting of more than half of its population, the partisan mix was barely affected.

The congressman from the 14th District is Ron Paul, a Republican first elected as long ago as 1976, and also once a Libertarian candidate for president. Paul grew up in Pennsylvania, graduated from Duke Medical School, served as an Air Force flight surgeon, then moved to Texas to practice obstetrics and gynecology in Brazoria County, southwest of Houston. Paul was dismayed when Richard Nixon cut the connection between the dollar and gold in 1971 and became interested in politics. He was elected to the House in 1976 and served four terms, then ran for the Senate in 1984 and lost the Republican 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. In his first stint in the House, Paul advanced some ideas that in the mid-1990s had almost become 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.

Paul reentered electoral politics after 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. Laughlin led in the primary with 43% of the vote, but Paul won the runoff 54%-46%. Democrats ran Charles "Lefty" Morris, a former president of the state trial lawyers' association. Morris ("Lefty is right") hit Paul for favoring abolition of the minimum wage, repealing federal anti-drug laws and anti-prostitution laws. 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 Congressional Gold Medals to Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II, to pass the Patriot Act after September 11. He favors relaxation of restrictions on illegal drugs, and he filed a lawsuit challenging the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act as a violation of the First Amendment. Unsurprisingly, he voted against the Medicare/prescription drug bill in 2003. His isolationist views on foreign policy have made his voting record on those issues indistinct from many liberal Democrats. 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 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. In a July 2003 speech in the House, which he called "Neo-Conned!", he harshly attacked the Bush administration and its supporters. "The so-called conservative revolution of the past two decades has given us massive growth in government size, spending and regulation." His iconoclasm has reached the point that he is probably the least dependable and persuadable Republican in the House--even though his district is next door to Tom DeLay's. Interestingly, many liberals have begun to praise him. And he does offer alternatives. In 2003 and 2004 he was among the most prolific legislators, sponsoring 68 bills and eight amendments. None passed.

For a while, Paul appeared on House Democrats' target lists, but he easily survived. Amazingly, he ran without any opposition in 2004. Democrats do not really have a chance in this district; more regular Republicans may have their eyes on it, but have not yet seriously challenged Paul in the Republican primary. It's unlikely that the Republican leadership will ever let him have a chairmanship. But it may be unwise to underestimate someone who, however offbeat, has managed to be elected to the House nine times, at least once in each of four decades.

Committees

• Financial Services (12th of 37 R): Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade & Technology; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit; Oversight & Investigations (Vice Chmn.).
• International Relations (12th of 27 R): Asia & the Pacific; Western Hemisphere.
• Joint Economic Committee (4th of 10 Reps.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	50	64	25	27	44	90	56	78	92	76	--
2003	60	--	50	5	--	89	46	71	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	53%	--	47%		47%	--	53%
Social	53%	--	47%		46%	--	54%
Foreign	73%	--	25%		80%	--	20%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR * 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. *

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Ron Paul (R)	unopposed
2004 primary	Ron Paul (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Ron Paul (R)	102,905	68%	$1,309,118
	Corby Windham (D)	48,224	32%	$40,410
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (60%); 1998 (55%); 1996 (51%); 1982 (99%); 1980 (51%); 1978 (51%); 1976 (56%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 169,480 (67%) Kerry (D) 82,792 (33%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 140,826 (64%) Gore (D) 78,634 (36%)

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 +14
• District Size: 9,369 square miles
• Population in 2000: 651,619; 71.1% urban; 28.9% rural
• Median Household Income: $41,335; 13.3% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 27.8% blue collar; 56.2% white collar; 16.1% gray collar; 13.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 62.1% White, 9.8% Black, 1.7% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.0% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 24.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 10.7% German, 7.0% Irish, 6.4% USA
• Click here for statewide demographic data.