DeLay, Tom (1947– )

US Republican politician, House of Representatives majority leader 2003–06. A member of the House from 1984, representing a seat in Texas. Nicknamed ‘the hammer’ for his enforcement of party discipline, he became Republican majority whip from 1995, after the party's electoral victory in 1994. He helped Newt Gingrich deliver his ‘Republican Revolution’ policies and drove forward the impeachment of president Bill Clinton in 1998. After the Republicans' mid-term victory in the 2002 House elections, he became Republican majority leader in 2003. Despite small majorities, he was effective in organizing the Republican forces in the House to deliver victories for the right-wing tax-cutting agenda of the President George W Bush administration. He resigned as majority leader in 2006 and did not contest the 2006 elections after facing criminal charges, which he denied, that he had violated campaign finance laws.

Born in Laredo, Texas, DeLay lived for several years during his childhood in Venezuela, where his father worked in the oil industry. He studied biology at the University of Houston, Texas, and subsequently started his own small and successful business, in pest control. He entered local politics in 1978, being elected to the Texas legislature. After a struggle with alcohol, he became a born-again Christian in 1985.