Kiwanis Club of Houston
January 20th Luncheon
Speaker: Chris Bell
As an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, Chris Bell was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and The Texas Cowboys. In his senior year, he was elected president of the Interfraternity Council and founded the organization responsible for returning student government to the campus after an almost ten-year hiatus.
After graduation, Chris became an award-winning broadcast journalist, first working in television in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Amarillo Texas. He then moved to Houston to pursue his law degree at South Texas College of Law and was hired by KTRH NewsRadio to cover the courthouse. Before leaving journalism in 1991, he was named the best radio reporter in the state by the Texas Associated Press.
Chris earned his law degree in 1992 and since that time, has attempted to balance life between law and politics. He’s an AV-rated trial attorney and has enjoyed great success in the courtroom. But in 1997, having not even lived in the city ten years, he was elected as an at-large member of the Houston City Council. He then went on the become the youngest member of the Texas congressional delegation, representing the 25th congressional district here in the Houston area. He was one of two freshman Democrats asked to join the Whip team and was called a rising star by the Capitol Hill publication, Roll Call. That ended after the sate legislature engaged in mid-decade redistricting and his district was completely redrawn. Chris returned to Texas and became the 2006 Democratic nominee for Governor, coming closer to winning than any Democrat since Ann Richards.
Most recently Chris left the Democratic Party to join the Serve America Movement, a centrist third party that seeks to bring together disgruntled Republicans, Democrats and Independents. He is serving as the statewide vice chair for outreach while, professionally, he just relaunched his commercial litigation practice with offices here and in the Brenham area.
