[5] The district's ultimate shift to the Republican Party in the 1980s has been attributed to the coattail effect of Ronald Reagan's electoral successes.

In "one of the stranger Congressional elections of modern times",[10] the incumbent Greg Laughlin switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican in 1995.

He had support from Republican leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor George W. Bush, as well as the National Rifle Association of America and other interest groups.

[11] Paul won the low-turnout primary runoff[13] with the assistance of a largely out-of-state free-market network of support, such as his Foundation for Rational Economics and Education and other market-oriented organizations.

[14] Charles "Lefty" Morris, a trial lawyer, was Paul's Democratic opponent in the fall election; he was strongly supported by the AFL–CIO and ran numerous attack ads.

[15] Paul's campaign responded at the time that voters might not understand the "tongue-in-cheek, academic" quotes out of context, and rejected Morris's demand to release back issues.

Paul's large contributor base outraised Morris two-to-one, giving him nearly $2 million,[13] the third-highest amount of individual contributions received by any House member (behind Gingrich and Bob Dornan).

The Democratic primary candidates included education professor Margaret Dunn; former congressional aide Roger Elliott; car dealer Tom Reed; and Bay City rice farmer and cattle rancher Loy Sneary.

Reed, who claimed to be the only Texas-born candidate in the race, had served in local economic development projects and had been appointed to the White House Conference on Small Business; he was endorsed by the AFL–CIO.

Sneary considered Paul's attack to consist of "half-truths and no truths", claims supported by Austin TV station KVUE;[17] his aides replied that he had actually voted to raise all county employees' pay by 5% in a "cost of living" increase.

Local Democratic consultant Ed Martin criticized Paul's frequent budget dissents as "180 degrees opposite from" his campaign promises to protect Social Security.

Peden, a certified public accountant, was elected to the Friendswood city council in 2005[28] with 67%, and was chosen as mayor pro tem.

[29] Paul had a larger national source of funding, while Peden raised more money from the district, the majority of which came from within his own family or loans to himself.

[38] Randy Weber ran for re-election in the 2014 general election, easily defeating his Democratic opponent Donald Brown.