Texas: Thirteenth District

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R)

Mac Thornberry (R) Elected 1994, 7th term up
Born:	07-15-1958, Clarendon
Home:	Clarendon
Education:	TX Tech. U., B.A. 1980, U. of TX Law Schl., J.D. 1983
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Sally)
Professional Career:	Legis. Cnsl., U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler, 1983–85; Chief of Staff, U.S. Rep. Larry Combest, 1985–88; Dpty. Asst. Secy. of State for Legis. Affairs, 1988–89; Practicing atty., 1989–94; Rancher 1989-94.
DC Office	2457 RHOB, 20515 202-225-3706 Fax: 202-225-3486 Website: www.house.gov/thornberry
State Offices	Amarillo:806-371-8844; Wichita Falls:940-692-1700;
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Heading west in Texas, the population thins out, the land becomes browner until you can travel through whole counties containing only a few hundred people each—plus quite a few more head of cattle. And then the land rises nearly 1,000 feet in elevation, up steep hillsides from the gullies that surround the rivers that for most of the year are just tiny trickles, to the tilted tableland that is the High Plains of West Texas. The winds here sweep down from the Rockies, the land is barren except where irrigated, often with the now dangerously depleted waters of the Ogallala Aquifer, and so one passes through grazing land to cotton fields and then grazing land again. But here and there in this demanding environment—sticky-hot in the summer, swept by north winds from Canada in winter, always threatened in “Tornado Alley”—comfortable cities have been built to house the people and businesses that bring forth some of the nation’s most abundant oil, natural gas, helium and other elements from the earth.

The 13th Congressional District of Texas covers more than 40,000 square miles; it extends from the New Mexico border to just north of Dallas and includes all of 42 counties and parts of two others. Population declined here in the 1980s, in some rural counties by as much as 30%, with only small gains in and around two of the three biggest cities, Wichita Falls and Amarillo. In the 1990s, the district’s population increased 5%, but that was the smallest gain in any Texas district, with population still declining in most rural counties; between 2000–2005, this was one of the slowest-growing districts in the state. Around Wichita Falls is the agricultural land of the Red River Valley, dusty land with empty skylines, and one of Bell Helicopter’s V-22 Osprey plants; Sheppard Air Force Base, a medical facility and pilot training center, was hit hard by cutbacks in the 2005 base review. The area claims to produce more cotton than any other congressional district, produces much of the world’s milo (a variety of sorghum) and is home to one of the nation’s oldest and largest cattle auctions. This was long white Anglo Texas: few blacks got this far west and there were not many Latinos either. But Latinos lately have been moving here in large numbers, to work in the fields or in crop processing. Today, the district is 6% black and 18% Hispanic. Much of the High Plains economy is based on natural resources. The largest city here is Amarillo, once the helium capital of North America (before Congress shut down production), now the center of the largest natural gas development in the world, and still—not Chicago—the windiest city in the United States. Just outside town is the Pantex plant that secretly assembled the nation’s thousands of nuclear warheads and was the epicenter of American defense in the Cold War; its 16,000 acres have been used to dismantle some disarmed weapons and now maintain the remainder of the arsenal.

The Red River Valley, settled by Confederate veterans, was heavily Democratic up through the 1970s. The High Plains, settled overland from Kansas wheatlands, was for years more Republican. Both parts are now solidly Republican. The 78% that George W. Bush won here in 2004 was his third-best performance in the nation; thinly populated Ochiltree County, on the Oklahoma border, gave Bush 92%, his highest percentage of any county in the nation.

The congressman from the 13th District is Mac Thornberry, a Republican first elected in 1994. His great-great-grandfather Amos Thornberry, a Union Army veteran and staunch Republican, moved to Clay County, just east of Wichita Falls, in the 1880s; a year after Amos died in 1925, his son bought the cattle ranch that Mac Thornberry, his brothers and father now run. From the window of his ranch house, writes The Texas Techsan, “as far as the eye can see is the Golden Spread of Texas for which this part of the state is named. There are no buildings, no roadways, no signs of life. Gaze out long enough and you begin to think you can actually see the curvature of the earth.” After college and law school in Texas, Thornberry worked for Congressmen Tom Loeffler and Larry Combest and at the State Department in Washington. He returned to practice law in West Texas. In 1994, he took on Democratic Congressman Bill Sarpalius, whom he attacked for voting for the Clinton budget and tax package. He profited from news stories about how Sarpalius did not pay a moving company that shipped his furniture to Washington, then accepted a fee for speaking at the company’s convention in Las Vegas. Thornberry won 55%-45%.

In the House, Thornberry has compiled a conservative voting record, though hardly the most ideological in the Texas delegation. His hard work on defense and homeland security issues has earned him a reputation as one of the brainiest and most accessible lawmakers on those issues. In March 2001 he took the recommendations of a commission chaired by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman and sponsored the first bill to create a homeland security agency; in 2002, with Joseph Lieberman, he played a key role in creating the new department. As chairman of the Cybersecurity Subcommittee on Homeland Security, he later said that the new department had been “a huge disappointment,” criticized delays in integrating its computer networks and intelligence analysis, and said that Congress must establish ways to measure how spending is deterring terrorists. On the Armed Services Committee he has championed missile defense and called for better coordination of military space programs, and became ranking Republican on the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. On the Intelligence Committee, he chaired its oversight subcommittee and in September 2006 helped to enact new rules for the handling of terror suspects and detainees.

On domestic issues, Thornberry has pressed hard for estate tax repeal and tax credits to encourage production in marginal wells. In 2005, he introduced a bill to establish separate courts to handle medical malpractice cases. On a panel of House Republicans that investigated the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he called it “a chain reaction of failure.” Thornberry makes the point that he is among the few members of Congress who remains personally involved in agriculture; in February 2006, he filed a bill to extend the 2002 farm bill until the Doha round of WTO negotiations is complete.

He has been reelected easily every two years.

Committees

• Armed Services (7th of 29 R)
  Terrorism, Unconventional Threats & Capabilities (RMM); Strategic Forces.
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (5th of 9 R)
  Intelligence Community Management; Technical & Tactical Intelligence.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +25
• Area size: 40,403 square miles
• Urban Population: 69.9%
• Rural Population: 30.1%
• Population 2000: 651,620
• Population 2005 (est): 659,813
• Median Income: $33,501
• Poverty Status: 14.0%
• Military Veterans: 13.6%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 73.7% White; 5.7% Black; 1.1% Asian; 0.6% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.2% Two+ races; 0.1% Other; 17.6% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 10.8% USA%; 9.3% German%; 7.6% Irish%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 27.1%; White collar 53.3%; Gray collar 19.7%;