Texas House of Representatives, District 63
District 63 is a district of the Texas House of Representatives that serves a portion of Denton County. The current representative for District 63 is Republican Tan Parker, who was elected in 2006.
District description
The district is located wholly within Denton County. It is one of four serving Denton County. In terms of geography, it consists of the southwestern part of the county. Major cities in the district include Flower Mound, the western half of Highland Village, and the southwestern part of Lewisville.
Elections
2006 candidates
Mary C. Denny served as Representative starting in 1993. She chose not to seek re-election in 2006. Five Republican candidates (listed below) filed to take Denny's place. No candidate from any other party filed (the district, like much of Denton County, is a GOP stronghold), so the winner of the Republican Party primary would serve District 63 in the Eightieth Texas Legislature.
The five candidates seeking election were:
- Ricky Gruden, financial advisor
- Anne Lakusta, Realtor; served on the Lewisville Independent School District Board of Trustees, 1994–2003, and as the Board's first female president, 1998–2003. Lakusta received the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News for this race, due in large part to her prior school board experience.
- Bill Lawrence, businessman, served as mayor of Highland Village, 2000–2005.
- Tan Parker, businessman; Parker received the endorsement of outgoing Representative Denny and former Congressman Dick Armey, notwithstanding his lack of political experience
- Michael Savoie, businessman and college administrator, served two terms as mayor of Northlake, 1997–2003, and the latter half of 2005.
The March 7 election resulted in a runoff between Parker (who finished first) and Lakusta (who finished second). Gruden (the third place finisher) requested a recount, as he was only 45 votes behind Lakusta for the second-place spot, but the recount confirmed the standings. Lawrence finished fourth and Savoie finished last.
Gruden and Lawrence endorsed Parker in the April 11 runoff, while Savoie endorsed Lakusta; the runoff saw Parker defeating Lakusta by 48 votes.
2008 candidates
Parker faced opposition in the general election for the first time in the form of Democratic Party candidate Jesus Carrillo and Libertarian Party candidate John Turner, but defeated them 64,048 (72.97 percent) to Carrillo's 19,883 (22.65 percent) and Turner's 3,831 (4.36 percent).