Paul David Bettencourt (born October 20, 1958) is an American politician and businessman based out of Houston, Texas, who serves as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Texas State Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per con ...

from

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. On January 13, 2015, he succeeded state Senator Dan Patrick of Houston, who successfully ran for

Lieutenant Governor of Texas The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and control ...

Political career

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector

From 1998 to early in 2008, Bettencourt was the Tax Assessor-Collector of his native Harris County, the third largest county in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Bettencourt won reelection in 2000, 2004, and 2008. The Democratic Party and plaintiffs filed suit and requested a temporary restraining order against the Voter Registrar Bettencourt after the 2008 election, asking a Federal Judge to block the counting of 7000+ provisional ballots from the November 2008 election. However, the temporary restraining order was denied by the Judge. All 7000+ provisional ballots were reviewed by Election Officials, and either rejected or accepted and then electronically counted.

Texas State Senate

2014 election

Bettencourt ran for the Texas State Senate in 2014 again enlisted the help of top Republican Strategist Allen Blakemore.

Tenure

Bettencourt has also warned of serious pension liability problems in Texas and has proposed long-term market-based reforms which he claims will not impact those nearing retirement and have already paid significantly into the pension systems.

2018 reelection

Tenure

He authored a bill that the Texas Senate passed in 2019 that would move bond, debt and tax elections to the November general elections and limit the length of propositions.

Radio host

Bettencourt is a

conservative talk radio Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

host on KSEV, owned by his predecessor Dan Patrick.

References

External links

Senator Paul Bettencourt: District 7
government site
Paul Bettencourt for Senate District 7
campaign site
Profile
at Ballotpedia , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bettencourt, Paul David 1958 births 21st-century American politicians American broadcasters American conservative talk radio hosts Businesspeople from Houston County officials in Texas Journalists from Houston Living people Politicians from Houston Texas A&M University alumni Republican Party Texas state senators