Biography:

Rebecca Armendariz Klein was born in San Antonio, Texas and attended Caroll High School in Corpus Christi.

Her father immigrated legally from Mexico when he was 17, joining a brother. Her mother is from San Antonio, where she also was born.

The majority of her career has been in government service, in Texas and Washington.

She attended Stanford University and earned a degree in human biology in 1987. She went to work on a Ford Foundation Fellowship obtained through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute for the secretary of the Air Force in the Legislative Liaison Office in 1988.

She worked at the White House as associate director for national security in the Office of Presidential Personnel from 1989 to 1992 under the first President Bush. After three years there, she worked as an assistant to the director of the U.S. Trade Agency.

She returned to school to earn a master's degree in national security at Georgetown University, graduating in 1993. She then earned a doctorate in law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.

She became a senior attorney in the office of policy development at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, working there from 1997 to 1999.

She left that job to work for then-Gov. George W. Bush, serving as his policy director from 1999 to 2001. After his election as president she went to work in the priavte sector, joining KPMG Consulting to head development of its Office of Government and Industry Relations.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed her a commisoner at the Texas Public Utility Commission in 2001, and then chairman in 2002. She left the job to run for Congress in 2003.

She is a major in the Air Force Reserves, who served in Saudi Arabia in the first Gulf War.

She is married to Dale Klein, a former University of Texas system chancellor, now an assistant to the secretary of Department of Defense in nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.

Past Campaigns:

Klein's first political campaign was for Texas' March 9, 2004 primary.

She defeated Mission, Texas minister Regner Capener, a relative unknown candidate, winning 67 percent of the vote.

Klein faced 9-year veteran Rep. Lloyd Doggett in the November general election.

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