John Culberson

Early life, education and career

Culberson was born in Houston, the son of Eleanor (née Abney) and James Vincent Culberson. His great-grandmother was Swedish. Culberson attended West University Elementary School, Lanier Middle School, and Lamar High School. He graduated from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1981 with a degree in history. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from South Texas College of Law in 1989. He is a distant relative of former Texas Governor Charles Allen Culberson.

Texas House of Representatives

During his time in law school, Culberson was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, serving his first term beginning in 1987. He was a member of the Republican Whip team, becoming Minority Whip in 1999 during his last term. Culberson began working for the law firm of Lorance and Thompson as a civil defense attorney after he graduated from South Texas.

Committee assignments

Caucuses

2000

Culberson won the Republican nomination for the 7th District in 2000 after 15-term incumbent Bill Archer announced his retirement. He finished first in the Republican primary — traditionally the real contest in what has historically been a heavily Republican district – and defeated Peter Wareing in the runoff. He won easily in November, taking about 75% of the vote.

2008

In 2008, Culberson faced his stiffest challenge to date in businessman Michael Skelly in the November 2008 election. Skelly, a former executive of Horizon Wind Energy, also served in the Peace Corps and earned an MBA from Harvard University. Skelly served on Mayor Bill White's Green Building Advisory Committee. Culberson led with 56 percent of the vote with about two-thirds of precincts counted. Skelly had 43 percent of the vote. This was the closest a Democratic candidate had come to winning the district since it was created in 1967. Historically, Republicans at all levels garner well over 60 percent of the vote in this district.

As of June 30, 2008, Culberson had raised $983,204 with $550,228 cash on hand. As of the same date, Skelly had raised $1,465,519 with $1,050,314 cash on hand—more than any of Culberson's four previous challengers. In the previous four election cycles, Culberson had raised $1,092,972 (2000), $508,138 (2002), $628,783 (2004), and $718,882 (2006). In 2006, Jim Henley raised $122,145.

2010

Culberson ran unopposed.

2012

Culberson was challenged by the Democratic nominee James Cargas, an energy lawyer for the City of Houston, Green party nominee Lance Findley, and Libertarian Drew Parks.

2014

In the November 4, 2014 general election, Culberson again defeated Democrat James Cargas, who polled 4,092 votes (62.1 percent) in the March 4 primary election. Culberson was unopposed in the Republican primary.

2016

Culberson defeated James Lloyd and Maria Espinoza in the Republican primary election on March 1. Culberson polled 44,202 votes (57.3 percent) to James Lloyd's 19,182 (24.9 percent) and the third candidate, Maria Espinoza's 13,772 (17.8 percent).

He secured his eighth term in the general election held on November 8, when, with 143,542 votes (56.2 percent), he defeated the Democrat James Cargas (born 1966) of Houston, who garnered 111,991 ballots (43.8 percent).

2018

Because Hillary Rodham Clinton carried Culberson's 7th district in the 2016 presidential election, Democrats regard the congressman as vulnerable in 2018. Six Democrats, two independents, and a Republican are reported to be in the running. James Cargas, an energy attorney for the City of Houston and a life-long democrat garnered the highest vote percentage (44%) of any Democrat in Texas 7 since 1964, and is running again in 2018. Debra Kerner, an elected board member of the Harris County Department of Education, is another of the Democrats eyeing for the seat. Another Democrat who has filed papers to challenge Culberson is Alex Triantaphyllis, the Director of Immigration and Economic Opportunity at BakerRipley, a non-profit association specializing in community development. Triantaphyllis said that citizens in the district are "concerned about the direction that the president might take us, and I think they will become increasingly concerned that Congressman Culberson has stood with Trump." Democrat Jason Westin, a research physician at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who is strongly anti-Trump, is also in the race. Culberson also faces an intra-party challenge from Houston businessman David Balat. Maria Espinoza, a conservative activist and high profile backer of President Trump, is a potential Republican primary candidate as well.

Tenure

Culberson is active online with Twitter and Qik. He has used these online information dispersion services from House Committee meetings and from the Oval Office. On August 1, 2008, to protest the House going into summer recess without discussing a pending energy bill, Culberson and other House Republicans stayed to make speeches about the energy bill in question. The Democratic leadership in the House, which controls services in the chamber, responded by cutting the microphones and cameras. Culberson used the Twitter and Qik services to provide a live account of the proceedings. Culberson later compared this episode to the Iranian government's brutal crackdown against Twitter-coordinated protesters in June 2009.

Political positions

Culberson describes himself as a "Jeffersonian Republican... committed to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of limited government, individual liberty, and states’ rights."

He has voted with his party in 98% of votes so far in the current session of Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 100% of the votes.

Abortion

Culberson opposes abortion. He has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. In explaining his vote to defund Planned Parenthood, he claimed that undercover videos had shown Planned Parenthood to be selling "baby parts". The videos in question were altered, and of the multiple investigations into this controversy, none found Planned Parenthood clinics to have sold tissue for profit.

ACORN

Three years after Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) had been dissolved, Culberson introduced legislation calling for ACORN to be defunded.

Birther conspiracy

During the controversy over Barack Obama's citizenship when many conspiracy theories were circulated that falsely asserted that he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States, Culberson co-sponsored legislation which would require all future presidential candidates to provide proof of their citizenship.

Defunding the Department of Justice

On January 5, 2016, Representative John Culberson, as the chairman of the house appropriations subcommittee which has jurisdiction over the Justice Department, wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch threatening to withhold the Department’s funding for fiscal 2016 and 2017 in opposition to President Obama’s executive order to regulate gun purchases. He warned, "The House Appropriations Committee will not provide resources to your department for the development of unlawful limitations on the unambiguous Second Amendment rights of Americans." Furthermore, Culbertson wrote that the committee’s expectation that the Justice Department will "allocate its resources to the enforcement of existing law" and that he looks "forward to reviewing a fiscal year spending plan and fiscal year budget request that enforces federal law and does not create new law."

Donald Trump

Culberson endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. He did not respond to questions or revoke his endorsement after it was revealed on tape that Trump had bragged about sexually assaulting women.

In February 2017, he voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.

Environment

Culberson rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has alleged that scientists have falsified climate change data. He has said that "the liberal obsession with climate change... is driven by their desire to raise more money for the government". He opposes federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. He opposes cap-and-trade programs.

Culberson has a lifetime score of 4% by the League of Conservation Voters. Culberson has been described as a "climate change denier" by Vice Media and by Organizing for America and as a "climate science denier" by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Healthcare

Culberson has repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). In 2013, he expressed his support for a government shutdown in an attempt to repeal Obamacare, saying he will vote to do everything he can "to delay, defund, or stop Obamacare." On May 4, 2017, Culberson voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and pass the American Health Care Act.

LGBT rights

He opposes same-sex marriage.

Muslim ban

Culberson supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to suspend the refugee resettlement program and curtail immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. He stated that “This is a necessary pause in the refugee program until our intelligence agencies can develop adequate background checks to ensure that the people coming into the country are coming in for the right reasons.”

Science

Culberson supported legislation that would restrict the manner in which the National Science Foundation would distribute funds. The legislation would have forced the NSF to direct 70% of its funding to what proponents of the bill labeled the "pure sciences", which excluded geoscience and the social and behavioral sciences.

In 2008, he expressed about foreign-born students coming to the United States to steal technology, "A concern that I continue to see is that a lot of those scientists from communist China, my impression is, and correct me if I am wrong, come here and learn as much as they can, and then leave. And I’m not really all that much into helping the communists figure out how to better target their intercontinental ballistic missiles at the United States. They basically steal our technology for military applications. And they are red China, let’s not forget."