James Lloyd Keffer (born January 20, 1953) is a businessman from

Eastland SS ''Eastland'' was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915, the ship capsized while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. In total, 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a s ...

, Texas, who is a former Republican member of 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 ...

from District 60, which includes Eastland County located east of Abilene, as well as

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

, Callahan,

Coleman Coleman may refer to: Places Antarctica * Coleman Glacier (Antarctica) * Coleman Peak, Ross Island Canada * Coleman, Alberta * Coleman, Ontario * Coleman, Prince Edward Island United Kingdom * Coleman, Leicester, England United States * C ...

, Shackelford,

Stephens Stephens is a surname. It is a patronymic and is recorded in England from 1086. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander H. Stephens (1812–1883), Vice President of the Confederate States *Alison Stephens (1970–2010), British mandoli ...

Palo Pinto, and

Hood Hood may refer to: Covering Apparel * Hood (headgear), type of head covering ** Article of academic dress ** Bondage hood, sex toy * Hoodie, hooded sweatshirt Anatomy * Clitoral hood, a hood of skin surrounding the clitoris * Hood, a flap of ...

counties.

Biography

Keffer was born in

San Angelo San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin (North America), Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert ...

in Tom Green 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 ...

. A lifelong Republican, Keffer is a former Eastland County GOP chairman. A graduate of

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

Lubbock Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

, Keffer is president of EBAA Iron Sales in Eastland. Keffer previously served as chairman of the House Ways and Means and Economic Development Committee. Keffer was initially elected to the Texas House in 1996, when he narrowly unseated the Democratic incumbent John R. Cook, 21,922 (50.6 percent) to 21,409 (49.4 percent). In 2010, he co-founded the "Debt Busters Program" for the

Texas Republican Party The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the Texas affiliate of the Republican Party in the United States. It is currently chaired by Abraham George, who succeeded Matt Rinaldi in 2024. The party is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and is legall ...

, an endeavor that brought solvency to party coffers under the administration of

GOP The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a right-wing political party in the United States. One of the two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the tw ...

state chairman Steve Munisteri. A group called the Texas Conservative Roundtable's grading system dubbed him a "Lone Star Conservative Leader" in 2012 because of his pro-business voting record. Keffer was reelected without opposition to a ninth House term in the general election held on November 6, 2012. As of 2013, he was the chairman of the House Committee on Energy Resources and a member of the Natural Resources and Redistricting committees. In the Republican primary on March 4, 2014, Keffer won re-nomination with 14,160 votes (56.3 percent) against his lone opponent, Cullen Crisp, who received 10,992 votes (43.7 percent). Keffer's younger brother, William R. "Bill" Keffer, a

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

lawyer who was born in Upton County in 1958, was from 2003 to 2007 a member of the Texas House from District 107 in the

Lake Highlands Lake Highlands is a neighborhood constituting most of Northeast Dallas. The neighborhood is a collection of dozens of subdivisions served by Richardson ISD and Dallas ISD public schools, as well as an array of private schools. Geography Overvie ...

section of northern Dallas County. Bill Keffer lost a Republican

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

in District 114 on July 31, 2012, to

Jason Villalba Jason Villalba (born March 26, 1971) is an American politician and attorney who is a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 114 in Dallas County. He works for the law firm Frost Brown Todd. Villalba was d ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keffer, Jim 1953 births Living people Republican Party members of the Texas House of Representatives People from San Angelo, Texas People from Eastland, Texas Texas Tech University alumni Businesspeople from Texas Baptists from Texas 21st-century members of the Texas Legislature