Stan Gerdes (born January 23, 1986) is an American politician. He serves as a Republican member for the 17th district 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 ...

Life and career

Gerdes is a fifth-generation Texan who grew up in

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

, and graduated in 2008 from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a 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 students as of fall 2 ...

. By 2014, he was working in former Texas Governor Rick Perry's office, and then transitioned to director of scheduling for one of Perry's political action committees (PACs) and staff on Perry's 2016 campaign for the Republican nomination for president. In 2017, Gerdes was a senior advisor for the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

, serving under Rick Perry, who was the US Secretary of Energy from 2017–2019. In May 2021, Gerdes was elected to the Smithville City Council. In December 2021, he was a candidate in the Republican primary election for the 17th district of the

. In May 2022, Gerdes defeated Paul Pape in the Republican primary election. In August 2022, he filed a lawsuit to remove Linda Curtis from the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

ballot. His lawsuit was rejected by a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

. In November 2022, he defeated Madeline Eden and Curtis in the general election, winning 64 percent of the votes. He succeeded

John Cyrier John Patrick Cyrier (born May 4, 1973) is an American politician who served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 17th district. Cyrier was first elected in a 2015 special election. He made an unsuccessful bid to become Spe ...

. He assumed his office in 2023. In 2025, Gerdes sponsored legislation, the " FURRIES Act", to ban "non-human behavior" by students. When pressed, Gerdes could not find an example of such behavior happening.

References

1986 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) People from Smithville, Texas University of Texas at Austin alumni Republican Party members of the Texas House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Texas Legislature {{Texas-politician-stub