Get to Know Your Candidate: Pete Sessions — U.S. House, Texas District 17
His official House issues agenda adds veterans' care and benefits, support for law enforcement, patient-centered, market-based health care, reducing business regulation, American energy independence, and holding federal agencies accountable for wasteful spending.
Pete Sessions has been a fixture in Texas Republican politics for three decades, and this fall his name is new on Milam County ballots. Under the congressional map drawn in Texas's 2025 mid-decade redistricting, District 17 now includes all of Milam County, running south from Waco along I-35 — and Sessions, the Waco Republican who has held the seat since 2021, is asking voters here to send him back to Washington.
Who he is
Sessions is a Waco native who attended Waco public schools before graduating from high school in San Antonio. He earned his degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown in 1978, then spent 16 years with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, retiring as a district manager.
Politics and public service run in the family: his father, Judge William S. Sessions, was a federal district judge and served as Director of the FBI under President Reagan. Sessions is an Eagle Scout, served 12 years on Southwestern University's Board of Trustees, and lives in Waco with his wife, Karen. "I was born, raised, lived and live in Waco," he said recently. "It is a very special place."
First elected to Congress in 1996, Sessions represented Dallas-area districts for more than two decades, chairing the powerful House Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019 and leading the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2009 to 2013. After losing his Dallas seat in 2018, he returned to his hometown roots, winning District 17 in 2020. In the current Congress he is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and chairs the Government Operations Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He ran unopposed in this year's Republican primary.
Pete Sessions has been a fixture in Texas Republican politics for three decades, and this fall his name is new on Milam County ballots. Under the congressional map drawn in Texas's 2025 mid-decade redistricting, District 17 now includes all of Milam County, running south from Waco along I-35 — and Sessions, the Waco Republican who has held the seat since 2021, is asking voters here to send him back to Washington.
Who he is
Sessions is a Waco native who attended Waco public schools before graduating from high school in San Antonio. He earned his degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown in 1978, then spent 16 years with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, retiring as a district manager.
Politics and public service run in the family: his father, Judge William S. Sessions, was a federal district judge and served as Director of the FBI under President Reagan. Sessions is an Eagle Scout, served 12 years on Southwestern University's Board of Trustees, and lives in Waco with his wife, Karen. "I was born, raised, lived and live in Waco," he said recently. "It is a very special place."
First elected to Congress in 1996, Sessions represented Dallas-area districts for more than two decades, chairing the powerful House Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019 and leading the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2009 to 2013. After losing his Dallas seat in 2018, he returned to his hometown roots, winning District 17 in 2020. In the current Congress he is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and chairs the Government Operations Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He ran unopposed in this year's Republican primary.
What he stands for
Sessions describes himself as "a pro-life conservative." His campaign cites lifetime top marks from the National Rifle Association, National Right to Life, the Texas Farm Bureau and the NFIB, and emphasizes border security and "America First" immigration policies, balancing the budget and cutting what he calls unnecessary government spending, and parental rights in education.
His official House issues agenda adds veterans' care and benefits, support for law enforcement, patient-centered, market-based health care, reducing business regulation, American energy independence, and holding federal agencies accountable for wasteful spending. At a Texas Tribune Festival appearance this fall, he defended his vote for the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" and proposed a tax-credit alternative to the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
District 17 voters will decide the race on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Early voting runs Oct. 19–30.
