Four Price

Walter Thomas "Four" Price, IV
Texas State Representative for District 87 (Carson, Potter, Moore, and Sherman counties)
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 2010
Preceded by	David Swinford
Born	October 8, 1967 Amarillo, Texas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Karen Diane Mayfield Price
Children	Brooke, Cody, Abby, and Curry Price
Alma mater	Tascosa High School University of Texas at Austin St. Mary's University School of Law
Religion	Presbyterian

Walter Thomas Price, IV (born October 8, 1967), known as Four Price because he is the fourth generation in his family to bear the name Walter Thomas Price, is an attorney from Amarillo, Texas, who has been since November 2010 a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives. He holds the District 87 seat, which was vacated on August 31, 2010, by the retirement of fellow Republican Representative David Swinford of Dumas in Moore County north of Amarillo.

Background

Price graduated from Tascosa High School in Amarillo and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctor from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. He and his wife, the former Karen Diane Mayfield (born Novemvber 15, 1963), have four children, Brooke, Cody, Abby, and Curry, ranging in ages (as of 2012) from twenty-one to thirteen, respectively.Price advocates the placing of government "on a diet. It doesn't tax too little -- it just spends too much." If elected, he vows to bring the "voice of the Panhandle" to state government. His familial roots in the Texas Panhandle date to 1917, when his maternal great-grandfather, Jesse Benjamin Latham, settled his young family in Carson County before relocating to Amarillo.Price practices business and probate law with the Amarillo firm Irwin, Merritt, Hogue, Price & Carthel, P.C. He previously practiced with Mullin, Hoard & Brown LLP in Amarillo and with Fulbright & Jaworski in San Antonio Price is a director of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, president of the Amarillo Area Bar Association, and a director of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch Foundation. He is a member and former deacon of the First Presbyterian Church of Amarillo. A former director of the Don and Sybil Harrington Cancer Center, he is also a life member of the University of Texas Ex-Students Association. Price is an avid outdoorsman.

Election history

District 87 encompasses part of Potter as well as Carson, Sherman, and Moore counties. Campaigning for the March 2 primary, Price ran what he called "grass-roots efforts, we knocked on a lot of doors and focused on what is important to the people." Price defeated Victor E. Leal (born March 22, 1962), an Amarillo/Canyon businessman who owns Leal's Mexican Restaurants. Leal was an appointee of Governor Rick Perry to the Texas Economic Development Corporation and formerly served as the mayor of Muleshoe in Bailey County, where the restaurant chain was originated by his father, the late Jesse Leal. In the primary, Price received 6,355 votes (55.2 percent) to Leal's 5,166 (44.8 percent).

There were questions about Leal's residency, but the restauranteur carried the support of retiring Representative Swinford and former U.S. Representative Larry Combest. Leal said that the legislature needed more businesspeople like himself, instead of more lawyers like Price. However, Price retorted, "To say there's too many lawyers in the legislature is like saying there's too many doctors in a hospital."

In the general election held on November 2, 2010, Price handily defeated the Democrat Abel G. Bosquez, 16,978 votes (77.3 percent) to 4,145 (18.9 percent). The remaining 3.8 percent of the ballots went to the Libertarian James Hudspeth of Dumas. Bosquez (born September 13, 1958) is a technician for Pantex, who had been unopposed for his party's nomination. In the primary election, Bosquez received 881 votes, whereas the Republican primary turnout was 11,521 ballots. Price serves with Republican colleague Representative John T. Smithee, also of Amarillo, who visited Price's home on the night of the primary election to offer support in the general election. "We had two outstanding candidates in this race, and I think either one of them would have done a super job. And you know Four has a good temperament and he has a hard work ethic, and he's really as honest as you can be."

After losing the primary, Leal endorsed Price in the fall campaign. Price also won the special election held simultaneously with the general election for the remaining weeks in Swinford's term. In September 2011, Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio appointed Price to the Energy Council, a legislative body of members from eleven states, five Canadian provinces, and Venezuela. The council discusses energy policies and exchanges ideas regarding energy production.

As a legislator

Price is a House supporter of a proposed veterinary school in Amarillo advanced by the former Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert Duncan. When Duncan announced his sudden retirement, speculation persisted that opposition to the proposed school by Texas A&M University in College Station was the chief factor involved in a 5-4 "No confidence" vote against Duncan, which was taken by the regents in a discussion about the future of Texas Tech. Price said that he would support an investigation into Duncan's retirement if any misconduct surfaces: "It may be a little premature to speculate this afternoon, or to say a full-blown committee investigation is warranted. I think we still don’t know."

In September 2018, Price, running unopposed for his fifth legislative term, announced that he will contest the House Speaker's position in 2019, as the 150 members elected on November 6 choose a successor to the retiring Joe Straus. The new state House will have eighty-three Republican members. A combination of Democrats and moderate Republicans can continue the inter-party control over the House that dates back to the beginning of Straus' speakership.