Joe R. Pool

Who was Joe R. Pool?

Joe Richard Pool was a U.S. Representative from Texas.

Joe Pool was born in Fort Worth, Texas He graduated from Oak Cliff High School in the Dallas Independent School District and attended the University of Texas from 1929 to 1933. In 1937, he graduated from Southern Methodist University School of Law, was admitted to the Texas bar, and commenced the practice of law in Dallas, Texas.

During World War II, he served with the United States Army from 1943 to 1945 as a special investigator in the Intelligence section of the Army Air Corps. After the war, he resumed the practice of law.

He entered politics as a Democrat, and was elected a state representative in 1952. He was re-elected in 1954 and 1956, serving from from 1953 to 1958. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Representative from the 5th District of Texas in 1958, losing in the primary to Barefoot Sanders. He ran again in 1960, winning the primary, but lost in the general election to Republican incumbent Bruce Alger.

In the 1960 Congressional reapportionment, Texas received an additional U.S. House seat, but the districts were not redrawn and an at-large seat seat was created. Pool won the Democratic nomination for this seat and was elected to the Eighty-eighth Congress. He was re-elected to the Eighty-ninth Congress in 1964.