Steve Stockman


Stephen Ernest Stockman is an American politician who is a member of the Republican Party and a convicted felon. He served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 9th congressional district from 1995 to 1997 and for Texas's 36th congressional district from 2013 to 2015. Stockman ran in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in the 2014 election but lost to incumbent Senator John Cornyn.
In 2018, Stockman was convicted on 23 felony counts related to money laundering and misuse of campaign contributions. He was sentenced to serve ten years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution.
On December 22, 2020, President Donald Trump commuted Stockman's prison term.

Early life, education, and business career

Stockman was born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, outside Detroit. His parents were evangelistic Christian teachers. He graduated from Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Michigan. From 1985 to 1986, he attended San Jacinto College but dropped out because he suffered from what he called "partying syndrome". In 1977 as Stockman was reporting to jail for traffic tickets, the jailers found valium in his possession after his girlfriend allegedly hid some in his underwear. He was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, but the charge was later dropped. He later became a born-again Christian. In 1990, he earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Houston–Clear Lake. He worked as a computer salesman in Friendswood, Texas.

U.S. House of Representatives (1995–1997)

Elections

1990
Stockman's first run for Congress was in March 1990 in Texas's 9th congressional district. The district, anchored by Beaumont and Galveston, had been represented by Democratic Representative Jack Brooks since 1953. His primary challenger was Beaumont Mayor Maury Meyers. Oliver North made appearances at two of Stockman's fundraisers.
Meyers got 44.3% of the primary vote; Stockman, 41%. Since no candidate had a majority, there was a runoff election and, with the support of third-place finisher Steve Clifford, Meyers beat Stockman to win the Republican nomination.
1992
Stockman ran again in 1992 for the House in District 9. This time he was unopposed in the primary. The 1992 Republican National Convention was held in Houston in August of that year. Stockman organized a "congressional cruise" on the Houston Ship Channel as a fundraising opportunity, but no members of Congress attended. Democrat Brooks defeated him 56% to 44%.
1994
Stockman ran again for House District 9 in 1994. He had two challengers in the Republican primary: John LeCour and James Milburn. Stockman won the primary with a landslide 74%.
His Democratic opponent in the general election was, as before, incumbent Jack Brooks. Initially the NRA Political Victory Fund endorsed Brooks and even donated $5,000 to his cause, while the Gun Owners of America endorsed Stockman. However, a number of NRA members threatened to resign from the organization over the issue and the NRA withdrew their support for Brooks, remaining neutral in the race. In a major upset, Stockman beat Brooks, who, had he won, would have become Dean of the United States House of Representatives, by 51% to 49%.
1996
Stockman ran unopposed in the 1996 Republican primary. In July a federal court ordered the boundaries of 13 Texas House districts to be redrawn because of racial gerrymandering, although Stockman's district was barely affected. Stockman won a plurality in the November election with 46%, forcing a runoff against Democratic Jefferson County assessor Nick Lampson. Lampson won the runoff election with 53% of the vote.

Tenure

During his 1995 term, Stockman opposed the U.S. bailout of the Mexican peso.
In 1995, Stockman wrote an article for Guns & Ammo claiming that the Waco siege had been orchestrated by the Clinton administration in order "to prove the need for a ban on so-called 'assault weapons.'" He wrote further that "ad Bill Clinton really been unhappy with what Attorney General Janet Reno ordered, he would not only have fired her, he would have had Reno indicted for premeditated murder." After the article was published, Stockman's office denied that he believed in Waco "conspiracy theories."
In 1995, Stockman called for a Congressional investigation into Alfred Kinsey's 1948 study Sexual Behavior in the Human Male after learning that Kinsey had used data from the diary of a pedophile. Stockman believed that the allegations discredited current theories of sexual education in the United States, writing to his congressional colleagues that"ur children have been taught that... any type of sex is a valid outlet for their emotions. They are taught that the problem with sex is not that it is wrong to engage in homosexual, bestial, underage, or premarital sex, but that it is wrong to do so without protection."
In 1995 and 1996, Stockman was proud to have played a role in the federal government's shutdown. A 2010 Congressional Research Service report summarized other details of the 1995–1996 government shutdowns, indicating the shutdown impacted all sectors of the economy. Health and welfare services for military veterans were curtailed; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped disease surveillance; new clinical research patients were not accepted at the National Institutes of Health; and toxic waste cleanup at 609 sites was halted. Other impacts included: the closure of 368 National Park sites resulted in the loss of some seven million visitors; 200,000 applications for passports were not processed; and 20,000-30,000 applications by foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day; U.S. tourism and airline industries incurred millions of dollars in losses; more than 20% of federal contracts, representing $3.7 billion in spending, were affected adversely. The first of the two shutdowns caused the furlough of about 800,000 workers, while the second caused about 284,000 workers to be furloughed. They were said to have cost Stockman his reelection in 1996, and the Republican loss of seven seats in the House.
Committee assignments
In 1998, Stockman ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the Texas Railroad Commission.
Between 2005 and 2007, Stockman worked with the conservative Leadership Institute as director of its Campus Leadership Program.
In 2006, he attempted to run as an independent candidate for Texas's 22nd congressional district, Tom DeLay's former seat, and even though he had enough signatures to qualify for ballot access, the Texas Secretary of State invalidated enough signatures to make him ineligible. Stockman registered for the special election to fill out the remainder of DeLay's term; he was one of five candidates. He finished third, with 10.75% of the vote.
During his time away from Congress, Stockman also cared for his father, who had Alzheimer's disease. The cost of caring for him drove Stockman to declare bankruptcy and, when his father's disease became too severe, Stockman moved him to a veterans' home. When his father died, Stockman decided to run for Congress in the 2012 elections.

U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2015)

Election

In 2011 Stockman formed an exploratory committee, Friends of Steve Stockman, to consider a run for the 14th district seat being vacated by unsuccessful presidential candidate Ron Paul. Stockman instead ran in 2012 in the newly created 36th District. It included the Harris County portion of Friendswood, where Stockman's home was located. The district was drawn to be heavily Republican, and it was understood that whoever won the Republican primary would be the district's first congressman. In the May 29 primary, Stockman finished second in the first round, behind Stephen Vincent Takach, a financial planner. Takach finished with 22 percent of the vote, far short of the 50 percent threshold required to win. Stockman defeated Takach in the July 31 runoff 55%–45%, all but assuring his return to Congress after a 16-year absence.
In the November general election, Stockman defeated Democrat Max Owen Martin, a retired pilot from Clear Lake City, Texas, with 71% of the vote.

Tenure

In 2013, Stockman was one of ten Republicans who did not vote for John Boehner for Speaker of the House; he was the only representative to vote "Present" as his protest vote.
Stockman opposes the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, Stockman supported a government shutdown caused by Republican members of Congress who sought to block a continuing resolution that includes funding for the Affordable Care Act. Stockman's last-minute decision to challenge Cornyn in the Republican primary for Senate was "sparked in part by Cornyn's role in helping end" the federal shutdown.
In January 2013, Stockman introduced the "Safe Schools Act," a bill that would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. Stockman introduced the bill following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He asserted that "By disarming qualified citizens and officials in schools we have created a dangerous situation for our children." The same month, Stockman issued a press release condemning gun control executive orders issued by President Barack Obama post-Sandy Hook, stating, "I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment."
In February 2013, Stockman voted against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, objecting to provisions in the bill that expanded protections for transgender victims of domestic violence. Stockman said, "This is helping the liberals, this is horrible. Unbelievable. What really bothers—it's called a women's act, but then they have men dressed up as women, they count that. Change-gender, or whatever. How is that—how is that a woman?" That same month, Stockman also invited Ted Nugent, noted for his violent criticisms of Obama and other Democratic figures, to the 2013 State of the Union Address address.
On April 25, 2014, Stockman stated that the House Ethics Committee was investigating a campaign finance reporting error made by a former campaign worker. Stockman said the mistake was corrected soon after he learned of it, and that the worker had been removed from the campaign organization.