J D Sheffield

Background

Sheffield was born in Loraine in Mitchell County in West Texas. He attended Western Texas College, a community college in Snyder in Scurry County, where he played in a jazz band. Thereafter, he graduated from Howard Payne University, a Southern Baptist-affiliated institution in Brownwood. He subsequently procured a Doctor of Osteopathic medical degree from the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. He did his medical residency in Pueblo, Colorado. He is a former physician at the Scott & White Memorial Hospital clinic in Gatesville. He is a current board member and former chief of staff of Coryell Memorial Hospital in Gatesville. He is currently the medical director and physician at Coryell Medical Clinic in Gatesville.

Dr. Sheffield attends the Coryell Community Church, a non-denominational congregation in Gatesville.

Political life

In the Republican primary in 2010, Sheffield polled 44.2 percent in his challenge to incumbent Sid Miller. Two years later, with 54.8 percent of the ballots cast, he unseated Miller. Sheffield benefited from an effort organized by Planned Parenthood to punish Miller for supporting an effort to offer sonograms to Texas women considering abortions.

Miller subsequently ran for Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, a post vacated by Todd Staples, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. In the runoff election on May 27, 2014, Miller defeated another former colleague, Tommy Merritt of Longview.

Because Dr. Sheffield and an adjoining Republican state representative, Ralph Sheffield, a restaurateur from Temple, share surnames, voters in both districts often confuse the lawmakers though they are unrelated. Ralph lost his reelection bid in 2014.

Sheffield serves on the House committees of (1) Corrections, (2) Public Health, and (3) Rules and Resolutions.

In his first legislative session in 2013, Dr. Sheffield voted to forbid abortion after twenty weeks of gestation and to increase medical requirements and licensing of abortion providers. However, despite these votes, Texas Right to Life rated him overall only 4 percent favorable due to his support for amendments they allege would have undermined the legislation. He supported a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools; the measure passed the House, 73-58. Sheffield supported legislation to provide marshals for school security. He sponsored the law authorizing the immunization of minors without parental consent, a measure which the House approved, 71-61. He co-sponsored the law to extend the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses. Sheffield voted to prohibit texting while driving and to require testing for narcotics of those receiving unemployment compensation. He voted for an bill relating to unlawful employment practices regarding discrimination in payment of compensation, which passed the House, 78-61. He voted to forbid the state from enforcing federal regulations of firearms and in support of another law allowing college and university officials to carry concealed weapons in the name of campus security. He voted for term limits for certain officials.

In 2013, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party, rated Sheffield 48 percent favorable. Young Conservatives of Texas ranked him 37 percent. The interest group, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, rated him 28 percent in 2013. The Texas Association of Business rated Sheffield 80 percent. He ranked 79 percent from the Texas League of Conservation Voters. The National Rifle Association rated Sheffield 67 percent.

Sheffield won re-nomination to a second term in the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014. He defeated the more conservative Danny Wayne Pelton (born 1958), a medical equipment salesman and rancher from Hico. A former Erath County Republican chairman and a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee, Pelton is allied with former Representative Sid Miller and recruited Miller's long-time campaign consultant, Todd Smith, to manage Pelton's campaign against Sheffield. Sheffield polled 9,389 votes (60.9 percent) to Pelton's 4,798 (31.1 percent), and 1,225 votes (7.9 percent) for a third contender, Howard "Eddie" Ray.

Sheffield was the only Republican to vote against legislation allowing Concealed Handgun License holders to conceal a firearm on a consenting college campus. According to a study by Rice University, Sheffield is the 2nd most liberal Republican in Texas.

J. D. Sheffield accused of being the most liberal Republican in the Texas House.