Joseph C. "Joe" Pickett (born December 6, 1956) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

from 1995 until his resignation in January 2019. Pickett represented the 79th District, which encompasses part of El Paso County.

Political career

Pickett started his political career as a City Council member for the City of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, defeating the incumbent in 1991. He served on the City Council until he was elected to the position of State Representative for the 79th District in 1994. He served with three House Speakers (

Pete Laney James Earl "Pete" Laney (born March 20, 1943) is an American former politician of the Democratic Party. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 to 2007. A resident of Hale Center, Texas, Laney served as House Speaker fro ...

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and

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and three governors: (

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and

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 50th Tex ...

). In June 2015, Pickett was named by ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...

'' magazine as one of the "Worst Legislators of 2015," referencing an incident during a House Transportation Committee meeting where Pickett had another member of the legislature removed. There was a suspicion of the improper registration of witnesses on a certain bill to create a misconception of overwhelming support for the bill up for consideration. In September 2015, the House Committee on General Investigation & Ethics and the Texas Rangers released a finding of no fault on Pickett's behalf and a call for change to the House current Witness Registration was made by the Ethics Committee. He served on the House Research Organization (HRO) steering committee. In addition, he was a member of the House Committee on Investments and Financial Services, as well as the House Committee on Redistricting. He has also served on the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee, Land and Natural Resources, Juvenile Justice & Family Affairs. Pickett resigned from the Texas House in January 2019 in order to fight

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. A special election was called to determine his successor.

Personal life

Pickett holds a Texas Real Estate Broker's license and has been a real estate educator for more than two decades. He has written and published textbooks on real estate laws for continuing education classes. He is the author of several children's books, including ''Margo! The Weird Cat!'' (2006) and ''Two Apples and Two Cookies''.

Bibliography

* Pickett, Joe C. (2006). ''Margo! the Weird Cat!''. Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah Aardvark Global Publishing Co. .

References

External links

Official biography
on the

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pickett, Joe 1956 births 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American politicians American children's writers Living people Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Politicians from El Paso, Texas American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers

Political career

Personal life

Bibliography

See also

References

External links