Jim Wright is a Republican and was elected as the 51st Texas Railroad Commissioner. A lifelong South Texan, Jim’s family have been ranchers in Texas for five generations.
Jim is a self-made success story, who turned his first job at a hazardous waste facility into a group of four oil field services companies that offer services ranging from consulting and transportation to industrial recycling.
A political outsider who had never run for political office, Jim is a solid conservative who won the Republican nomination by defeating the incumbent Railroad Commissioner with more than 55 percent of the vote in what one news service described as the biggest upset in modern-day Texas political history.
Jim and his family live on a ranch outside of Orange Grove, Texas. An avid Christian, Jim is a Lutheran and when possible attends many of the state’s Cowboy Churches, where his son Luke is a well-known speaker and preacher. Jim and his wife, Sherry, have five children.
As a high school student, Jim was in the national finals of the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA) before graduating from Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. He rode bulls for over 20 years and was a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA). He has also been involved in numerous civic activities including as a board member of C.A.S.A. (Court Appointed Special Advocate) of the Coastal Bend and the Robstown Area Development Commission.
A strong pro-business Texan, Jim is running because he believes that we need to restore integrity and trust in the Texas Railroad Commission. Even though he has never been involved in politics, Jim knows how to bring everyone to the table. Jim intends to include a multitude of stakeholders, from industry to consumers and the public sector in developing policies on the Commission. He believes that we need to build trust from the public and the industry the Railroad Commission serves and hopes to develop strong ethics rules for agency employees, get citizen and industry input for needed changes in the regulation of the energy sector and promote transparency on the Commission.
Jim believes that the Railroad Commission should continue to engage with the industry and the public to find solutions to problems that will make a difference not only for Texans but in Washington and across the world.
