Charles Stenholm

Charles Walter "Charlie" Stenholm, (b. October 26, 1938) is a politician from the state of Texas. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 13 terms, from 1979 to 2005.

Stenholm was born in Stamford, Texas and he graduated from Texas Tech University. He has operated a cotton farm in West Texas for many years.

Stenholm was elected to the House as a Democrat in 1978, representing the Abilene-based 17th District. He became one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, and was a leader of the Boll Weevils during the 1980s. Stenholm opposed abortion and gun control. However, his main interest was in budget matters--in fact, he was a longtime supporter of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He frequently clashed with Bill Clinton, and voted for three of the four articles of impeachment against him. However, he was a severe critic of the Bush Administration's fiscal policy, and voted against Bush's tax cut.

Despite his moderate-to-conservative voting record, Stenholm faced several tough reelection campaigns in the late 1990s. It was generally believed that he would be succeeded by a Republican once he retired. However, he was a major target of the Tom DeLay-engineered redrawing of Texas' congressional districts in 2003. Stenholm's district was split among three districts. Most of his former territory, including his home in Abilene, was thrown into the Lubbock-based 19th District, represented by freshman Republican Randy Neugebauer. The new district retained most of Neugebauer's former territory, an advantage that Stenholm was unable to overcome despite his seniority in the House. He lost by 10 percentage points.

After his defeat, he was mentioned by some major news organizations, as a possible candidate for Secretary of Agriculture in President Bush's second term Cabinet, despite Bush's support of the redistricting plan. Stenholm had been very interested in agriculture issues while in Congress--in fact, during his last three terms in the House he was ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. In the end, Bush nominated Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns, a fellow Republican, for the post.