Talmadge L. Heflin

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Talmadge L. Heflin is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, who represented District 149 from 1983 to 2005.

Heflin was born in Webster Parish near Shongaloo, Louisiana. He married his wife, Janice, in 1959. They have a son, Gordon and two grand-daughters, Shawna and Kristy. The family has lived in Alief, Texas, a suburb of Houston, since 1969.

Heflin had been employed in petrochemical construction and engineering for 24 years, working for numerous companies as a design engineer and consultant. He is also well known for community and public service, both as a deacon at the Alief First Baptist Church and on the Board of Trustees of Alief's Independent School District, where he served for seven years and has an elementary school named after him.

In November 1982, Talmadge Heflin was elected as a Republican to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served from January 1983 to January 2005. Between January 1993 and January 2003, when Democrats had majority control of the Texas House, he was the only member to serve on both the Ways and Means Committee and the Appropriations Committee. In January 2003, he became the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. During his chairmanship, the state's $10 billion shortfall was eliminated and a balanced budget was achieved without raising taxes.

Heflin's days in the Texas Legislature were numbered when Andrew Tran campaigned as the Democratic nominee in 2002, to which Heflin won the 2002 general election by 1000 votes. Tran declined running again in 2004 to which a new day for District 149 was nearing.

In November 2004, Heflin was defeated for re-election by a fraction of one percent of the vote, 20,695 to 20,662. The victor, Democrat Hubert Vo, became the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to the Texas legislature. Before the election was certified, several recounts were tallied between December 2004 and January 2005. Both candidates received their parties' nominations for a rematch in the election of Tuesday, November 7, 2006. Vo won re-election.