| Kent Hance | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 19th district |
|
| In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1985 |
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| Preceded by | George H. Mahon |
| Succeeded by | Larry Combest |
| Member of the Texas Railroad Commission | |
| In office September 23, 1987 – January 2, 1991 |
|
| Governor | Bill Clements |
| Preceded by | Mark Wallace |
| Succeeded by | Robert Krueger |
| Texas State Senator from District 28 | |
| In office 1973 – 1979 |
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| Preceded by | H.J. "Doc" Blanchard |
| Succeeded by | E L Short |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 14, 1942 Dimmitt, Texas |
| Political party | Republican (since 1985)
Democratic (until 1985) |
| Alma mater | Texas Tech University |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Religion | Christian |
Kent "The Hancellor" Ronald Hance (born November 14, 1942, in Dimmitt, Texas) is a lobbyist and lawyer who was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from West Texas, having served from 1979 to 1985. After his congressional service, he switched to the Republican Party.
Hance was chosen to succeed David Smith as the chancellor of the Texas Tech University System in Lubbock. He is taking a leave of absence from his Austin law firm Hance, Scarborough, Wright, Ginsberg and Brusilow but will continue to sit on profit and nonprofit boards and commissions while at the helm of Texas Tech. He assumed his duties on December 1, 2006. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal quoted Texas Tech board chairman Rick Francis:
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Hance obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas Tech in 1965 where he was also a member of Delta Tau Delta. He later attended the University of Texas School of Law. After law school, he was admitted to the Texas bar and in 1968 became a practicing attorney in Lubbock. During this period, he was also a law professor at Texas Tech from 1968 until 1973.
In 1972, Hance ran for the Texas Senate and defeated incumbent H.J. "Doc" Blanchard in the 1972 primary. His campaign at the beginning seemed doomed to failure, but Hance quickly made connection with voters in the sprawling West Texas district.
He served in the House from 1973 to 1979, when he ran successfully as a Democrat for the Lubbock-based 19th Congressional District. The seat, which was based in Lubbock had been held for a generation by popular Democrat George H. Mahon, long-time chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Hance's opponent in the general election was a young Republican businessman from Midland named George W. Bush (the 19th included most of the Permian Basin at the time). Bush won the Republican nomination in a hard-fought but low-turnout runoff primary against the 1976 party nominee, Jim Reese, former mayor of Odessa in Ector County.
The 19th had long been one of the more conservative areas of Texas (it hasn't supported a Democrat for president since 1964). Although the 19th had begun voting in landslides for Republicans at the national level, conservative Democrats continued to represent much of the region at the state level until 1994. Hance claimed Bush was "not a real Texan" because of his privileged upbringing and Yale education. Hance won by seven points - the only time that the future 43rd President of the United States was ever defeated in an election.
Hance was reelected two times. His voting record was very conservative even by Texas Democratic standards; he compiled a lifetime rating of 72 from the American Conservative Union. He did not run for a fourth term in 1984, opting instead to seek the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring John Tower. Hance announced within hours of Tower's withdrawal that he would run for the Senate. He was very narrowly defeated—by only 273 votes—by State Senator Lloyd Doggett of Austin, who was later a long-term Democratic congressman. Hance had received a great deal of support from conservative Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for him in the race, since Hance had run on a conservative platform. Geography also played a role in Hance's loss to Doggett; no one from west of San Antonio has ever represented Texas in the Senate. Hance was succeeded in the U.S. House by a young Republican, Larry Combest, a former aide to Tower.
Hance switched parties from Democratic to Republican in 1985. In 1986, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Instead, the Republicans called former Governor Bill Clements out of retirement for the right to challenge Democratic Governor Mark White. In 1988, Hance was a Texas delegate to his first ever Republican National Convention, which met in New Orleans.
In 1987, Clements appointed his former intraparty rival Hance to a vacancy on the Texas Railroad Commission. The next year Hance was elected as a Republican to the commission on the coattails of presidential nominee George H.W. Bush, father of the young man Hance had defeated for Congress ten years earlier. He left the Railroad Commission in 1990, once again to seek the GOP nomination for governor but was heavily defeated in the primary by another West Texan, controversial Midland businessman Clayton Williams. In the primary against Williams, Hance finished second but with only 15 percent of the ballots.
In 2004, against the wishes of Governor Rick Perry, Hance assisted Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith in the latter's unsuccessful bid for renomination in the Republican primary.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David Smith |
Chancellor of Texas Tech University System 2006–present |
Incumbent |
| Texas Senate | ||
| Preceded by H. J. “Doc” Blanchard |
Texas State Senator from District 28 (Lubbock) 1975–1979 |
Succeeded by E L Short |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by George H. Mahon |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 19th congressional district 1979–1985 |
Succeeded by Larry Combest |
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