PERSON: Mac Thornberry

Council on Foreign Relations

Member

William McClellan “Mac” Thornberry (born July 15, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas’s 13th congressional district from 1995 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Thornberry represented the most Republican district in the United States by partisan voting index. The district covers the Texas Panhandle and stretched between the Oklahoma and New Mexico borders.

In September 2019, Thornberry announced that he would not run for reelection in 2020, and former Physician to the President Ronny Jackson was elected to succeed him.

In the 1880s, Thornberry’s great-great-grandfather Amos Thornberry, a Union Army veteran, moved to Clay County, just east of Wichita Falls.

Thornberry is a lifelong resident of Clarendon, 60 miles (97 km) east of Amarillo in the heart of the 13th. His family has operated a ranch in the area since 1881. He received his Bachelor of Arts in history from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He then obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.

He served as a staffer to two other Texas Republican congressmen, Tom Loeffler and Larry Combest, and as deputy assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs under Ronald Reagan before joining his brothers on the family ranch. Thornberry has called President Reagan “...a great man and a great president, ranking in the top tier of all of our chief executives.” He also practiced law in Amarillo. Thornberry is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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