district predecessor religion birth_place party office birth_date term_start spouse image article_title state name alma_mater
texas 13 13th buck mckeon bill sarpalius presbyterianism clarendon , texas , u.s. republican chairman of the house armed services committee 15 july 1958 january 3 , 2015 january 3 , 1995 sally thornberry mac thornberry , official portrait , 111th congress.jpg mac thornberry
 texas william `` mac '' thornberry texas tech university university of texas school of law
mac thornberry

william mcclellan thornberry , known as mac thornberry -lrb- born july 15 , 1958 -rrb- , is the u.s. representative from the texas panhandle .
he has served since 1995 , when the house seated its first republican majority in forty years and signed the `` contract with america '' that was authored by former house of representatives speaker newt gingrich .
a republican , thornberry represents , a gop stronghold which stretches between the oklahoma and new mexico borders .
it winds across the panhandle into the south plains , then runs east across the red river valley .
covering over , it is the second-largest district geographically in texas and one of the largest -lrb- excluding at-large districts in wyoming , montana , and alaska -rrb- in the country .
it is even larger in area than thirteen states .
the principal cities in the district are amarillo and wichita falls .
according to the cook partisan voting index , it is the most republican district in the country -lrb- r +32 -rrb- .
this district , however , has not always been strongly republican .
