Jim Turner (politician) - U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. House of Representatives

After 2nd district congressman Charlie Wilson, who was known for his role in funding the resistance to Afghanistan's Communist government, decided not to run for a thirteenth term, Turner won the Democratic nomination to succeed him and was handily elected in November 1996. He was reelected three times with no substantive opposition. Congressman Turner was a member of the Armed Services Committee, and was the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security. A fiscally conservative Democrat, Turner co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition and was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.

In 2003, Turner was one of the targets of a highly controversial redistricting engineered by Tom DeLay. The Texas Legislature dismantled his district, which covered a large portion of East Texas stretching from Lufkin to the suburbs of Houston, and split its territory among three districts. The largest portion was shifted to the 8th District, represented by Republican Kevin Brady, who had been elected the same year as Turner. While Turner had represented more of the new 8th than Brady, most of the 8th's vote was cast in heavily Republican Montgomery County, which has as many people as the rest of the district combined. His home in Crockett was thrown into the Fort Worth/Arlington-based 6th district, an even more Republican area represented by ten-term incumbent Joe Barton. Believing he had no realistic chance of staying in Congress, Turner decided not to run for a fifth term in 2004.