Current Representative Bill Flores (R–Bryan) Median income 41,989 | Population (2015) 750,140 Cook PVI R+13 (2014) | |
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Ethnicity 50.5% White
13.3% Black
5.1% Asian
24.8% Hispanic
0.46% Native American
5.9% other | ||
Texas District 17 of the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that serves a strip of central Texas stretching from Waco to Bryan-College Station, including former President George W. Bush's McLennan County ranch. The district is currently represented by Republican Bill Flores.
From 2002 to 2013, it was an oblong district stretching from south of Tarrant County to Grimes County in the southeast. The 2012 redistricting made its area more square, removing the northern and southeastern portions, adding areas southwest into the northern Austin suburbs and east into Freestone and Leon counties. The district includes two major colleges, Texas A&M University in College Station and Baylor University in Waco.
Before 2002, TX-17 was a West Texas district in the Abilene area.
Representation
After the 2003 Texas redistricting, engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, TX-17 was (along with MS-4) the most heavily Republican district in the nation represented by a Democrat, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which rated it R+20. The district was drawn to make it Republican-dominated and unseat its longtime then-incumbent, conservative Democrat Chet Edwards. While several of his colleagues went down to defeat, Edwards held on to the seat in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 elections.
However, in the 2010 Congressional elections, the district elected Republican Bill Flores over Edwards by a margin of 61.8% to 36.6%. Flores is the only Republican elected to represent the district since its creation in 1919.