Stuart Spitzer

Stuart Keith Spitzer, M.D.
Texas State Representative for District 4 (Kaufman and Henderson counties)
In office January 13, 2015 – January 10, 2017
Preceded by	Lance Gooden
Succeeded by	Lance Gooden
Born	Sepember 11, 1967 Athens, Henderson County Texas, USA
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Shari Jo Knight Spitzer
Children	Lilly and Luke Spitzer
Residence	Kaufman, Texas
Alma mater	Athens High School Trinity Valley Community College Baylor University University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Occupation	Surgeon
Religion	Christian

Stuart Keith Spitzer (born September 11, 1967) is a general surgeon from Kaufman, Texas, who served a single two-year term from 2015 to 2017 as a Republican state representative for District 4, which encompasses Kaufman and Henderson counties^[1] east of Dallas.

Background[edit]

Spitzer was born and reared in Athens in Henderson County in East Texas, where his parents still reside. Spitzer recalls as a youth having mowed baseball fields in the day and umpiring softball games at night. He helped a grandfather to plow cotton fields and hunted and fished on a family ranch in Central Texas. "From this upbringing, I learned respect for God, the outdoors, others, and a hard day's work," he said.^[2]

Spitzer graduated from Athens High School and Trinity Valley Community College in Athens. He then obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and his M.D. degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

Spitzer and his wife, the former Shari Jo Knight (born 1969), have two children, Lilly and Luke.^[2].

Political life[edit]

In 2012, Spitzer ran for the House but lost the party nomination to the then incumbent Lance Gooden. Spitzer polled 5,545 votes (46.5 percent) to Gooden's 6,385 votes (53.5 percent).^[3] Gooden was then unopposed in the November 6, 2012 general election for his second term as a state representative.

In his second bid for the office on March 4, 2014, Dr. Spitzer unseated Gooden in the Republican primary. Spitzer polled 8,421 votes (51 percent) to Gooden's 8,079 (49 percent).^[4] Then Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio made a campaign stop for Gooden's behalf in Forney in Kaufman County, a month before the primary election. Accompanying Straus to Forney was state Senator Bob Deuell, a pediatrician from Greenville] in Hunt County.^[5] A few weeks later Duell was himself unseated in the May 27 runoff election by the Tea Party movement choice, Bob Hall of Van Zandt County.

Spitzer lost a rematch with Lance Gooden in the Republican primary on March 1, 2016.^[6] Gooden polled 14,500 votes (51.8 percent) to Spitzer's 13,502 (48.2 percent).^[7] Despite his previous association with Moderate Republicans such as Joe Straus, Gooden is also a staunch supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Gooden was elected for his second term to the District 5 seat in the United States House of Representatives on November 3, 2020.

Spitzer successfully sponsored a budget amendment in 2015 that removed $3 million from the state's HIV prevention services to provide funds for the teaching of abstinence-only education. Spitzer cited his Christian belief in abstinence from sexual activity until marriage. During floor debate in the Texas House of Representatives, Spitzer said that he was abstinent until marriage at the age of twenty-nine, and he considers abstinence the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STD infections.^[8][9]

References[edit]