113th Congress: Steve Stockman, R-Texas (36th District)

By Humberto Sanchez, CQ Staff

This will be Steve Stockman’s second go-round in the House, having served in the 104th Congress. He will continue to push a conservative agenda of limited government and personal liberty.

“To think that someone — anyone — can wipe away your right to a trial, your right to your firearms, your right to free speech, or any other right by decree is anathema to freedom,” he says on his campaign website. “I’ll stand up to the EPA, the FDA, even the PTA, to defend them to my last breath.”

Religion has been an important factor in his career. During his 1994 campaign, Stockman, a born-again Christian, created Mobilizing Morality in America conferences across his district with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and other conservative and Christian leaders. He also established “Citizen Sundays,” which promoted early voting after church.

Stockman won his first term by defeating Democrat Jack Brooks, a protégé of President Lyndon Johnson. As a freshman, he won enactment of a measure authorizing the use of the Capitol grounds for the Washington for Jesus 1996 prayer rally.

Among the other bills and resolutions Stockman sponsored during the 104th were proposals for a constitutional amendment to block the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from being granted automatic citizenship, a measure to define human life as beginning at conception, and a bill to eliminate background checks, waiting periods and registration requirements for firearms.