Talmadge L. Heflin

Who is Talmadge L. Heflin?

Talmadge Loraine Heflin is a Republican Party former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 149 in Harris County, who served from 1983-2005. From August 2007 through March 2008, he served as Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas. He is now the Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank based in Austin.

Heflin was narrowly defeated for reelection in 2004 by the Democrat Hubert Vo, who is the first person of Vietnamese extraction to serve in the Texas legislature. Vo polled 20,695 votes to Heflin's 20,662. There was a recount but Vo prevailed. Heflin then failed to unseat Vo in 2006, a strongly Democratic year nationally but not particularly so in Texas. Heflin polled 10,632 votes, or roughly half his raw vote from 2004, to Vo's 12,621 in a lower-turnout election. Vo was reelected in 2006 and 2008.

Between January 1993 and January 2003, when Democrats had majority control of the Texas House, Heflin was the only Republican member to have served on both the Ways and Means and the Appropriations committees. Heflin took over Appropriations in January 2003 and helped to close a $10 billion budget shortfall without raising taxes but included hundreds of millions of dollars in new and increased state fees.