Martin Frost

Personal life

Frost was born to a Jewish family in Glendale, California, the son of Doris (nee Marwil) and Jack Frost. He has one sister, Carol Frost Wagner, and one brother, Richard Wagner. His grandfather, Joe Frost, was co-founder of Frost Brothers Department Store. In 1949, his family moved to Fort Worth, Texas where his father took a job with Convair Aircraft. He graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degrees in journalism and history from the University of Missouri. As a student, Frost was editor of The Maneater, was a member of Zeta Beta Tau, and was tapped by Omicron Delta Kappa and QEBH. He later received his Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1970.

Before going to law school Frost worked as a newspaper reporter. Following his graduation he worked as a law clerk for Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes of the Northern District of Texas and began a private practice.

Political career

Frost ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House in 1974. He tried again successfully in 1978, becoming the first Jewish U.S. congressman from Texas. Frost was reelected 12 times without serious opposition. In 1980, he defeated an African American Republican opponent, Clay Smothers.

On October 10, 2002, Martin Frost was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

He served two terms as the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus from 1999 to 2003, the number three post in the Democrats' House leadership after the minority leader and minority whip. As Democratic Caucus Chair, Frost was often at odds with another prominent Dallas-area Congressman, Dick Armey, who was the Republican House Majority Leader.

Due to term limits as Democratic Caucus Chair, Frost made a bid for Minority Leader after Dick Gephardt resigned in the wake of losing four seats in the 2002 Congressional midterm elections, but Frost dropped out of the race and supported eventual winner Nancy Pelosi. Frost is generally considered a centrist while Pelosi is liberal.

Frost was the ranking member of the House Rules Committee during his last term in the House.

Due to his strong fundraising ability for fellow Democrats, and the fact that he led the 1991 redistricting in Texas, he was one of the targets of a controversial mid-decade redistricting engineered by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. His district, which included portions of Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington, was redrawn to be much more Republican. Its portions of Fort Worth and Arlington were replaced with wealthier and more Republican territory around Dallas. While Al Gore won the old 24th fairly handily in 2000, the new 24th would have given George W. Bush a staggering 68 percent of the vote in that election. It was an open secret that the new 24th was redrawn for State Representative Kenny Marchant. Moreover, Frost's home in Arlington was shifted into the heavily Republican 6th District, represented by 10-term incumbent Joe Barton. Frost decided to seek re-election in the newly redrawn 32nd District, which included a considerable amount of territory that he had represented from 1979 until 1993. He lost by 10 points to Republican Pete Sessions. Since Ralph Hall's party switch earlier in 2004, Frost had been the only white Democrat to represent a significant portion of the Metroplex.

Retirement

In 2005, Frost was a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He dropped out of the race on February 1. On February 15, Frost was hired by Fox News as a political commentator.

Frost is now an attorney at Polsinelli and president of America Votes.

In a July 2011 op-ed regarding the debt ceiling crisis, Frost wrote, "We now have a group of U.S. politicians seeking political purity, who seem to have much in common with the Taliban. They are tea party members."