U.S. Representative from TexasFor the ice hockey player, see Pat Falloon.

Patrick Edward Fallon (born December 19, 1967) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he has been the U.S. representative for Texas's 4th congressional district since 2021. He served the 30th district of the Texas Senate from 2019 to 2021. Fallon has also been a member of the Texas House of Representatives for the 106th district.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Politics
  • 2.2 Legislative positions
  • 2.3 Comments on the LGBTQ community
  • 2.4 Interest group ratings
• 3 U.S. House of Representatives
  • 3.1 Elections
    • 3.1.1 2020
  • 3.2 Tenure
  • 3.3 Committee *ignments
  • 3.4 Caucus memberships
• 4 Personal life
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early life and education

Fallon was born in Pittsfield, M*achusetts. Both his parents were public school teachers, and he was raised in rural areas.

Fallon earned his bachelor's degree in government and international relations from the University of Notre Dame, where he played varsity football under coach Lou Holtz and was part of the 1988 national championship team. He ran a t-shirt business as a student and participated in campus political activities. He was a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps of the United States Air Force before serving for four years, during which he received the Air Force Achievement Medal.

Career

After college, Fallon relocated to Denton County, Texas, in the early 1990s. He is the president and chief executive officer of Virtus Apparel, a company that specializes in clothing of military and patriotic design. Based in Prosper, Texas, it has a dozen national locations and about 100 total employees.

Politics

In 2009, Fallon launched a gr*roots campaign that netted him 57% of the vote to defeat three opponents for an at-large seat on the Frisco City Council. In the Denton County portion of Frisco, which consists of about one-third of the voters in House District 106, Fallon polled 65% of the vote. In his first year on the city council, Fallon voted against a tax rate increase. In 2010, he voted against a city budget that would have increased the municipal debt. In May 2011, his council colleagues selected him to serve as mayor pro tem.

According to D Magazine, in 2012, Fallon falsified his residency, not living in the district he represented. That same year, Fallon won the Republican nomination in the reconfigured District 106, in which in*bent Republican Rodney Anderson of Grand Prairie did not run. Instead, Anderson unseated in*bent Republican Linda Harper-Brown in the 2014 primary election in neighboring District 105. Fallon won the general election on November 6, 2012, with 41,785 votes (83.2%) to Libertarian Party nominee Rodney Caston's 8,455 (16.8%). Fallon faced no Democratic Party opponent in the election.

Fallon co-aut*d a 2013 Texas law that allows students and employees of independent school districts to say "Merry Christmas" rather than the secular "Happy Holidays".

Fallon ran unopposed for the Republican nomination in 2014 and defeated Democrat Lisa Osterholt and Libertarian Rodney Caston in the general election with 24,419 votes, almost 70% of the total. In the 2016 Republican primary, Fallon defeated challenger Trent Trubenbach with 16,106 votes (82.9%) to Tubenbach's 3,327 (17.1%). He won the general election with 80.8% of the vote.

In July 2017, Fallon announced that he would challenge in*bent state Senator Craig Estes for the Republican nomination in Senate District 30. Fallon defeated Estes and Nocona businessman Craig Carter in the primary on March 6, 2018, with 53,881 votes (62%). In the November 6 general election, Fallon defeated Democratic nominee Kevin Lopez with 233,949 votes (73.9%) to Lopez's 82,449 (26.1%). Fallon served on the House committees on Human Services and Technology.

Legislative positions

Fallon defended his "Merry Christmas" law in an appearance on David Barton's WallBuilders Live radio program, telling co-host Rick Green, a former member of the Texas House from Hays County in suburban Austin, that those offended by public schools hosting Christmas parties should examine their own hearts to evaluate their at*udes. Both Fallon and Green said that no citizen has a cons*utional right "not to be offended". Fallon vowed to make T-shirts with a Christmas theme for pupils to wear on the day before the holiday break.

In 2013 Fallon supported Texas House Bill 2, a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of gestation and require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The measure p*ed the House, 96–49. These issues brought forth an unsuccessful filibuster in the Texas State Senate by Senator Wendy R. Davis. Parts of the bill were later deemed uncons*utional and struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. The Texas Right to Life Committee rated Fallon 100% favorable.

Fallon opposed the bill to establish a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools; the measure p*ed the House, 73–58. He co-sponsored legislation to provide marshals for school security as a separate law-enforcement en*y. He co-sponsored the successful bill to extend the franchise tax exemption to certain small businesses. He voted to require testing for narcotics of those individuals receiving unemployment compensation.

Fallon co-sponsored the measure to forbid the state from engaging in the enforcement of federal regulations of firearms. He co-sponsored legislation to allow college and university officials to carry concealed weapons on campus and in vehicles in the name of security. He voted to reduce the time required to obtain a concealed-carry permit. Fallon voted for term limits for certain state officials. To protect election integrity, Fallon supported legislation to forbid an individual from turning in multiple ballots.

Comments on the LGBTQ community

In 2018, Fallon was criticized for his remarks about State Representative Mary González, an openly pansexual woman, while delivering a speech to the local Wichita County Republican Women's group. The El Paso Times quoted Fallon:

"You can’t be gay anymore. It’s like the whole alphabet soup now — lesbian, transgender, bisexual, questioning. There’s something called pansexual."

Fallon later apologized, saying, "It was an innocent little comment about mocking the labeling, not a person."

Interest group ratings

In 2015 Fallon was named one of "The 3 Worst North Texas Legislators" by D Magazine, which wrote, "Fallon has a lawyerlike relationship with the truth" and was "vindictive, and he’ll say anything to get what he wants".

By contrast, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party and a Fallon supporter, rated Fallon 95%. The Young Conservatives of Texas scored him 92%. The Texas League of Conservation Voters rated him 25%; Environment Texas, 28%. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility rated Fallon 98%; the Texas *ociation of Business, 80%. The National Rifle *ociation rated him 92%.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2020

Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas §:District 4

In May 2020, Fallon launched a campaign for Texas's 4th congressional district to replace former U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe, who resigned to become Director of National Intelligence. On August 8, 2020, Fallon was selected to replace Ratcliffe on the November ballot by the 18 county Republican Party chairs and precinct chairs in the district, winning the nomination with 82 votes to his nearest opponent's 34. Fallon faced Democrat Russell Foster in the November general election. According to The Texas Tribune, the district was so heavily Republican that the county Republican chairs effectively chose Ratcliffe's successor when they chose Fallon to replace him as the Republican nominee.

As expected, Fallon won the general election in a landslide, with 75% of the vote to Foster's 22%. When he took office, he was only the sixth person to represent this district since its creation in 1903.

Tenure

On January 6, 2021, the same day as the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Fallon, along with 147 of his fellow congressional Republicans, voted to block certification of the results for President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 victory, as part of the Trump-led effort to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election.

Fallon voted to include provisions for drafting women in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022.

Committee *ignments

• Committee on Armed Services

Caucus memberships

• Republican Study Committee

Personal life

Fallon is married to Susan Kimberly Garner; they have two sons.

During his tenure in the state senate, Fallon lived in the Denton County portion of Prosper, which was just outside the 4th's boundaries. While candidates for the House are only cons*utionally required to live in the state they wish to represent, longstanding convention holds that they live either in or reasonably close to the district they wish to represent. His state senate district included much of the eastern portion of the congressional district. Since his election to Congress, Fallon has claimed a home in Sherman, which is firmly inside the 4th, as his official residence.

Fallon is a member of Holy Cross Catholic Church in The Colony. He is a donor to Dallas Baptist University, Frisco Family Services, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

References

External links

• Representative Pat Fallon official U.S. House website
• Pat Fallon for Congress
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN

Minority

• 117th United States Congress
• List of acts of the 117th United States Congress

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