Barry Ashlin Williamson is an American attorney who served as a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 member of the Texas Railroad Commission from 1992-1999. Originally from Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Williamson defeated the appointed incumbent

Incumbent

The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

 Lena Guerrero

Lena Guerrero

Lena Guerrero Aguirre, known as Lena Guerrero , was the first woman and the first person of ethnic minority background to have served on the Texas Railroad Commission, an elected body which currently regulates the oil and natural gas industry. In 1992, her once promising political career ended over...

, a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 in 1992 to win a seat on the 3-member commission.

Williamson did not seek a second term on the Railroad Commission in 1998, but he instead ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general. He lost a runoff election to John Cornyn

John Cornyn

John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....

. A third candidate eliminated in the primary was Tom Pauken

Thomas Pauken

Thomas Weir Pauken is a Dallas, Texas, lawyer and author who served as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 1994–1997 during the transition period when the party leaped from minority to majority status in the state. A staunch conservative, Pauken lost two tight races for U.S...

, the former state party chairman. Cornyn then defeated the Democratic former attorney general Jim Mattox

Jim Mattox

James Albon Mattox was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general...

 in the 1998 general election.

In 2010, Williamson was appointed campaign manager for Republican Railroad Commission nominee David J. Porter

David J. Porter

David Jerome Porter , a Certified Public Accountant, is a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. Formerly in a private CPA practice in Midland in Midland County, Porter has since relocated to Giddings in Lee County, Texas.-Background:...

, a Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

 from Midland

Midland, Texas

Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

 and Giddings

Giddings, Texas

Giddings is the county seat of Lee County, Texas, United States situated on the intersection of U.S. Highways 77 and 290, east of Austin. Its population was 5,105 at the 2000 census. The city's motto is "Giddings Texas: Experience Hometown Hospitality"....

, who upset incumbent Victor G. Carrillo

Victor G. Carrillo

Victor G. Carrillo is the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, a petroleum, natural gas, and pipeline regulatory body on which he has served since his initial appointment in February 2003 by Governor Rick Perry...

 of Abilene

Abilene, Texas

Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in west central Texas. The population was 117,063 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2006 estimated population of 158,063. It is the county seat of Taylor County...

, Texas, in the party primary. Porter faces the Democrat Jeff Weems in the November 2010 general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

. Williamson is also a former resident of Midland as well as Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Texas.