Amazing how few people in the Rio Grande Valley know our political history. My district, the 15th, I I knew something about. But I learned some new information recently.
The district was created in 1903 and John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner was the first representative. H was from Uvalde. Hence the creation of Garner State Park. That is 250 miles away. Can you imagine how large the district was back then?
After he became Vice President, the next represtative was Milton West of Brownsville. Our Turley family know the various Milton West, Jr. and III going forward. In fact, Ed was supervised as a young attorney by attorney Milton Jr. aka "Mickey" West at the Andrews Kurth Campbell and Jones law firm in Houston.
Thereafter, was Lloyd Bentsen who everyone still remembers like he was here yesterday. All the various Bentsen names are still going strong here. Bentsen Road, Bentsen State Park, Bentsen Palm, etc.
Thereafter, Joe Kilgore, who later became one of the initial board members of Texas State Bank.
In 1965, there was a sea change and the 85% Hispanic majority finally was able to elect a local, Kika De La Garza who served for 32 years. Then Ruben Hinojosa served another 20 years. Now Vicente Gonzalez is our Congressman.
Judging by history, Congressman Gonzalez, elected in 2017, should be around for a while. As historian Robert Caro put it, "Once Texas elects a Congressman, they tend to keep him there a long time."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_15th_congressional_district#List_of_representatives
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