Editing Phil Gramm (section)

===United States House of Representatives===
[[1976 United States Senate election in Texas|In 1976]], Gramm unsuccessfully challenged Texas Democratic Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]], in the party's senatorial primary. Then in 1978 Gramm successfully ran as a Democrat for Representative from [[Texas's 6th congressional district]], which stretched from the [[Fort Worth]] suburbs to [[College Station, Texas|College Station]]. He was reelected to his House seat as a Democrat in 1980.

Gramm's voting record was very conservative, even by Texas Democratic standards of the time. During his first four terms, he tallied an average rating of 89 from the [[American Conservative Union]], and from 1980 to 1982 he garnered the highest rating from that body of any Democrat in the Texas delegation.<ref>[http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1979/hse_rite.html 1979 American Conservative Union House ratings, Rhode Island-Texas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204054125/http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1979/hse_rite.html |date=February 4, 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1980/hse_rite.html 1980 American Conservative Union House ratings, Rhode Island-Texas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203233710/http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1980/hse_rite.html |date=February 3, 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1981/hse_rite.html 1981 American Conservative Union House ratings, Rhode Island-Texas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203233447/http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1981/hse_rite.html |date=February 3, 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1982/hse_rite.html 1982 American Conservative Union House ratings, Rhode Island-Texas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203231156/http://www.conservative.org/ratingsarchive/uscongress/1982/hse_rite.html |date=February 3, 2014 }}</ref> In 1981, he co-sponsored the [[Gramm-Latta Budget]] which implemented President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s economic program, increased [[military spending]], cut other spending, and mandated the [[Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981]] (the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut).{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Just days after being reelected in 1982, Gramm was thrown off the [[United States House Committee on the Budget|House Budget Committee]]. In response, Gramm resigned his House seat on January 5, 1983. He then [[party switching|ran as a Republican]] for his own vacancy in a [[1983 Texas's 6th congressional district special election|February 12, 1983 special election]], and won easily. One of his many special election opponents was the second-place finisher by only 115 votes in his 1978 [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] primary, the then newly elected State Senator [[Chet Edwards]] of [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], and later [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] for the [[Texas's 11th congressional district|11th]] and the [[Texas's 17th congressional district|17th]] congressional districts of Texas (January 3, 1991 – January 3, 2011). Another special election opponent was Texas [[Texas House of Representatives|State Representative]] [[Dan Kubiak]] of [[Rockdale, Texas]]. Gramm became the first Republican to represent the district since its creation in 1846.

After he left the House, the seat was retained for the Republican Party by [[Joe Barton]].