Ralph Hall

Ralph Hall

Ralph Moody Hall (born May 3, 1923 in Fate , Rockwall County , Texas , † March 7, 2019 ) was an American politician with the Democratic Party and, since 2004, the Republican Party . He was a member of the US House of Representatives for Texas from 1981 to 2015 .

biography

After attending Rockwall High School , he first studied at Texas Christian University (TCU). In the meantime he did his military service in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945 . He then studied from 1946 to 1947 at the University of Texas at Austin and subsequently law at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) and completed this course in 1951 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). Even before graduation, he became a judge at the Rockwall County District Court in 1950 and held this position until 1962.

He began his political career in 1962 with the election to the Senate of Texas ( Texas State Senate ), of which he was a representative of the Democrats until 1972. He then worked as a lawyer and as a businessman .

In 1980 he was elected as a Democratic candidate for the first time as a member of the US House of Representatives and represented there after 14 re-elections since January 3, 1981, the 4th Congressional constituency of Texas. On January 5, 2004, he switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party and has since been their representative in the House of Representatives. Most recently, Hall was not only the highest-ranking member of the Republican minority faction ( Ranking Minority Member ) and thus opposition leader in the Committee on Science and Technology , but also a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce . When he left, he was the oldest member of the House of Representatives and of all of Congress .

On May 27, 2014, Hall lost in the runoff election for the re-nomination of his party to the lawyer John Ratcliffe . He was the first Republican Congressman from Texas, who was denied the renewed candidacy in the primary . As a result, he had to resign from Congress on January 3, 2015 after 34 years. He was succeeded by Ratcliffe, who had no opponent in the November election.

Web links

Commons : Ralph Hall  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ralph Hall in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Ralph Hall in nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ The Washington Post: Rep. Ralph Hall defeated by John Ratcliffe (May 27, 2014)