10.16.2009

SENATOR NELSON ANNOUNCES SHE WILL SEEK RE-ELECTION

GRAPEVINE -- Texas State Senator Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, announced today that she will seek re-election in Senate District 12, which includes portions of Tarrant and Denton counties. The General Election is November 2, 2010.

"For Texas to overcome these economic challenges, state government must continue to live within our means and businesses must have the support and freedom needed to prosper and create jobs," Senator Nelson said. "The economy must remain our top priority as we press ahead on our regional goals of expanding the transportation system, improving education, increasing access to health care and meeting our obligations to children, seniors and other vulnerable Texans."

Senator Nelson's announcement comes on the heels of a legislative session in which she received 13 awards for her work, including being named the most fiscally conservative Senator by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and winning the "Fighter for Free Enterprise" Award from Texas Association of Business. She passed the second most bills of any legislator, including legislation to reform education, expand access to private health insurance, protect victims of domestic violence, assist our veterans, and protect Texans with disabilities in our State-Supported Living Centers.

"Aside from addressing our transportation, education and health service needs, one of my top goals next session will be to protect North Texas in the redistricting process. During the past decade we became the state's largest population center, and that needs to be reflected when the political maps are redrawn," Senator Nelson said.

A former public school teacher and businesswoman, Senator Nelson is Chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee and serves on the powerful state budget-writing Senate Finance Committee. She and her husband, Mike, operate an aircraft component manufacturing company in Denton. They have five children and two grandsons.

District 12 encompasses all or part of 56 cities and 20 school districts in Denton and Tarrant counties. Senator Nelson was first elected to the Senate in 1992 and won re-election to a four year term in 2006 with the highest winning percentage of any incumbent State Senator in Texas with major party opposition. She also won by the highest winning percentage of any candidate with major party opposition -- state, local or federal -- on the ballot in Denton County.