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Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and U.S. Rep.-elect Craig Goldman in the Texas House chambers.
In January, Craig Goldman will take his place in the U.S. House of Representatives, joining the legislative body that serves as the voice of the American people.
Goldman will go to the “People’s Chamber” in Washington among the rookie class of the institution’s 435 members and as part of a Republican majority.
One of his first duties upon being sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025, mostly will be ceremonial. On Jan. 6, a joint session will receive and count the votes of the Electoral College, making official the election of Donald Trump as the 47th president.
It is expected to go off without the tongue-wagging theater of, ahem, native sons and stunt performers who interrupted the proceedings the last time Congress took up certification.
Yet, given all the pressing national concerns, not to mention all the dysfunction and volatility that permeate the federal capital, Goldman might do well to follow the counsel of Sam Houston, Texas patron saint, who told his men as they crossed the Buffalo Bayou into the San Jacinto prairie: “Trust in the God of the just and fear not.”
Goldman is also following in the footsteps of giants in the U.S. House from Texas’ District 12, including his immediate predecessor Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas elected to Congress in 1997. Granger is the longest-serving member of the Texas delegation and rose to become the first Republican woman to chair the powerful Appropriations Committee.
“Ross Perot Jr. said it best,” Goldman said, “‘Kay Granger is a living legend.’”
Goldman, who won the seat by defeating Democrat Trey Hunt on Nov. 5 on pro-defense, pro-business dogma, is taking the same path to Washington that many have — through the Texas state House. He won the seat to represent District 97 in 2012. His leadership roles in the chamber included majority leader.
John Nance Garner and Sam Rayburn both arrived in Washington by way of the House in Austin.
Goldman’s only real obstacle to the coveted seat in Washington representing a weighted Republican District 12 was a primary runoff against John O’Shea, who took aim from the far right and a more curious angle of term limits which are at odds with history.
Congressional tenure has been a very good friend to Fort Worth.
Goldman will be the sixth person to represent District 12 in more than 100 years, beginning with Fritz Lanham, who won a special election to succeed James C. Wilson, appointed by President Wilson to the federal bench.
Lanham served from 1919-47. He was dubbed the “father of Fort Worth’s helium plant” for his work in securing for Fort Worth the nation’s only helium producing plant in the 1920s. The federal building downtown is named in Lanham’s honor.
Jim Wright won election in 1954, upsetting Wingate Lucas, Amon Carter’s “private errand boy congressman,” as Wright described him in a public spat with the newspaper publisher. Wright would eventually rise to Speaker of the House in a 34-plus year career that brought bountiful blessings to Fort Worth industries.
Pete Geren, as Granger’s immediate predecessor, held the seat from 1989-97.
Rather than try to score points with the fringes with populist demagoguery, representatives of District 12 have established a tradition of getting things done for Texas and Fort Worth.
In a speech to the Texas Legislature in the early 1980s, Wright gave some insight into how that happened. It’s in traditional Texas values and virtues, he said, that the Texas delegation was so profoundly effective.
It started, the then-future speaker said, with a time-honored “Texas tradition to place patriotism above partisanship.” He followed by speaking of the Texas virtue of the good of one’s word. Trust.
Thirdly, an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality, which makes “your Texas congressional delegation” the strongest and most effective in Congress.
We don’t always agree on issues, he said, but we do agree on an overriding principal: When a member of the Texas delegation needs help with a project that is vital to his or her district, he has friends.
“And when a matter of policy arises which is clearly in the interest of our state, it has the enthusiastic and undivided backing of the entire delegation.”
Lastly, was a spirit of noblesse oblige, the responsibility of the privileged to act with generosity toward those less fortunate. Such was the example of Sam Houston, Wright said, who gave his enemy, Santa Anna, a reprieve of his life at San Jacinto. There, of course, were also very practical reasons for doing so other than charity.
All of that sounds like a good foundation for beginning what could be another long District 12 career.
Nonetheless, considering the times, Goldman would be wise to follow Houston’s advice about trusting in the God of the just and fearing not.
Just to cover all his bases.