Lyle Larson
Lyle Thomas Larson is an American politician and businessman who served as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for the 122nd district from 2011 to 2023. He was first elected to the state House in 2010 to succeed fellow Republican Frank Corte Jr.
Early life and education
Larson was raised on a family farm at Thousand Oaks and Jones-Maltsberger Road; the location is now heavily urbanized. When his parents divorced, he lived with his father, a large animal veterinarian. He has a twin sister and four siblings. His sisters went to live with their mother when the parents' marriage ended. While working on the farm, Larson contracted paratyphoid from handling feed for hogs and not washing his hands before eating. He played defensive end in football at Douglas MacArthur High School in the North East Independent School District, from which he graduated in 1977. In 1981, he obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University.Career
Prior to starting his own company, American Consortium, which distributes industrial products for Polaroid, he worked for Nalco Chemical Company and Johnson & Johnson.Texas House of Representatives
During his tenure in the House, Larson was an ally of Speaker Joe Straus, also of San Antonio. The two men are the same age, and their family connections go back for four decades. Larson's father provided care for the horses and cattle on the Straus farms. But Larson said in an interview that "sometimes" Straus "doesn't quite understand me."After the 2017 regular session of the legislature, Governor Greg Abbott vetoed five of Larson's bills, including measures dealing with brackish water and desalination efforts. Another Larson measure which would have prevented a governor from appointing members to a state board or commission if the nominee had donated $2,500 or more to the governor's previous campaign passed the House, 91-48, but it received no hearing in the Texas State Senate. Another Larson bill which would ensured that a parent has the right to view the body of a deceased child before the performance of an autopsy was vetoed because Abbott said that he had already signed a measure with identical language authored by Republican State Senator Donna Campbell of New Braunfels. Larson said that he believes Abbott "lacks maturity can't separate policy and politics."
On the eve of the special legislative session of 2017, Larson continued to express frustration with Governor Abbott: "The reality is, since the governor skipped class for four months, we've got... summer school with him now to help him learn what we did." Larson said that he is unlikely to serve in the state House much past 2020: "My ambitions are just to try to do the right thing.... And then leave everything on the field, then walk away."
Despite his squabbles with Governor Abbott, Larson won re-nomination over a conservative intra-party challenger, Mayor Christopher Michael "Chris" Fails of Hollywood Park in Bexar County. On November 6, 2018, he was reelected with 58,062 votes to 35,577 ballots for his Democratic opponent, Claire Barnett.
Larson has been characterized as a moderate Republican.