Texas's 22nd congressional district

Texas’s 22nd congressional district to the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that covers a south-central portion of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. It includes the cities of Rosenberg and La Marque as well as portions of Missouri City and Pearland, in Fort Bend, Harris, Galveston, and Brazoria counties. Since the 2004 elections, the district has also included the Johnson Space Center. In 2006, 52% of poll respondents identified themselves as Republicans, 32% as Democrats, and 16% as independents.

The district is represented by Pete Olson, who defeated incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson on November 4, 2008.

Counties partially within the district

 * Brazoria
 * Fort Bend
 * Galveston
 * Harris

Cities wholly within the district

 * La Marque
 * Sugar Land
 * Rosenberg

Cities partially within the district

 * Missouri City
 * Pearland

History of Texas’s 22nd District
Texas received an twenty-second congressional district in 1959. In the 1958 elections Robert R. Casey, a Democrat, was elected as the district’s first representative.

Special Election
On January 2, 2006, Nick Lampson, a Jefferson County tax assessor-collector, filed to challenge incumbent Tom DeLay for the 2006 general election, as a Democrat. Lampson had represented the adjacent Texas's 9th congressional district until DeLay engineered the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting, after which Lampson lost his seat to Republican Ted Poe in 2004.

DeLay won the Republican primary on March 7, 2006, taking 62% of the vote in the four-way race. It was DeLay’s weakest showing in a primary election, which prompted questions about whether he could win the general election. On April 3, 2006, three days after former aide Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to various charges of corruption relating to the Jack Abramoff scandal, DeLay announced that he would withdraw from the race and not run for re-election.

Under Texas law, however, the Republican Party could not legally name another candidate for the 2006 general election. DeLay announced on August 8, 2006 that he would withdraw in order to allow the party to organize a campaign for a write-in candidate. Texas Governor Rick Perry announced on August 29, 2006 that a special election would take place for the remainder of DeLay’s term (November 2006 to January 2007).

The Texas Republican Party supported Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as their write-in candidate. Lampson chose not to run in the special election. Sekula-Gibbs won and was sworn in on November 13, 2006. She represented the district for the remaining few weeks of the 109th United States Congress. Sekula-Gibbs promised to fix health care, taxes, and immigration.

Due to DeLay’s late announcement, no Republican was listed on the ballot for the two-year term that began in January 2007.

The special election was held concurrently with the general election on November 7, 2006. Voters cast votes twice on that date, once for the special election, once for the general election. This arrangement ensured that Sekula-Gibbs’s name appeared on a November 7 ballot.

Lampson won the general election, and was sworn in on January 4, 2007.

2000
=Resources=