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Kent Hance | |
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| Chancellor of theTexas Tech University System | |
| In office December 1, 2006 – June 30, 2014 | |
| Preceded by | David Smith |
| Succeeded by | Robert L. Duncan |
| Member of theTexas Railroad Commission | |
| In office September 23, 1987 – January 2, 1991 | |
| Governor | Bill Clements |
| Preceded by | Mark Wallace |
| Succeeded by | Bob Krueger |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's19th district | |
| In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1985 | |
| Preceded by | George H. Mahon |
| Succeeded by | Larry Combest |
| Member of theTexas Senate from the28th district | |
| In office January 14, 1975 – January 9, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Doc Blanchard |
| Succeeded by | E. L. Short |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kent Ronald Hance (1942-11-14)November 14, 1942 (age 83) Dimmitt, Texas, U.S. |
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Kent Ronald Hance (born November 14, 1942) is an American politician and lawyer who is the former[1] Chancellor of theTexas Tech University System. In his role, he oversaw Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. He is also alobbyist andlawyer. Hance is the only person to defeatGeorge W. Bush in an election. (which he did in the1978 U.S. House of Representatives election for Texas's 19th District) and became aDemocratic member of theUnited States House of Representatives fromWest Texas, having served from 1979 to 1985. After his congressional service, he switched to theRepublican Party and in both 1986 and 1990 ran forgovernor of Texas, losing in the primary election.
Hance obtained hisBachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from theRawls College of Business atTexas Tech University in 1965 where he was also a member ofDelta Tau Delta, which he served as president.[2] He also served as the Student Government Association Vice-president and was a member of theSaddle Tramps.[3]
He later attended theUniversity of Texas School of Law. During his time as a law student, he was the Student Bar Association President and chosen as recipient of the Counsel Award. After law school, he was admitted to the Texas bar and in 1968 became a practicing attorney inLubbock, Texas. During this period, he was also a law professor at Texas Tech from 1968 until 1973.
In 1974, Hance ran for theTexas Senate and defeated incumbent H.J. "Doc" Blanchard in the 1974 primary. His campaign at the beginning seemed doomed to failure, but Hance quickly made connection with voters in the sprawling West Texas district.
He served in the state senate from 1975 to 1979. After winning the 1978 Democratic primary nomination for the Lubbock-based 19th Congressional District, he defeated the Republican nomineeGeorge W. Bush ofMidland. The seat, which was based in Lubbock, had been held since inception by popular DemocratGeorge H. Mahon, long-time chairman of theHouse Appropriations Committee (the 19th included most of thePermian Basin at the time). Bush won the Republican nomination in a hard-fought but low-turnoutrunoff primary against the 1976 party nominee, Jim Reese of Odessa.
The 19th had long been one of the more conservative areas of Texas. It was one of the first areas of Texas to move away from its Democratic roots; it hadn't supported a Democrat for president since 1964. However, at the time, conservative Democrats continued to represent much of the region at the state and local levels, and would do so well into the 1990s. Hance claimed Bush was "not a real Texan" because of his privileged upbringing andYale education. Hance won by seven points—the only time that the future 43rdPresident of the United States was ever defeated in an election.
As a Democratic member of Congress during 1979–1985, Hance was a member of the "boll-weevil"conservative Democrats. As such, he became one of PresidentRonald Reagan's allies and carried his tax-cut, the nation's largest tax cut, in1981.
Hance was reelected two times. His voting record was very conservative even byTexas Democrat standards; he compiled a lifetime rating of 72 from theAmerican Conservative Union.
He did not run for a fourth term in 1984, opting instead to seek the Democratic nomination for theSenate seat being vacated by the retiringJohn Tower. Hance announced within hours of Tower's withdrawal that he would run for the Senate. No candidate received a majority vote in the primary, so Hance, along with State SenatorLloyd Doggett of Austin, advanced to a run-off. He was defeated by only 1,345 votes by Doggett, who lost the general election for Senate but later served many years in theHouse.
Hance endorsed one of his aides, Don R. Richards, in the Democratic primary for his congressional seat. Richards won the nomination, but was defeated in the general election by a young Republican,Larry Combest, a former aide to Tower. Proving just how Republican this district had become at the national level, Richards only tallied 41.9 percent of the vote—one of only two times since Hance left office that a Democrat has cleared 40 percent of the vote.
Hance donated money to his former opponent George W. Bush's campaign forGovernor of Texas in1994.[4]
On May 1, 2011, Texas Tech University announced that Kent Hance provided the largest gift, $1.75 million, toward the $3 million privately funded non-denominational campus chapel, named the Kent R. Hance Chapel designed by McKinney York Architects.[5]
In 1985, Hance received the Texas Tech Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2009, Hance received the South Plains Council Boy Scouts of America John F. Lott Distinguished Citizen Award.In 2009–2010, Hance received the Outstanding Texas State Leader Award at the Annual Texas Leadership Forum, presented by the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute. Additionally, Hance received the Hope Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society West Texas Chapter in April 2010.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's 19th congressional district 1979–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Mark Wallace | Member of theTexas Railroad Commission 1987–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by David Smith | Chancellor ofTexas Tech University System 2006–2014 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
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