Dan Crenshaw, A06, a decorated war veteran, joins three other alumni in the U.S. House of Representatives
Dan Crenshaw, A06, was elected to Congress on November 6, as representative for Texas’s second district in Houston. The thirty-four-year-old Republican, a first-time political candidate, is the youngest member of the Texas congressional delegation. He replaces outgoing Republican Representative Ted Poe.
Crenshaw joins three other Tufts alumni in the U.S. House of Representatives, all Democrats: Joseph Courtney, A75, from Connecticut; Peter DeFazio, A69, from Oregon; and Frank Pallone, F74, from New Jersey. All ran as incumbents this year.
Crenshaw was a member of the Navy ROTC while at Tufts. After graduation, he trained at a Navy SEAL, and deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, to join SEAL Team Three, the first of five deployments overseas. In 2012 he was hit by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and blinded in one eye; he needed multiple surgeries to save vision in his other eye. He subsequently was deployed in the Middle East in 2014 and South Korea in 2016.
He received two Bronze Stars (one with valor), the Purple Heart, and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor for his service. After taking medical retirement from the Navy, Crenshaw enrolled at Harvard Kennedy School, where he received a master’s degree in public administration earlier this year.
Crenshaw won a crowded primary by 155 votes, and had to take part in a run-off, which he easily won. He was endorsed by Rick Perry and the Texas Tea Party, among others, according to his website.
After the election results came in, Crenshaw told a television reporter that he was feeling “elated,” and added that “even the people who didn’t vote for me, I’ll be representing them, and I won’t forget that—that’s so important to us.”
