AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A West Texas congressional district sprawls 58,000-plus square miles and two time zones, from San Antonio to just outside El Paso. Yet neither the Republican who represents it nor the Democrat trying to reclaim the seat actually lives there.
The home of first-term Republican Rep. Will Hurd, 39, is in the San Antonio suburb of Helotes, just outside the borders of a district that is larger in land area than 29 states.
The challenger, former Rep. Pete Gallego, lists his official address as the remote town of Alpine inside the district. One of the properties his family owns there – a boarded up home and former cafe site – was recently slapped with a sign declaring it a “dangerous” violation of Alpine safety codes. Gallego has declined to say if he lives at one of the others.
Gallego, 54, keeps a San Antonio apartment that’s his base while campaigning, while his wife, Maria Elena Ramon, and 11-year-old son Nicolas live 80 miles north of San Antonio in Austin. Contracts show Gallego worked as a city lobbyist there as recently as the summer of 2015.
Federal candidates aren’t required to live in the district where they run for office, and districts represented by members of Congress who reside elsewhere are fairly common throughout the country. But few districts nationwide are as large as the one Hurd and Gallego are contesting.