Pete Sessions
Peter Anderson Sessions is an American politician who serves in the United States House of Representatives for Texas's 17th congressional district as a member of the Republican Party. He chaired the House Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019 and is a former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Sessions previously served in Congress from 1997 to 2019, representing districts based in Dallas. He was defeated for reelection by Democrat Colin Allred in 2018. On October 3, 2019, Sessions announced that he was running for Congress again in 2020. He was elected to the 17th district, based in Waco, on November 3, 2020.
Early life, education, and business career
Pete Sessions was born in Waco, Texas, on March 22, 1955, to Alice June Lewis and William S. Sessions, who served as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He attended Winston Churchill High School and graduated from Southwestern University in 1978. He worked at Southwestern Bell for sixteen years and rose to become a district manager for marketing in Dallas. The Boy Scouts of America recognized Sessions as a "Distinguished Eagle Scout." He holds a position on the Circle Ten Council of the BSA. His two sons are also active in scouting.U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
1997–2019
In 1991, Sessions finished sixth in a special election for the House of Representatives. In 1993, he left his job with Southwestern Bell to again run for Congress, against 5th District incumbent Democratic representative John Bryant. He toured the district with a livestock trailer full of horse manure, claiming that the Clinton Administration's health care plan stank more than the manure. He lost by 2,400 votes. He subsequently became vice president for public policy at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based conservative public policy research institute.In 1996, when Bryant ran for a Senate seat, Sessions was elected to succeed him in the 5th District, defeating Democratic nominee John Pouland with 47% of the vote. He was reelected in 1998, defeating schoolteacher Victor Morales with 56% of the vote. In 2000, he defeated Regina Montoya Coggins with 54% of the vote. When redistricting after the 2000 census made the 5th slightly more Democratic, he moved to the newly created 32nd District, in which he ran in the 2002 election and defeated Pauline Dixon with 68% of the vote.
In 2004, Sessions defeated 13-term Democratic incumbent Martin Frost, who had moved to the 32nd after redistricting in 2003 eliminated Frost's former district. Sessions won 54–44% in what was considered the most expensive U.S. House race in the nation. According to the Associated Press, "The race also was one of the nastiest, with Frost unearthing a decades-old streaking incident by Sessions in his college days and questioning his commitment to security with an ad featuring the World Trade Center towers in flames. In response, he criticized Frost for booking Peter Yarrow of the 1960s group Peter, Paul and Mary for a fundraiser. Yarrow had faced an indecency with a child charge years earlier."
In 2010, Sessions faced Dallas businessman and attorney Grier Raggio and Libertarian John Jay Myers. The election was initially considered one of the top dark-horse battles in the country, but Sessions was reelected. In 2012, he faced Democratic candidate Katherine Savers McGovern and independent candidate Seth Hollis. Sessions was endorsed by the Dallas Morning News and was reelected. In the 2014 Republican primary, Sessions defeated conservative Katrina Pierson, an African American aligned with the Tea Party movement, polling 28,954 votes to her 16,560. Pierson, originally allied with U.S. senator Ted Cruz, later joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign staff.
In 2016, Sessions polled 49,632 votes to gain renomination in the Republican primary, which had a much greater turnout than in 2014. The runner-up, Russ K. Ramsland of Dallas, received 19,105 votes. Paul M. Brown of Richardson received 9,488, and Cherie Myint Roughneen received 2,601.
Sessions lost his bid for reelection in 2018 to Democrat Colin Allred, a lawyer and former professional football player.
2020
In October 2019, Sessions announced his candidacy for the 2020 election in Texas's 17th congressional district. While the 17th is about from his former district, it is based in his boyhood home in Waco. Sessions sold his home in Dallas and bought a home in Waco soon after announcing his candidacy. Sessions's bid received a chilly reception from some Republicans in the district, including the retiring five-term incumbent, Bill Flores. Despite this, Sessions led the field in a crowded 12-way Republican primary–the real contest in this heavily Republican district. He then defeated healthcare executive Renee Swann in a runoff, securing the Republican nomination and all but assuring his return to Congress.Tenure
Through August 2017, Sessions voted with his party in 98.8% of votes in the 115th session of Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 97.5% of votes.In November 1997, Sessions was one of 18 House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton. The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations. This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. That scandal led to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998. On October 8, 1998, Sessions voted for legislation to open an impeachment inquiry. On December 19, 1998, he voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton.
Sessions voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. He also was among 147 congressional Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results.
In October 2021, Business Insider reported that Sessions had violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, a federal transparency and conflict-of-interest law, by failing to properly disclose the purchase of stock in Amazon. Sessions again violated the STOCK Act when, in February 2022, he was late in reporting seven stock trades that he had made during 2021 worth between $7,001 and $105,000.
Sessions unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election.
Republican Party leadership positions
In the 2010 election, while he was chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party gained control of the House with a net gain of 63 seats and 89 new freshman members.In 2014, Sessions was originally a candidate for the post of House majority leader, to replace Eric Cantor, but withdrew from the internal House Republican Conference election, leaving the field clear for Kevin McCarthy of California.
Committee assignments
For the 119th Congress:- Committee on Financial Services
- * Subcommittee on Capital Markets
- * Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions
- Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- * Subcommittee on Government Operations
- * Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services
Political views
Foreign policy
In 2017, Sessions, as chair of the House Rules Committee, stalled a bill imposing additional sanctions against Russia and Iran from moving to the floor, saying that some parts of the bill, which passed the Senate on a 98–2 vote, could create "huge problems to companies in Dallas, Texas, that I represent" and place them at a competitive disadvantage.In July 2018, Sessions argued that it was unnecessary to increase federal funding for election security. The U.S. intelligence community had concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that it was continuing to interfere in election systems as of July 2018.
Sessions and Rudy Giuliani were involved in back-channel talks attempting to persuade Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to leave office in 2018. The effort was backed in part by private interests. The negotiations were opposed by White House officials including then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, The Washington Post reported.
Economic policy
In late 2001 and early 2002, Sessions cosigned letters to two Cabinet members asking them to shut down casinos operated by several Native American tribes. Within 18 months of sending the letters, he received a total of $20,500 from tribes associated with Jack Abramoff. In response to criticism, his office said that he wrote the letters because he believed that gambling is a local issue, falling under his long-held support for federalism.In 2008, Sessions added a $1.6 million earmark for dirigible research to an appropriations bill. The earmark benefited a Chicago company, Jim G. Ferguson & Associates, that had no experience in government contracting or dirigible research. Former Sessions aide and convicted felon Adrian Plesha was a lobbyist for the firm. In September, Plesha sued Jim G. Ferguson & Associates for non-payment of fees and expenses connected with his lobbying effort on their behalf.
In 2022, Sessions was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.
Sessions was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.
In 2025, Sessions voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would add $2.8 trillion to the national deficit.