Pete Sessions (R-Tex.)

Sessions launched his first political campaign in 1991 for a seat in the 3rd district in North Dallas. The results were disastrous ; he finished sixth in the special election. Undeterred, he left his job in 1993 to focus full-time on politics.

That year, he tried to unseat Rep. John Bryant (D-Tex.). It was a big gamble. Bryant was running in a district that was redrawn to all but guarantee him victory. However, Sessions ran an aggressive campaign. He even took a two-day tour to 12 rural towns accompanied by a trailer full of manure and a sign that read "the Clinton health-care plan stinks worse than this trailer." The tactics were effective. Bryant managed to scrape by with just 50 percent of the vote, though he outspent Sessions by two- to-one.

Sessions spent the next two years as vice president for public policy at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based conservative think tank.

House Battles

When Bryant left his seat to run for the U.S. Senate, Sessions again tried to win the position. This time, he was opposed by John Pouland, a former General Services Administration (GSA) official. The race got ugly quickly. Sessions accused Pouland of being a big-spending liberal, while Pouland charged that Sessions would cut Medicare while funding foreign military bases. In the end, Sessions won with just 53 percent of the vote. He was reelected by similar margins in 1998 and 2000.

In Washington, D.C., Sessions quickly allied himself with the most conservative members of the House. He was named to the House Rules Committee in 1999, a plum assignment that is only awarded to party loyalists.

In 2001, Sessions old district was split in two. He surprised almost everyone by choosing to run for a seat in the in the freshly-created 32nd district, which housed only 16 percent of his old constituents. He said he preferred the new area because it was smaller and more pro-business. It also contained a larger fundraising base. In 2002, he was elected with 68 percent of the vote.

In 2003, he spearheaded an effort to once again redistrict parts of Texas. An inadvertent result was that his base became less Republican. He was forced to fend off a strong challenge from Martin Frost, a 13-term Democrat from the 24th, which lost many of its Democratic voters.

The race was vicious. Sessions criticized Frost for hosting a fundraiser with Peter Yarrow, a singer who was convicted of "taking indecent liberties" with a 14-year-old girl in 1969. Frost in turn accused Sessions of being soft on security, running an ad with the World Trade Center in flames that claimed Sessions would not protect America.

In the end, each campaign spent about $4.5 million, making the race the most expensive House election of 2004. Sessions won with 54 percent of the vote.

House Leader

Sessions has tried to break into the House Republican leadership since 2006. That year, he lost a race for NRCC chair to Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) by just 20 votes.

However, he stayed active in the NRCC. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) asked Sessions to help raise campaign cash for House Republicans in the weeks before Election Day 2008. After heavy House GOP losses and a serious NRCC financial scandal in 2008, Cole dropped out of the race to head the NRCC during the 2010 cycle and Sessions cruised to victory. He was helped by an early endorsement from Boehner, who placed calls on his behalf.

However, Sessions' record is not unblemished. In 2007, he was criticized by several prominent conservatives for hosting a political fundraiser at a Law Vegas adult club where women stripped down to almost nothing during a burlesque show. "I'm in shock," Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, told the Dallas Morning News. Sessions' spokesman said the event, which was a fundraiser for his PAC, was at a "PG-13 venue."

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