Eliot Shapleigh

In June 2009, Shapleigh completed his seventh session as a legislator. During his tenure as a state Senator, he has authored more than 600 bills, with particular focus on education, economic development, infrastructure, technology, veteran, and health care issues. Additionally, he has been integral in helping prepare the state for the Department of Defense's periodic reassessment of infrastructure needs, or base realignment and closure (BRAC).

He announced on October 16, 2009 that he will not run for re-election in 2010. When asked if he will run for another office he indicated that he is undecided, though suggested he will not run for Congress. State Senator Juan Hinojosa suggested that Shapleigh might run for governor.

From 2007 to 2008, Shapleigh served as the chair of the Border Legislative Conference (BLC), a program administered by the Council of State Governments (CSG)-WEST and its regional partner in the South, the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC). The BLC serves as a mechanism for ongoing dialogue and collaboration between state legislators of the United States and Mexico. The BLC fosters the development of shared solutions along the border region through joint consideration of common problems and exchange of information. BLC members are legislators from the ten states along the U.S.-Mexico border: California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the U.S., and Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas in Mexico.

Shapleigh was appointed Chair of the Subcommittee on Base Realignment and Closure in 2004 and continues to lead that subcommittee. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Veteran Affairs & Military Installations Committee. Additionally, Shapleigh is a member of the Health & Human Services, Nominations, and Transportation & Homeland Security Committees.

Shapleigh was one of the Texas Eleven, a group of Democratic Texas State Senators who broke quorum and removed to New Mexico for 46 days in 2003 in a quorum-busting effort aimed at preventing the passage of controversial re-redistricting legislation, spearheaded by then Congressional House Majority leader Tom DeLay, that would have benefited Texas Republicans.

As a result of the Unite El Paso movement, Shapleigh organized the 1998 El Paso Economic Summit, along with civic leaders such as Woody Hunt, UTEP President Diana Natalicio, and Mayor Carlos Ramirez. Hundreds assembled at UTEP to describe a communitywide effort to build capacity for higher wage jobs in El Paso. At that gathering, the number one goal for El Paso's future was identified as establishing a four-year medical school as the anchor of a joint institution Medical Center of the Americas.

Shapleigh co-founded Community Scholars, Inc., El Paso's youth leadership program. With a vision of developing the regional community leaders of tomorrow, Community Scholars is a youth leadership development internship program that provides public policy research opportunities for high school sophomores, juniors, and college students. The summer program began in 1998 and operates under Community Scholars, Inc., a grass roots nonprofit corporation.

In 1994, Shapleigh, at the request of Judge Edward Marquez of the 65th District Court, was sworn in as an ad litem for the El Paso Court of Inquiry. Several prominent El Paso lawyers joined Judge Marquez to investigate whether the constitutional rights of the citizens of El Paso had been denied due to historically inadequate funding in the areas of transportation, mental health, and nutrition. Judge Marquez later issued an historic and groundbreaking report that identified significant disparities in funding that affected border economic and educational outcomes. Among the several findings in the report, some later became important statewide issues, including state highway funding. In 1999, then Texas Comptroller John Sharp issued a report outlining the various inequities faced by Texas border communities when compared to the rest of the state.

In 1992, Shapleigh joined with hundreds of other progressive El Paso civic leaders to found Unite El Paso. This group of emerging leaders wanted to improve the per capita income in El Paso and create a viable economic model for future growth. From the 1950s, when El Paso’s per capita income levels were 20 percent higher than the Texas average, El Paso's per capita income level began a steep decline. By 2000, levels had fallen to 30 percent below the state average.

Soon thereafter, Shapleigh, County Attorney José Rodriguez, Woody Hunt, Robert Brown, John Montford, and others joined in discussions about how best to establish the medical school and which institution should carry the mission forward. As a result, the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents made establishing a four-year medical school in El Paso an important goal of the System. Over the coming legislative sessions, incremental progress was made in establishing the state's ninth medical school and first since 1977. In 2009, the first new medical students at El Paso's medical school began their studies at the campus. The El Paso Medical School was the first new medical school to be established in the U.S. in 30 years. The school also is the only four-year medical school on the United States/Mexico border.

Eliot Shapleigh was born and raised in El Paso. He has lived and traveled extensively in Mexico, and is a fluent Spanish speaker today. Shapleigh graduated from Rice University in 1974 and served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa until 1977. He then attended The University of Texas School of Law, graduating in 1981. In 1983, Shapleigh founded his own law firm with two partners and today is the managing partner of the Shapleigh Law Firm, PC.

Eliot Shapleigh (born November 11, 1952) is a politician from the state of Texas, who represented the state's 29th Senatorial District, which comprises the majority of El Paso County, from 1997 to 2011. He announced on October 16, 2009 that he will not run for re-election in 2010. When asked if he will run for another office he indicated that he is undecided, though suggested he will not run for Congress.

Shapleigh led the opposition to the reopening of an ASARCO-operated copper smelter located near downtown El Paso since 1887. The smelter, which had been shut down in 1999 due to low copper prices, filed to renew their air permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2002. Joined by leaders from across the three-state, two-nation region, Shapleigh and hundreds of activists from El Paso, Juarez, and New Mexico placed enormous pressure on the corporation to justify putting over 7,000 tons of new pollutants into El Paso's air. After eight years, the TCEQ Commissioners granted the permit on a 3-0 vote. The Environmental Protection Agency soon intervened, however, citing deficiencies with the permitting process and ASARCO's air control equipment. As a result, ASARCO announced that the El Paso smelter would not reopen. As of July 2009, it appears the smelter property will be placed in an environmental remediation trust so that it may be cleaned up using funding obtained via ASARCO's bankruptcy.