Phillip Stephen King (born February 29, 1956) is an American attorney from Weatherford, Texas, who has been a Republican member of the Texas State Senate since 2023. He previously served in Texas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2023.[1] House District 61 encompasses Parker and Wise counties located west of Fort Worth. In 2022, he was a candidate for the District 10 seat in the Texas Senate, which he won unopposed in the general election, due to the democratic opponent dropping out of the race in April 2022.[2]
Election history
King was nominated without opposition in the 1998 Republican primary when the incumbent, Ric Williamson, did not seek re-election. In the general election, King defeated the Democratic candidate, Brenda Brown Rotramble, 21,200 (65%) to 11,626 (35%). (At the time, the district included a portion of neighboring Cooke County.)[3]
2006 - King defeated the Libertarian candidate Richard Forsythe, Jr., 27,470 (80% to 6,696 (20%), in the general election the Democratic Party did not field a candidate.[3]
2008 - King faced two opponents in the general election, Democratic candidate Charles William Randolph and (once again facing) Libertarian candidate Forsythe, defeating them 48,879 (73%) to Randolph's 16,308 (24%) and Forsythe's 2,205 (4%).[3]
2010 - King defeated the Libertarian candidate, Richard Forysthe, Jr. 34,513 (86%) to 5,508 (14%), in the general election.[3]
2012 - King defeated Green Party candidate Matthew Britt, 55,737 (89%) to 6,954 (11%).[4]
2014 - King again defeated candidate Matthew Britt (who ran under the Democratic banner), 36,466 (83%) to 7,451 (17%).[4]
2022 - King won the Republican nomination for the District 10 state Senate seat with 75.5 percent of the Republican primary vote.
Legislative history
King has supported legislation that would institute parental notification and parental consent.[6]
In the regular and then the three special legislative sessions of 2003, King authored the congressional redistricting legislation favored by the Republican Party,[7] which won more than 55 percent of the total votes cast in thirty-two separate congressional races in the 2002 midterm elections even though the Republican Party obtained just fifteen of the U.S. House seats.[8] The result gave the Texas delegation to the U.S. House a temporary 21–11 Republican majority.[8] After the 2006 elections, that margin was reduced to 19–13 Republican and after 2008, 20-12 Republican.[9]
In 2005, King was the House sponsor of Senate Bill 5, which deregulated Texas telecommunications laws and banned Texas cities from participating in projects that offer free wi-fi in airports and public spaces.[10][11][6][12]
King was involved in other legislative matters, including the testing of high school athletes for steroid use,[11] and methods for preventing the circumvention of the parental notification law by abortion clinics.[6] In 2011, he sponsored Senate Bill 14 which required proof of U.S. citizenship by voters at the time of registration.[12]
King authored a bill in the Texas House, HB 347 of the 86th Session, to ban the process of forced annexation by cities over suburban and rural areas. The bill will require a Texas city to get the approval of the people and businesses that are affected by the annexation. It passed both chambers of the Texas legislature and was signed by Governor Greg Abbott on May 24, 2019.[13][14]
In 2023, King introduced SB 1515 of the 88th Session of the Texas Senate, which would require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom of every public school in Texas.[15][16] The bill failed to pass.[17][18][19]
