Pete Gallego

On September 1, Gallego announced that he would not run in the 23rd district.

Pete Peña Gallego (born December 2, 1961) is an American lawyer, politician, and higher education leader who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district from 2013 to 2015.

Elected to the Texas House from District 74 in 1990, Gallego was the first Hispanic to represent this vast border district.

In 1991, he became the first freshman member and the first ethnic minority member ever elected as chair of the House Democratic Caucus, a post he held until January 2001.

In the Texas House, Gallego served on the board of directors of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), and four terms as Chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC), a caucus of Texas representatives who are of Mexican-American descent or who serve a significant Mexican-American constituency.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 68th district (74th district from 1993) beginning in 1991.

He also served as a member of the Texas Sunset Commission and a member of the Committees on Appropriations, Calendars, Criminal Jurisprudence, Higher Education, and Elections and served on the 10-member House-Senate budget conference committee for five consecutive legislative sessions from 1993 – 2001.

In 2008, Trey Martinez Fischer replaced Gallego as Chairman of MALC.

Gallego's state legislative career included chairmanships of the General Investigating Committee, the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, and several select committees.

In 2008, Gallego narrowly missed being elected Speaker of the Texas House.

Gallego was known for carrying major legislation in the areas of criminal justice, indigent defense, capital punishment, wrongful convictions, crime victims’ rights, the judiciary, and economic development.

He also carried legislation authorizing the creation of underground water districts throughout the region he represented.

Gallego established internship programs at MALC named in honor of several of his mentors, Rep. Irma Rangel (the first Latina elected to the Texas Legislature) and Rep. Paul Moreno, the longest-serving Latino elected official in the country at that time.

He, along with the Latino Caucus chairs in New York, Florida, and California, was also instrumental in founding the National Board of Hispanic Caucus Chairs, of which he was the founding chairman.

While a state legislator, he also became the first person of color to serve as president and chairman of the Texas Lyceum Association.

Gallego announced his candidacy for the 23rd district in September 2011.

His state house district was virtually coextensive with the central portion of the congressional district; indeed, he had represented almost all of the central portion of the congressional district at one time or another during his two decades in the state legislature.

He finished second in the Democratic primary, behind former congressman Ciro Rodriguez, who had received Bill Clinton's endorsement.

He then defeated Rodriguez in the July 31 runoff election by a margin of 55-45 percent.

During the course of his campaign, Gallego overhauled his campaign staff four times.

In the general election, Gallego defeated Canseco with 50 percent of the vote to 46 percent, a margin of 9,200 votes.

While Gallego lost in Bexar County, home to more than half the district's population, he dominated his former state house district.

The campaign between Gallego and Canseco was contentious, with Gallego alleging that Canseco was a "right-wing extremist," and Canseco calling Gallego a "radical environmentalist."

Gallego was supported by the Blue Dog Coalition.

Gallego defeated freshman incumbent Quico Canseco of San Antonio for Texas's 23rd congressional district seat in the November 6, 2012, general election.

Gallego ran for re-election in 2014, in what the Texas Tribune called the "only obviously competitive November congressional race" in Texas.

He was defeated by challenger Republican Will Hurd on November 4, 2014.

Gallego ran for re-election in 2014.

Facing no opposition from his own party, he won the Democratic primary on March 4, 2014.

He faced Republican Will Hurd, an African American, in the general election.

Gallego was a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline Program.

The program is designed to help protect vulnerable Democratic incumbents.

He lost his bid for re-election to Republican Will Hurd by less than 2,500 votes.

In 2016 he ran for Congress once more in the 23rd district, losing to Hurd a second time.

After graduating from law school, Gallego became an assistant in the office of the state attorney general, before he returned to his hometown of Alpine to become a prosecutor.

He was also an attorney at the law firm Brown McCarroll LLP, with an office in Austin.

In July 2017, Gallego tested the waters as a potential 2018 candidate once more against Hurd.

Reapportionment of the district could play a major role as to whether Gallego decided to enter the race.

At least two other Democrats also considered running for their party nomination: Judith Canales, a former officer of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development from Eagle Pass, and Jay Hulings, a graduate of Harvard Law School and an assistant U.S. attorney in San Antonio.

He was president of his alma mater, Sul Ross State University in Far West Texas, from 2020 through 2022 and continues to serve as president emeritus as he writes and speaks on issues related to college accessibility and affordability, particularly for first-generation students.