Political Campaigns
Neugebauer was elected to Congress after a hotly contested special election runoff in the spring of 2003. The seat came open after 18-year Republican incumbent Larry Combest announced his retirement not long after having been reelected to a 10th term in 2002. The 19th is one of the most conservative areas of Texas (indeed, in the entire nation), and it was taken for granted that Combest would be succeeded by another Republican, though at the time Combest had been the only Republican to have represented the 19th District.
Neugebauer finished first in the crowded seven-way, all-Republican field. However, as he finished well short of a majority, he forced into a second round of balloting with fellow Republican Mike Conaway of Midland, the chairman of the Texas Board of Public Accountancy and a friend of President George W. Bush. In a close third-place finish in the first round of balloting was then-State Representative Carl Isett of Lubbock. In the runoff election, Neugebauer defeated Conaway by only 587 votes, becoming only the fourth person to represent the 19th since its creation in 1935. Soon afterward in 2004, Conaway won election to Congress in the newly reconfigured Texas' 11th congressional district.
Neugebauer ran for a full term in 2004, facing 26-year incumbent Democrat Charles Stenholm of Abilene. Stenholm had previously represented the Abilene-based Texas' 17th congressional district, but that district had been dismantled in the 2003 Texas redistricting. The largest chunk of Stenholm's former territory was thrown into Neugebauer's district. Although Stenholm had more seniority, the new district retained about 60% of Neugebauer's former territory. Neugebauer won by 18 points, and has been reelected three more times with no substantive opposition.
Read more about this topic: Randy Neugebauer
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