Rodney Ellis

Rodney Glenn Ellis (born April 7, 1954) is an American politician.

In 1983, at age 29, Ellis was elected to the Houston City Council, where he served three terms representing District D. While on Council, Ellis worked on efforts to tear down abandoned buildings that had attracted criminals and the drug trade.

He worked to secure more funds to raze these dangerous buildings, and drove a front-loader to help clean up drug-ridden Houston neighborhoods.

To combat rising drug crime, Ellis pushed to increase funding for anti-drug efforts in the city, but also called for greater community oversight of the Houston Police Department through a citizen's review board.

Ellis worked to increase funding to expand low-income housing projects across Houston, preserve Allen Parkway Village, and strengthen policies for the city's use of federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure a greater percentage is devoted to low and moderate-income Texans.

Ellis also worked to seize abandoned properties and sell on the market to raise funds for housing and other vital needs.

Ellis served as chair of the Economic Redevelopment Committee, where he advocated policies to spur economic development in Houston.

He called for the creation of a new think tank and the city Department of Commerce to coordinate and streamline city economic development policies, worked to save city and taxpayer investments in projects such as the Palm Center and Mercado del Sol shopping center, and pushed to expand low-interest loans to small businesses.

Ellis pushed to rename Houston Intercontinental Airport after Mickey Leland, following his death on an anti-hunger mission to Ethiopia.

Controversy ensued after comments were made about the effort by a fellow council member.

In the end, the newest terminal at the airport was named in honor of Leland.

In the battle against apartheid in South Africa, Ellis helped convince the University of Houston to become the first university in the south to divest from companies doing business in South Africa.

He also helped defeat efforts to merge the University of Houston–Downtown with Texas Southern University, protecting the historically black college's history and mission as a stand-alone institution.

He represented Texas' 13th state senate district in the Texas Senate from 1990 to 2017.

The district contains portions of Harris County, including downtown Houston, and Fort Bend County.

He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Ellis was elected to the Texas Senate on February 13, 1990, and sworn into office on February 27, 1990.

In his 26-year tenure, Ellis passed 700 pieces of legislation.

Ellis sat on the Senate State Affairs, Transportation, and Business & Commerce Committees.

In previous sessions, Ellis chaired the Senate Finance, Jurisprudence, Government Organization, Intergovernmental Relations, and Open Government Committees.

Ellis, from the Sunnyside neighborhood in Houston, is one of three children of Elijha and Oliver Teresa Ellis.

His father worked as a yard man and his mother a maid.

Both parents worked as health care assistants.

In the summers, Ellis served as his father's assistant.

Ellis attended B.H. Grimes Elementary and Carter G. Woodson Middle School before graduating from Evan E. Worthing High School, where he was president of the student council.

He enrolled at Xavier University in Louisiana but returned to Texas to attend Texas Southern University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

Ellis earned his Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and then a J.D. degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

While in Austin, Ellis got experience in Texas government, working as an aide to Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby and as Law Clerk to Chief Justice John C. Phillips on the Third Court of Appeals.

Ellis also served as legal counsel to Texas Railroad Commissioner Buddy Temple before moving to Washington, DC to become chief of staff for U.S. Representative Mickey Leland.

It was through Congressman Leland that Ellis first met his future wife Licia.

They were married in 1997.

Their family includes four children: Nicole, Maria, Leland, and Alena.

In 1997, Ellis authored legislation to create the Texas Capital Access Fund that provided up to $140 million in private lending to small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

The program was designed to help small businesses that do not qualify for conventional financing to access the capital they need through a public-private partnership.

In 1999, Ellis introduced and passed a $506 million tax relief package that created a three-day sales tax holiday, eliminated the sales tax on over-the-counter medicines, and cut business taxes.

The tax holiday was designed to give Texans a tax break on items such as back-to-school clothing and supplies.

In 2021, the Texas Comptroller’s Office estimated shoppers would save an estimated $107.3 million in state and local sales tax during the sales tax holiday.

As the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance in 2001, Ellis authored the $113.8 billion budget bill.

On June 25, 2016, Ellis won the Democratic Party's nomination for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 1.

He was elected county commissioner on November 8, 2016 and sworn into office on January 1, 2017.