Elizabeth Ames Jones has served for eight years as an elected official in Texas, including four years as the 44th member of the Texas Railroad Commission, the three-member, statewide-elected commission that is charged with overseeing Texas energy industry. Prior to her service on the Railroad Commission, she served four years as a member of the Texas Legislature. She is the immediate past chairman of the Railroad Commission and only the second woman in its 116 year history to win election to the Railroad Commission. She is a sixth generation Texan who strongly believes in common-sense government. Before her service on the Railroad Commission, she was elected to three terms in the State Legislature. Her first electoral victory was a 2-to-1 win over a four-term incumbent in 2000 to represent District 121 in the Texas House, which encompassed suburban and urban communities in Northeast San Antonio and Bexar County. She was also re-elected by wide margins in 2002 and 2004. She stepped down from the Legislature in January 2005 to accept an appointment by Governor Rick Perry to fill a vacancy on the Railroad Commission. She was elected in November 2006 to a full six-year term on the Railroad Commission. Because of her frustration with lack of leadership and accountability in government and its failure to achieve responsible solutions to important issues, Commissioner Jones made the decision to enter politics in 1999 when she first filed for election to the State Legislature. After her election, she has earned a reputation, first as a Legislator and, second, as a Railroad Commissioner, as a firm, fair and principled conservative, committed to fight for effective solutions to the problems that can be addressed by the state. She has a keen understanding of state, national and global issues, including energy policy and the important role that Texas and other domestic energy-producing states play in the energy security of America. During 2008, although not a candidate for any election that year, she traveled thousands of miles around the State of Texas, supporting many qualified Republican candidates running for elective office. In doing so, she continued to speak out publicly in Texas and in the national media about the critical importance of mitigating America’s over-dependence on energy produced in unstable and unfriendly countries around the world. She is a strong advocate for the nation’s political leadership in Washington to adopt realistic energy policies like those so successfully followed in Texas, which will support the increased availability of domestically produced energy from all economically viable sources, including conventional, alternative and yet-to-be discovered energy sources. (See links to news articles in accompanying side bar.) In recognition of her important role in the future of a strong Republican Party in Texas and to allow her to be a spokesman for strong and principled government policies, her supporters around the State contributed over $1 million to her state officeholder account in 2008 alone, even though she was not up for election. On November 3 2008 she filed Forms 1 and 2 with the Federal Election Commission to register as a candidate for the United States Senate Seat held by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison when Senator Hutchison’s term expires in 2012 or whenever an election is held to fill the vacancy if Senator Hutchison resigns the seat early. Commissioner Jones was quoted in the media (link) as saying, “I will be ready” when Senator Hutchison’s seat opens up. As one of the leading female Republican officeholders in Texas, and with the demonstrated quality of a strong and principled leadership, Commissioner Jones has demonstrated both in the Legislature and at the Railroad Commission that she will not only be ready, but she can represent the diversified interests of Texans in the U.S. Senate when Senator Hutchison retires. |
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