Chris Bell Announces for Texas Senate

Democrat Chris Bell today formally announced his candidacy for the special election to fill the vacancy in Texas Senate District 17.

“I am running for the state senate because it is a golden opportunity to make progress toward the same goals I’ve worked for my entire career: public schools, access to health care, and ethics reform,” said Chris Bell.

Bell would add one more Democratic vote to the Texas Senate, where 11 votes are needed to block destructive and divisive legislation from reaching the floor. Currently, Democrats have only 11 votes, and adding one more vote would increase their strength in stopping private school vouchers, health care privatization, and boondoggles such as the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“One vote in the Texas Senate can be the difference between a bad idea coming up for a vote or not,” Bell said. “I never would have let them bring up the bill that kicked 200,000 kids off the health insurance rolls, and when I’m in the Senate I won’t let them try anything like that again, whether it’s vouchers, privatizing state parks, or some new scheme that the Republican leadership dreams up,” said Bell.

Chris Bell was an at-large Houston City Council Member from 1997 till 2002, a Houston mayoral candidate in 2001, and in the U.S. Congress in 2003-04 when he lost re-election thanks to a politically motivated redistricting process led by former Rep. Tom DeLay. In 2006, Bell was the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor. An attorney, he lives in southwest Houston with his wife Alison Ayres Bell, and his two sons, Atlee and Connally.

The special election to be held on Election Day, Nov. 4 will fill the vacancy created by Sen. Kyle Janek’s resignation. A runoff will follow if no candidate in the special election gets a majority.

Contact: Jason Stanford
Phone: 512-619-5756