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Elections

For Ralph Hall, Lengthy Tenure In Congress Is A Plus; His Opponent Says He's Stayed Too Long

Stella M. Chávez
/
KERA News
"I’m pretty consistent," 91-year-old congressman Ralph Hall tells KERA. ";

Rockwall’s Ralph Hall is, at 91, the oldest member ever of the U.S. House. He faces the toughest challenge of his 34-year congressional career Tuesday against former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe. Hall says he’s running on his record of experience and success.

"If they want to run against my birth certificate, I don’t have any defense to that because it says '9-0' on it. And if they run against me they’d come to see I’m passing more legislation than I’ve passed in the last five years because I have better opportunities to," Hall says. "I’m on the committees that have access to success there. I’m pretty consistent. I vote not to increase taxes. I took a vow on that when I took it and I’ve kept that vow."

Ratcliffe says Hall is a symbol of what’s wrong in Washington.

"It’s certainly his prerogative to run, but from my perspective I’m running because he’s not being an effective leader for the people of this district," Ratcliffe says. 

"I think that he falls into a class of politicians that have gone to Washington and stayed too long and made a lot of promises that they haven’t kept. For the last five years I’ve seen the GOP leadership get outworked, outsmarted, outmaneuvered and beaten by Obama and the Democrats and I’m just tired of it."

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Tune in to KERA 90.1 FM starting at 7 p.m. for live updates on election returns. Our digital editor Eric Aasen will be live blogging the latest at keranews.org.

Former KERA staffer Jeff Whittington was executive producer for special projects and Think, as well as host of Anything You Ever Wanted to Know. He also created and launched the KXT Live Sessions series for KXT 91.7.