Chris Bell

His 25th District was renumbered as the 9th District, and absorbed a larger number of blacks and Latinos than he had previously represented.

Robert Christopher Bell (born November 23, 1959) is an American politician, attorney, and former journalist.

He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law.

In 1982, he graduated with a journalism degree and began work as a television and radio journalist, first in Ardmore, Oklahoma and later in Amarillo.

He then moved to Houston, working as a Harris County court radio reporter while taking night classes at South Texas College of Law.

In 1984, Bell ran for Amarillo-based District 87 for the Texas House of Representatives after friends assured him they could get him a job as a legal assistant if he won.

Bell was defeated by a large margin by incumbent Charles J. "Chip" Staniswalis.

Despite his success in journalism (he was named “best radio reporter in the state” in 1990 by the Texas Associated Press), he left journalism and began what would become a successful litigation practice after receiving his J.D. degree and being licensed as an attorney in Texas in 1992.

Bell ran for Houston City Council in 1995.

He received third place, behind David Ballard and eventual winner Orlando Sanchez.

Bell served five years on the Houston City Council from 1997 to 2001, followed by one term in the United States House of Representatives from Texas's 25th Congressional District in Houston from 2003 to 2005.

Bell's public service career began in 1997, after being elected to the Houston City Council.

He ran again in a 1997 special election, called to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of John Peavy.

He placed second in the election after African American minister James W.E. Dixon II.

However, since no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote, the election went to a runoff.

Bell defeated Dixon by 6,000 votes.

Bell served as at large Position 4 councilman for the Houston City Council for five years.

During this time, he served as chairman of both the Council Committee on Customer Service and Initiatives and the Ethics Committee.

Throughout his service, he focused on ethics reform, passing laws that limited the use of soft money in city elections.

He also championed what he called “customer-driven government,” featuring innovative ideas to make government more accessible to the public.

He also helped pass the largest tax cut in the city's history and worked to pass sweeping ethics reform that significantly cleaned up what was a corrupt local government.

Brown and Bell's first disagreement was previously in 2000, when Bell joined with conservatives to pass a 2-cent property tax rollback, causing Brown to replace Bell as chairman.

Bell finished third behind Brown and Republican candidate Orlando Sanchez.

In 2001, Bell ran against incumbent mayor Lee P. Brown.

Bell and Mayor Brown reconciled after the election — Bell endorsed Brown during the resulting runoff election and Brown was a vocal supporter for Bell's 2002 congressional bid.

In 2002, Bell successfully ran for the United States House of Representatives for Texas District 25.

He represented most of southwestern Houston, including most of the city's share of Fort Bend County.

He was made assistant whip by House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

Bell also served on four standing committees, and was responsible for founding the Port Security Caucus, a group dedicated to improving seaport security.

In October 2003, Bell became a target in U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s 2003 congressional redistricting effort.

One proposal would have thrown Bell into the heavily Republican 7th District of John Culberson.

The final plan was somewhat less ambitious, but still put Bell in political jeopardy.

Bell then became the Democratic nominee in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas, losing to Republican incumbent governor Rick Perry by 406,450 votes (Perry 39% versus Bell 30%) in a fractured general election campaign that also drew in two significant independent challengers.

Bell, a member of the Democratic Party, is currently an attorney specializing in personal injury and commercial litigation.

Prior to practicing law, Bell had been a prominent radio journalist in Texas.

Chris Bell was born in Abilene, the seat of Taylor County in West Texas.

He was reared in Dallas and moved to Austin when he was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin.

As a student, Bell was a member of Phi Delta Theta, and served as president of the Interfraternity Council, and also spearheaded a successful effort to reinstate student government.

After his campaign for State Senate in 2008, Bell returned to the private practice of law.

He currently lives in the Heights area of Houston.