Tony Sanchez Jr.

On December 13, 2007, Texas A&M International University in Laredo announced that the A. R. "Tony" and Maria J. "Tani" Sanchez Family Foundation had donated $10 million to create an endowment in the newly named A. R. Sanchez School of Business (formerly the College of Business). The foundation already underwrites several undertakings at TAMIU, including its Distinguished Speakers program. Sanchez also donates $20,000 each to 20 students every new year who are awarded the Sanchez Family Foundation Scholarship for Texas A&M International University, and has contributed to the establishment of the cancer treatment center of the Laredo Medical Center.

After the March 7, 2006, primary, he announced his support for independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who fared poorly in Webb County voting, in her general election campaign against Perry. He also donated campaign money to Democrat Michael Peter Skelly in his unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat in the race for Texas's 7th congressional district in 2008 against incumbent Republican John Culberson.

In 2002, Sanchez ran an unsuccessful campaign as the Democratic nominee for Governor of Texas against Republican incumbent Rick Perry. Sanchez is also known for his successful oil, natural gas, and banking operations, which are based in Laredo, Webb County, Texas.

In March 2002, Sanchez, then a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents from 1997 to 2003, defeated former state Attorney General Dan Morales for the Democratic nomination for governor. Later, Morales endorsed Sanchez's Republican opponent, Rick Perry. Morales' brother was imprisoned for having attempted to blackmail Sanchez in the primary campaign. Morales himself went to prison for wrongdoing in connection with the state tobacco settlement.

Sanchez serves on the Conoco board of directors and is an active member of a number of organizations: the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. In 1994, he was appointed to the National Petroleum Council, which advises the United States Secretary of Energy.

Participating in the oil and gas brokerage business that he and his father, Antonio Rodolfo Sanchez Sr., founded, Sanchez immediately envisioned expansion of the family business beyond a small operation into the larger scope business of oil and gas exploration, development, and production. Tony's father agreed; and in 1973, the father and son duo, along with their partner, Brian E. O'Brien, drilled a successful exploratory well in Webb County. This initial well started the development of the largest pool of natural gas found in the United States in 30 years.

In 1972, Sanchez married Maria Josefina "Tani" Guajardo, a former schoolteacher. Together they have four children. Sanchez is a Roman Catholic.

Antonio Rodolfo "Tony" Sanchez Jr. (born February 3, 1943) is an American businessman and former politician. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Sanchez, a descendant of Tomás Sánchez, was born on February 3, 1943, in Laredo, Texas, and attended to Saint Mary's University in San Antonio, where he earned a B.A. degree (1965) and J.D. (1969). He was a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1985 to 1991. He also served on the University of Texas at Austin Board of Regents from 1997 to 2003.