Voice of the Conservative Vote: Dr. Mark Shelton

Dr. Mark Shelton is a candidate for Texas Senate District 10. Dr. Shelton was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives, District 97, in November 2008. HD 97 is located in southwest Tarrant County and includes Benbrook, Edgecliff Village, and southwest Fort Worth.

Shelton, one of only four physicians in the Texas Legislature, currently serves on the Committee on Appropriations, Public Education and has formerly served on the Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Shelton helped create a balanced budget without raising taxes, despite a record $27 billion shortfall. Shelton successfully fought to decrease prison health care spending, saving Texas taxpayers’ hundreds of millions of dollars.

While working to balance the budget, Shelton pushed to prioritize spending and voted to increase funding for border security and passed legislation protecting victims of human trafficking. A vocal opponent of Obamacare, Shelton filed legislation during the 82nd Legislative Session highlighting the unbearable cost of the Federal Health Care law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) to Texas taxpayers.

Shelton has consistently voted to lower taxes, decrease government spending, balance the state budget, and reject federal intervention in Texas law.

As a member of the Public Education Committee, Shelton passed legislation to remove unfunded state mandates from local school districts allowing local districts more flexibility to work with parents and teachers to craft education policy at the community level.

From 1988 until taking office in November 2008, Representative Shelton served as the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Program at Cook Children's Medical Center, where he was in charge of the Hospital Infection Control Program, the Pediatric AIDS Program, the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Program, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Consultation Service. He has also served as vice president of the Cook Children's Physician Network and as a board member of the Cook Children's System. He remains a full-time practicing physician at Cook Children's Hospital.

Shelton has also been active with the Boy Scouts of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Lena Pope Home, where he has served as president of the board.

Representative Shelton grew up in Arlington, Texas and is a graduate of Lamar High School. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Baylor University and went on to attend the Texas A&M University College of Medicine (now the Texas A&M Health Science Center), receiving his Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1983. He is double-boarded in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

Shelton has been married to his wife Mary Ann for 30 years, and they have four children: Richard, Andrew, Peter, and Betsy.

 

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