State Senator Jane Nelson, businesswoman and former schoolteacher, represents District 12, which includes portions of Tarrant and Denton counties.
Senator Nelson, the first woman in Texas legislative history to chair a standing budge-writing committee, serves as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which shapes the state budget and crafts fiscal policy for Texas.
As chair of Finance, Senator Nelson also serves as a member of the Legislative Budget Board, a body of five Senate and five House representatives that sets the constitutional spending limie and develops the draft appropriations bill.
She also serves as co-chair of the Transition Legistlative Oversight Committee, which mitors the reorganization of Texas’ health and human services agencies,.
Her many accomplishments include measure to dedicate lottery proceeds to education. In the most recent legislative session, she championed $1.2 billion in tax reductions; overhauled HHS agencies and created a grant program for veterans mental health.
Senator Nelson has been named #1 Legislator Power Ranking by Capitol Inside, 25 Women to Watch by Fort Worth Better Business Bureau and Champion of Free Enterprise by Texas Association of Business.
She and her husband Mike met while both were attending the Univesity of Texas at Arlington. Senator Nelson graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in education and taught the sixth grade in Arlington ISD.