Susan King

King faced only weak Libertarian opponents in the general elections of 2008 and 2010 and had no opposition in 2012 in either her primary or in the general election. In the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014, she handily defeated the Mexican native Issac Matthew Castro (born 1956), an attorney from Hamlin in Jones County who is a former trustee of the Hamlin Independent School District and used to be affiliated with the Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association. Castro earlier ran for the state House in 2008 in District 85. King polled 10,267 (67.3 percent); Castro, 4,989 (32.7 percent).

In 2013, King supported the ban on abortion after twenty weeks of gestation; the measure passed the House, 96-49. She also voted for companion legislation to increase medical and licensing requirements of abortion providers. These issues brought forth an unsuccessful filibuster in the Texas State Senate by Wendy R. Davis of Fort Worth, who in 2014 is the Democratic nominee for governor. King did not vote on two abortion restriction measures in 2011, one of which forbids state funding of agencies which perform abortions; the other of which requires a woman procuring an abortion to undergo first a sonogram. Supporters of the ultrasound legislation claim that a woman could change her mind about an abortion once she witnesses the development of the unborn child.

King's ratings from Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party, have fluctuated from 58 percent favorable in 2013, 29 percent in 2011, 40 percent in 2009, and 76 percent in 2007. The Young Conservatives of Texas gave her a lifetime score of 61 percent. The Texas League of Conservation Voters rated her 64 percent; the Sierra Club, 50 percent in 2011. The interest group, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, founded by Michael Quinn Sullivan, rated her 46 percent favorable in 2013 and 38 percent in 2011, low ratings for a Republican lawmaker. However, the Texas Association of Business in 2013 gave her a cumulative rating of 86 percent. The National Rifle Association rated her 92 percent in 2012 and "A" in both 2010 and 2008. In 2009, the Libertarian Party scored King 38 percent favorable on issues of economic freedom and personal liberties.

In 2011, King voted against a measure to reduce funding for state agencies. She voted to establish eligibility standards for indigent health care. She voted against the institution of Corporal Punishment in public schools. She voted to prohibit smoking in public places. She supported the sales tax on the Internet, which passed the House, 125-20. She voted to require public colleges and universities to establish student center to meet traditional family values. King supported picture identification for voters casting a ballot, a measure which finally took effect in October 2013.

In 2006, the Republican state Representative Robert Dean Hunter of Abilene, vice-president emeritus of Abilene Christian University, stepped down after more than ten years in his legislative position. He had first won a special election in 1986 held three months before the return of Republican Bill Clements to the Texas governorship. Hunter was the first Republican to have represented Taylor County in the legislature since Reconstruction.

King and three other Republicans hence ran in the primary election to choose a successor to Hunter. Kevin M. Christian (born c. 1977) of Abilene, with 3,953 votes (37.7 percent), led the balloting, with King in second place at 3,008 (28.7 percent), only 80 votes ahead of the third-place contender, James Robert "Rob" Beckham (born c. 1964) of Abilene, who polled 2,918 votes (27.8 percent). In fourth place was John Young with 600 votes (5.7 percent). In the runoff election the following month, King defeated Christian by 105 votes, 5,178 (50.51 percent) to 5,073 (49.48 percent). In the general election on November 7, 2006, King defeated a Democrat, Melvin E. "Mel" Hailey (born c. 1948) of Abilene, and a Libertarian, Vanessa Nicole Harris (born c. 1978). She polled 18,026 votes (57.7 percent); Hailey, 12,547 (40.1 percent), and Harris, 687 votes (2.2 percent).

From 1998 until her election to the state House, King was a trustee, a nonpartisan position, of the Abilene Independent School District.

Susan Lewis King (born February 2, 1952) is a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 71 based in Abilene in Taylor County, Texas, and neighboring Jones and Nolan counties. King was her party's nominee for a fifth term in the general election on November 4, 2014.