William Roark Ratliff (born August 16, 1936) is an American politician and engineer who served as a member of the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives functioning as the lower house. Together, they form the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the state of Texas. The Senate ...

from 1988 to 2004.Bill Ratliff
, Texas State Politics, University of Texas Between 2000 and 2003 he served as the 40th

lieutenant governor of Texas The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive officer, executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the United States, U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the wor ...

, after the previous Lieutenant Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 in the first administration of Donald Trump. He previously served as the 47th governor of Texas fr ...

replaced

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

, who resigned to become

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Early life and education

Ratliff was educated at

Sonora High School Sonora High School may refer to; * Sonora High School (La Habra, California), La Habra, California * Sonora High School (Texas), Sonora, Texas * Sonora Union High School, Sonora, California {{schooldis ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

in Sutton County in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the desert climate, arid and semiarid climate, semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Texa ...

and then at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

. Ratliff, along with brothers Shannon and Jack, was a member of the

Phi Gamma Delta Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Phi Gam and sometimes written as FIJI, is a North American social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania ...

fraternity.

Career

Ratliff worked as a civil engineer for thirty years.

Texas Senate

He was first elected in 1988 as a Republican to the

. In 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Senate Education Committee by Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock. From 1997 to 1998, he served as President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate. Ratliff and his wife, the former Sally Sandlin, have three children and eight grandchildren. Son

Bennett Ratliff Bennett Ratliff (born August 18, 1961) is an American civil engineer, businessman, and politician who served as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from district 115 in Dallas County and currently serves as Chairman of the ...

of Coppell, a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, served nine years as a Coppell ISD School Board Trustee and was elected in 2012 to represent District 115 in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. There are no Term limits in the United States, term limits. The ...

. Another son, Robert Thomas Ratliff (born 1967) of Mt. Pleasant, is the Republican Vice-Chairman of the

Texas State Board of Education The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

. Ratliff announced in 2003 that he would not run for reelection to the State Senate in 2004. Instead, he soon resigned the Senate seat and was succeeded in a special election by Republican Kevin Eltife of Tyler. In 2005, Ratliff was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for "the example he has set of courage and principle in American public life".Bill Ratliff
John F. Kennedy Library Foundation

Lieutenant governor

In 2000, for the first time in Texas history, the

was called upon to choose a new

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

after the election of

as President of the United States and the resultant succession of lieutenant governor

to become

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

. In accordance with a 1984 amendment to the

Texas Constitution The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that establishes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Texas and enumerates the basic rights of its citizens. The current document was adopted on February 15, 187 ...

of 1876, the Texas Senate chooses one of its own members to fill a vacancy in the position of lieutenant governor. In the election for lieutenant governor, Ratliff defeated rival David Sibley of

Waco Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 population of 146,608, making i ...

. In 2001, Ratliff first announced that he would be a candidate for election to a full four-year term to the office of lieutenant governor in the 2002 state elections, and he received the endorsement of several prominent Republican legislators.Prominent Texas Republican Senators and House Members Support Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff as He Announces Plans to Run
''Business Wire'', May 26, 2001 However, he later withdrew from the race, and the position went to David Dewhurst, the Texas land commissioner.

Political views

Ratliff is regarded as a

moderate Moderate is an ideological category which entails centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. Political position Canad ...

. He stated in an interview, "I am a Republican because I agree with the Republicans at least 51 percent of the time." He has taken

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing Political party, politica ...

stands on a number of issues. While in the Texas Senate, he supported controversial reforms that transferred funds from richer to poorer school districts for more equitable funding. He also argued in favor of "patients' rights" in medical malpractice cases during a debate on tort reform, and in 2003 criticized other members of the State Senate for failing to raise taxes in order to prevent large budget cuts. In early 2003, Ratliff was the only dissenting member of his party who joined with Democratic state senators in opposing a redistricting proposal of Texas's then thirty-two seats in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

that he felt would lead to the under-representation of rural voters. In cooperation with ten Democrats, he signed a letter refusing to bring the matter to the Senate floor, which, by virtue of Texas Senate traditions that require a two-thirds vote of those present and voting to allow a bill to be debated, prevented the proposal from being passed. Eventually a plan suitable to Republicans was enacted in the third of three special legislative sessions called in 2003 by Governor Perry. Under that plan, by 2011, Republicans held twenty-three U.S. House seats from Texas compared to nine for Democrats.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratliff, Bill 1936 births Living people 21st-century American engineers Lieutenant governors of Texas Republican Party Texas state senators Cockrell School of Engineering alumni Texas Republicans People from Sutton County, Texas People from Mount Pleasant, Texas 21st-century members of the Texas Legislature 20th-century members of the Texas Legislature