[3] Armey was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1984 in Texas's 26th congressional district, narrowly defeating freshman congressman Tom Vandergriff.

[4] His strongest performance was in 1998, when the Democrats didn't field a candidate and Armey defeated a Libertarian with 88 percent of the vote.

In his early years in Congress, Armey was influenced by Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises.

[6] In 1994, Armey, then House Republican Conference Chairman, joined Minority Whip Newt Gingrich in drafting the Contract with America.

Gingrich delegated to Armey an unprecedented level of authority over scheduling legislation on the House floor, a power traditionally reserved to the Speaker.

Frank did not accept Armey's explanation, saying, "I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag.

Armey had to defeat a challenge for his majority leader post from Steve Largent of Oklahoma, a member of the Republican class of 1994.

[14] Gingrich had already resigned as Speaker in the aftermath of the 1998 election, with Bob Livingston of Louisiana chosen by the party to serve as his replacement.

[18] In 2009, Armey's FreedomWorks group launched a campaign against health care reform proposals, accusing the Obama administration of attempting to "socialize medicine".

[19] DLA Piper was concerned about the conflict of interest, particularly since their clients were spending millions in advertising and lobbying money to support the passage of health care reform, and FreedomWorks was linked to demonstrations at town hall forums where health care reform was being discussed.

[20] Amid what Politico called "the health care flap", DLA Piper asked Armey to resign in August 2009, and he left the firm.

[citation needed] The Center for Public Integrity reported that Armey was paid $500,000 per year and flew first class, along with other FreedomWorks employees, for work travel.

The Associated Press reported that in September 2012, Armey agreed to resign by November 2012 in exchange for $8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $400,000 installments.

Armey reportedly wanted FreedomWorks to support Todd Akin after his controversial "legitimate rape" comments.

[26] As a free-market economist influenced by the ideas of Milton Friedman, Armey favored relatively open immigration and advocated for free trade.

After his retirement from Congress, he told The New York Times: "A lot of people say if you cut defense, you're demonstrating less than a full commitment to our nation's security, and that's baloney.

He also voiced public opposition to the individual mandate when it was proposed by First Lady Hillary Clinton during the contentious national health care reform debate of 1993 and 1994.

Armey said that the intelligence presented to him in support of the war appeared questionable, but he gave Bush the benefit of the doubt.

"[28] Robert Draper's Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush recounts a conversation in late summer 2002 between Armey and Cheney.

Armey insisted that American forces would get "mired down" in Iraq if they invaded, but Cheney offered this assurance: "They're going to welcome us.