Byron Curtis Cook is a rancher and business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

man from Corsicana

Corsicana, Texas

Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45 some fifty-five miles south of downtown Dallas. The population was 24,485 at the 2000 census...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, who is 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 House of Representatives

Texas House of Representatives

The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

 from District 8, which encompasses Anderson

Anderson County, Texas

Anderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 55,109. Its county seat is Palestine. Anderson county was organized in 1846, and is named in honor of Kenneth L. Anderson who had been Vice President of the Republic of Texas.-Geography:According to the...

, Freestone

Freestone County, Texas

Freestone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 17,867. Its county seat is Fairfield.-Geography:...

, Limestone

Limestone County, Texas

Limestone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 22,051. Its county seat is Groesbeck.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water....

, and Navarro counties.

Early life

Cook was born in 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...

 in Taylor County

Taylor County, Texas

As of the census of 2000, there were 126,555 people, 47,274 households, and 32,524 families residing in the county. The population density was 138 people per square mile . There were 52,056 housing units at an average density of 57 per square mile...

 to Leland Preston Cook, Sr. (1933–2009) and the former Sue Burton. He has three brothers, Robert, Kenneth, and Lance Cook. The family moved to Corsicana when Cook was thirteen.

Cook holds an associate's degree

Associate's degree

An associate degree is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges, and bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years...

 from Navarro College

Navarro College

Navarro College is a two-year public institution consisting of a main campus located in Corsicana, with branches in Mexia, Midlothian, and Waxahachie, Texas...

 in Corsicana, and the family is a benefactor of the Cook Center there. Leland Cook was the circulation manager of the Corsicana Daily Sun

Corsicana Daily Sun

The Corsicana Daily Sun is a morning daily newspaper published in Corsicana, Texas, covering Navarro County. In 2009 it dropped Saturday and Monday from its publication schedule and is now published five days a week. It is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.The newspaper's marketing slogan...

newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 and later ventured into entrepreneurial concerns, having established the family-owned Richland Ranch. In 1985, Leland, Byron along with California businessman, John Rowe launched the since defunct Tradewest

Tradewest

Tradewest is a now-defunct American video game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company is best known as the publisher of the Battletoads and Double Dragon series in North America and the PAL region.The Tradewest name was revived in...

, which licensed and marketed coin-operated video games, including Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game by SNK, published in the United States and Europe by Tradewest. Known simply as in Japan, this was SNK's first major breakthrough US release and became something of a classic. The game was released at the time when there were many Commando clones on the market...

. The video game character "Colonel Cook" is named for Leland Cook. An early licensee of Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

, Tradewest produced such classic hits as Double Dragon

Double Dragon

is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Kunio-kun series ....

, Super Off Road

Super Off Road

Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road is an arcade video game released in 1989 by Leland Corporation. Virgin Games produced several home versions in 1990...

, and Battletoads

Battletoads

Battletoads is a platformer video game created by Tim and Chris Stamper and developed by Rare. Starring three anthropomorphic toads named after skin conditions , the game was created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games....

. In the early 1990s, Leland Cook successfully engaged in thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

.

Political career

Cook was initially elected to the House in 2002 in the same election in which Rick Perry

Rick Perry

James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

 won his first elected term as governor of Texas

Governor of Texas

The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...

 and 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....

 prevailed in the U.S. Senate contest for the seat vacated by fellow Republican Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm

William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...

. That year, Cook defeated the 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...

 George M. Robinson for the right to succeed the retiring Democratic incumbent, Paul Sadler. Cook received 17,411 votes (55.2 percent) to Robinson's 14,126 ballots (44.8 percent).

In 2006, Cook and then State Senator Todd Staples

Todd Staples

Douglas Todd Staples is the current Republican Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Prior to his election in 2006 as Agriculture Commissioner, he had been a member of both houses of the Texas State Legislature and formerly served on the city council in Palestine, Texas.Staples was...

 of Palestine

Palestine, Texas

Palestine is a city in Anderson County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 17,598, and 18,458 in the 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Anderson County and is situated in East Texas...

 and District 11 Representative Chuck Hopson

Chuck Hopson

Charles L. Hopson, II, known as Chuck Hopson , is a pharmacist and businessman in Jacksonville, Texas, who has been since 2001 a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 11, which includes Cherokee, Houston, Panola and Rusk counties in the northeastern portion of his...

, a Jacksonville

Jacksonville, Texas

Jacksonville is located in Cherokee County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,868 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Jacksonville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Cherokee County and part of the larger Tyler-Jacksonville Combined Statistical...

 Democrat who later switched parties, fought to keep the scenic Texas State Railroad

Texas State Railroad

The Texas State Railroad is a historic 25-mile railroad between Rusk and Palestine, Texas. The start of the railroad dates back to 1881. Its original purpose was to bring in raw materials for a prison iron foundry and to take the finished product out. The railroad grew and eventually expanded to...

 between Rusk

Rusk, Texas

Rusk is a city in Cherokee County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,085 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cherokee County.-Geography:Rusk is located at ....

 and Palestine operational. Cook also sought to limit property tax hikes, strengthen criminal penalties, attract jobs, boost border security, guarantee local control over public schools, and protect family values.

In the 2009 legislative session, Cook was named by Speaker

Speaker (politics)

The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...

 Joe Straus

Joe Straus

Joseph R. Straus, III, known as Joe Straus , is the current Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 121, which comprises northeastern Bexar County, including part of San Antonio, Texas, and several surrounding communities...

 of San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 as the chairman of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation and served on the State Affairs and Calendars committee. He served on the Sunset Advisory Commission

Sunset Advisory Commission

The Sunset Advisory Commission is an agency of the Texas Legislature, that makes recommendations to the Legislature on the continued need for the existence of various state agencies. It is headquartered in the Robert E...

 from 2007–2008, a body which conducts reviews of each state agency every twelve years to determine that the office is actually needed. The commission is charged with the elimination of inefficiency and waste in state government. Because of his advocacy of rural and small town issues, Cook was cited by the interest group, the Texas Municipal League, as a "Legislator-of-the-Month." Cook also received the "Friends of Medicine Award" from the Texas Medical Association.

In the November 2, 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...

Cook defeated Democrat Charles E. Morgan, a retired engineer and rancher.

Cook and his wife, Kay Lilly Cook (born ca. 1957), have two daughters.