Joe Barton

Barton meets President Ronald Reagan in 1984

Barton made his first run for elected office in 1984, when he entered the Republican primary for Texas's 6th congressional district after three-term incumbent Phil Gramm left his seat to run for the United States Senate that year. He finished first in the five-candidate field with 42%, and very narrowly defeated Max Hoyt in the runoff with 50%.[21][22] He then defeated Democratic nominee and former State Representative Dan Kubiak 57%–43%.[23] Barton was one of six freshmen Republican U.S. congressmen elected from Texas in 1984, known as the Texas Six Pack.[24]

In 1986, Barton won re-election against Democratic candidate Pete Geren, who was later elected to Congress from a neighboring district. Barton defeated Geren 56%–44%.[25]

Barton with President George W. Bush

During this period, Barton won each re-election with 60% of the vote or more.[26] His worst general election performance was in 2006, when he defeated Democratic candidate David Harris 60%–37%, a 23-point margin.[27] The 2008 election was his second-worst performance, defeating Democratic candidate Ludwig Otto by a 26-point margin, 62%–36%.[28]

He was only challenged in the primary twice in this time period: in 1992 and 1994. In 1992, he defeated Mike McGinn 79 to 21%.[29] In 1994, he defeated Jerry Goode 89%–11%.[30]

Because of increasing controversy surrounding his record in office, election battles became increasingly contentious. In 2011, a Super PAC was formed by Texas conservative groups to remove him and several other long-time incumbents from office.[31] The Democratic National Committee used Barton's comments in political ads, shown nationally against all Republican candidates.[32] Several websites were created and dedicated to simply removing Barton from office. DefeatJoeBarton.com/ was created by Democratic challengers. All content was later removed, though the site is still owned.[33]

Barton drew three primary challengers: Joe Chow, Mayor of Addison; Itamar Gelbman, a security consultant; and Frank C. Kuchar, a Dallas businessman and former preacher. Chow is Texas' first Asian-American mayor. He called Barton "the most corrupt congressman in the State of Texas."[34] At the end of March 2012, Barton had $1.3 million in cash on hand, compared with $28,800 for Chow, $178,000 for Gelbman, and $463 for Kuchar.[35]

In the Republican primary on March 4, Barton won re-nomination to a 16th term in the U.S. House. He polled 32,579 (72.7%); his 2012 primary opponent, Frank Kuchar, trailed with 12,260 votes (27.3%).[36] On November 4, Barton handily won re-election over Democratic opponent David Cozad.

Barton polled 55,197 votes (68.7%) in a three-candidate field for the Republican House nomination in the March 1 primary election. The runner-up, Steven Fowler, received 17,927 votes (22.3%).[37] To win his 17th consecutive term in the House, Barton then defeated in the November 8 general election the Democrat Ruby Faye Woolridge (born 1948) of Arlington, who had polled 22,954 votes (69.7%) in her earlier three-candidate Democratic primary.[38] Barton finished with 159,444 votes (58.3%) to Woolridge's 106,667 (39%); the most any Democrat had received against Barton in his three-decade career.[39] The remaining 7,185 votes (2.6%) went to the Green Party candidate, Darrel Smith, Jr.[40]

Texas's filing deadline for the House seat held by Barton was December 11, 2017.[39] The primary was held March 6, 2018.[39] Barton initially said that he would run for reelection, but announced on November 30, 2017, that he would not seek reelection in 2018.[41][42]

If Barton resigned from his seat (as predicted by Austin Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak), there would be a special, open primary election in 2018, in which candidates from all parties would appear on a single ballot; if no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, then the top two vote-getters (regardless of party) will advance to a runoff.[39][43]

Democrat former educator Ruby Faye Woolridge had indicated she would run for the seat, as did Democrats Jana Lynne Sanchez (endorsed by the New Democrat Coalition and the environmental group Climate Hawks Vote), party activist Justin Snider, Levii R. Shocklee of Arlington, and lawyer John Duncan.[44][2][45][46][47] Republicans Jake Ellzey (a retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot and commissioner on the Texas Veterans Commission) and Dr. Monte Mark Mitchell (a Fort Worth physician, attorney, and custom home builder) filed to oppose Barton, and other Republican candidates for Barton's seat may include State Representative Tony Tinderholt, State Senators Brian Birdwell and Konni Burton, Ellis County Commissioner Paul Perry, and former Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright (Barton's former chief of staff and district director).[48][45][12][46][49][47][50]

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram urged that Barton not seek re-election.[51] Tim O'Hare, the Chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party, called on Barton "to not seek re-election and to retire from Congress by the end of [2017]," saying he is guilty of "sexual immorality."[47][49] Republican State Senators Konni Burton and Brian Birdwell also urged Barton to not seek re-election.[52][53] Brian Mayes, a Dallas political consultant, said Barton was vulnerable in his upcoming election battle "if he gets a motivated opponent", and that he risked getting lumped in "fairly or unfairly" with sexual misconduct allegations in Congress.[54] Barton announced on November 30, 2017, that he would not seek reelection.[41]

Barton speaking at the 2015 Lincoln Dinner in Fort Worth

Barton voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in both of its manifestations.[55][56]

In March 2011, Barton sponsored the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act, which would repeal the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed by President George W. Bush. The 2007 law would set energy efficiency standards for light bulbs, effectively eliminating most or all incandescent light bulbs. Barton said "People don't want Congress dictating what light fixtures they can use."[57]

Barton is a member of the Freedom Caucus[58] and the United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus.[59] In the first session of the 115th United States Congress, Barton was ranked the 42nd most bipartisan member of the House by the Bipartisan Index, a metric published by The Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy to assess congressional bipartisanship.[60]

Congressional action

• Former Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,[61][62] House sponsor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005,[63] and chairman of the House–Senate energy conference committee. On his website he speaks of his diligent work to promote a conservative agenda, and how "in his first legislative victory as Chairman, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to limit indecency on the public airwaves."[64]
• Both initiated and eliminated "safe harbor" provision for MTBE (in Energy Policy Act of 2005).[65][66]
• Co-founded the Congressional Privacy Caucus, cosponsor of the anti-spyware SPY ACT, initiated National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006.
• Opposed the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 2006
• Barton was a leading voice in Congress for forcing the switch from analog to digital TV.[67][68]
• Barton has supported the auctioning off the public airwaves to private companies.[69][70]

Prompted by a February 2005 Wall Street Journal article,[71] Barton launched an investigation that year into two climate change studies from 1998 and 1999.[62] In his letters to the authors of the studies he requested details on the studies and the sources of the authors grant funding.[72] The Washington Post condemned Barton's investigation as a "witch-hunt".[73] During former Vice President Al Gore's testimony to the Energy and Commerce Committee in March 2007, Barton asserted to Gore that "You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong" (climate scientists have refuted Barton's assertion[74]), stating that "Global warming science is uneven and evolving."[75]

Upset with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's passage of global warming legislation in 2009, he said: "You can't regulate God."[76] At the same time, Barton implied in 2009 that wind is a "finite resource," and there was a claim made that Barton was suggesting that greater use of wind turbines would "slow the winds down," which would "cause the temperature to go up,"[76][77][78] although a report in Snopes suggested that Barton was merely quoting an academic study which suggested that increased use of wind turbines might have unintended consequences for the environment, and that the claim about the linkage between increased use of wind turbines and slowing down the winds was incorrect.[79] In 2013, when discussing the Keystone XL pipeline, he referred to the Genesis flood narrative in the Bible to argue that current climate change isn't man-made.[80] Barton rejects the scientific consensus on climate change that climate change is real and that human activity is the primary cause.[80][81][82][83][84] Barton has "mocked human-caused climate change" according to The New York Times,[85] and is "a long-time denier of global warming" according to Time magazine,[84] and "a longtime skeptic of human involvement in climate change" according to HuffPost.[80] In any event, he suggested that humans will "adapt" to climate change because we can "get shade."[86] "Barton has made a reputation for his outspoken rejection of man-made climate change, and for his support for the oil industry," according to Suzanne Goldenberg in The Guardian.[87]

Barton tried to block the bipartisan Combating Autism Act of 2006. He said that the money steered toward environmental causes of autism was not the reason he blocked passage of the bill.[88]

The controversy stemmed from the conflict between two bills in the House and Senate. Barton introduced the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006,[89] while Senator Rick Santorum introduced the Autism bill. Santorum said in a CNN interview that the Senate bill was intended to be "fit into" Barton's bill in the House bill. He stated that "I was in constant conversation with him [Barton] and many House members all last week in an attempt to help the NIH bill come through the Senate, as well as try to move the Combating Autism bill through the Senate." Santorum stated that the Senate bill would investigate possible environmental causes, while the House bill would prevent that.[90]

Barton let the bill die in committee, which upset many people who were vocal about saying Barton had sacrificed the interests of autistic children in the interests of the oil and gas companies that donate heavily to his campaign.[91][92]

In June 2010, Barton accused the Obama administration of a "$20 billion shakedown" of oil giant BP after the company reached an agreement with the administration to establish an escrow account to pay the claims of people harmed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.[93] He made the accusation at the outset of a House hearing where BP's chief executive officer, Tony Hayward, appeared for the first time before Congress. Facing Hayward at the witness table, Barton said, "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words — amounts to a shakedown, so I apologize."[94] Prior to the establishment of the agreement, the Obama administration had been public in their criticism of BP for the oil spill.[94]

Barton's remarks were criticized by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and Vice President Joe Biden,[95] GOP congressional leadership[96] as well as by Barton's fellow Republicans, some of whom called on him to relinquish his leadership role in the House Energy Subcommittee.[97][98]

Barton later said that his earlier remarks had been "misconstrued" and that he believed BP was responsible for the accident. Later that day, he issued a statement apologizing for using the term "shakedown" and fully retracted his apology to BP.[65][99]

In 2010, Barton backed a policy platform that called for re-criminalizing sodomy in Texas.[100] He has 100% ratings from socially conservative groups such as the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition of America for his opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights.[100][101][102]

The organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) put Barton on its "CREW's Most Corrupt Report 2011".[103][104] The article stated that on Barton's 2008 financial disclosure statement, he inaccurately reported on the source of a natural gas interest that he bought into. The share was purchased through a longtime donor and supporter, who later died. This was discovered by the Dallas Morning News in 2010.[105] According to the Dallas Morning News article, Barton made over $100,000 on the investment. The article and CREW Report both pointed out how Barton buying this undervalued asset from an "advisor" on energy issues could be a conflict of interest to the Congressman's position as the Chair of the House's Energy Subcommittee. It quoted James Thurber, a Distinguished Professor of Government at American University, as saying: "If you are elected as a public servant to try to do what is right for the public generally and then you use that position to help bring in material wealth, I think it's unethical."[105]

CREW also reported that Barton paid his wife Terri $57,759 in salary and bonuses, from his campaign funds in the 2006 election cycle.[106] A spokesman said that Terri served as the campaign's outreach director and planned fund raising and special events.[61] in addition, Barton's daughter Kristin was paid $12,622 in salary and bonuses, and his mother, Nell Barton, was paid $7,000 for a car.[61]

Barton expressed in September 2014 his full support of the U.S. lifting the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports – an issue that sparked controversy among members of the Republican Party. Several research reports had found that exporting the glut of shale oil would ultimately lower U.S. and global fuel prices, rather than raise them; U.S. public opinion was divided on the issue.[107]

Barton has sought to permit online poker, and regulate it on a federal level.[108] To that end, he has introduced the Online Poker Act of 2011, the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2013, and the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2015.[109][108]

Barton favored repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare).[110] Explaining why the American Health Care Act (the House Republicans' bill to repeal and replace for the Affordable Care Act) failed in March 2017, Barton said, "Sometimes you're playing fantasy football and sometimes you're in the real game. We knew the president, if we could get a repeal bill to his desk, would almost certainly veto it. This time we knew if it got to the president's desk it would be signed."[111][112]

Barton voted against Hurricane Harvey relief in 2017.[83] Barton said that he could not support an increase in the debt ceiling.[83]

Barton supported President Donald Trump's 2017 Executive Order 13769 banning entry to the United States by nationals of seven Muslim-majority nations.[9]

In November 2017, Barton called on the House leadership to pass naturalization legislation for children who came across the border illegally with their parents.[113]

• Committee on Energy and Commerce (Chair emeritus)
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade
  • Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Power
  • Subcommittee on Environment and Economy
  • Subcommittee on Health
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations