Ralph Hall: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Ralph Hall (b. May 3, 1923) is a United States Representative from the Fourth Congressional District in Texas. First elected in 1980, Hall is a senior member of the Committee on Science and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

In January 2004, Hall announced his intention to switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Hall has always been very conservative, crossing party lines on votes and even endorsing George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2000, so this move comes as no surprise to many observers.

Hall's switch has been anticipated ever since the Republican takeover of the House in 1994; he had long been one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and had even endorsed George W. Bush for president over his own party's nominee Albert A. Gore Jr. However, Hall insisted he would stay in the Democratic party so long as it did not hurt his constituents.

In 2004, U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House appropriations Committee decided that no congressional districts represented by Democrats in the House would benefit from the next year's congressional appropriations. At that point, Hall decided it was time to switch.

Regula "wouldn't give me what I was entitled to simply because I was a Democrat," Hall said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I've always said that if being a Democrat hurt my district I would switch or I would resign." Hall said that his district had been denied appropriations by the Republican leadership and "the only reason I was given was I was a Democrat."

References

• Official homepage
• CNN story on party switch
• [Reuters story on party switch (through Al Jazeerah)