The 17th Congressional District of Texas spans over 230 miles, stretching from the suburbs of Fort Worth in the North, through the Heart of Texas in Waco and to Bryan/College Station in the Brazos Valley. The district includes all of Bosque, Brazos, Grimes, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Madison, McLennan, and Somervell counties and part of Burleson, Limestone, and Robertson counties.

The 17th district includes two Big XII schools: Baylor University and Texas A&M University, the third-largest college in the nation. The 17th is also home to several other important colleges, including Texas State Technical College, McLennan Community College, Blinn College in Bryan, Southwest Adventist University in Keene and Hill College, with campuses in Clifton, Hillsboro and Cleburne.

Major district employers include Texas A&M University and the A&M System, Lockheed Martin in Johnson and Hood counties, Baylor University, L-3 Communications in Waco, Sanderson Farms in Bryan and the Comanche Peak power plant in Glen Rose.

Farming and ranching play a vital role in the economy of the 17th, which is home to many family-operated cow-calf operations. Other key industries include a growing defense firm presence in Waco and Bryan/College Station and the natural gas industry, which has major operations underway in the Barnett Shale, including in Johnson, Hood, Somervell, Hill and Bosque Counties. Transportation is a key issue in the 17th District, with major highways such as IH 35 and IH 45, US 377 and TX Highway 6 experiencing increasing traffic due to NAFTA and rapid population growth. Improved airline travel options are also priorities in both the Waco and Bryan/College Station area.

Protecting the quality of water is a key priority throughout the 17th District. Lake Granbury, Lake Waco, Lake Whitney and Lake Aquila are key reservoirs in the 17th and protecting and improving their quality of water is a key priority. The Brazos River runs throughout the 17th District.

With over 55,000 veterans in the district, the men and women who have served our nation in uniform are a key District 17 constituency. For Central texas veterans, the VA Hospital in Waco provides crucial blind rehabilitation and world class mental health care services, in addition to long-term care services that are being expanded. For Brazos Valley veterans, a new VA outpatient clinic in College Station has will increase services to local veterans. To serve veterans from Hill, Johnson, Hood and Somervell Counties, the largest VA outpatient clinic in the country will open in Fort Worth by 2010.

The District is ethnically diverse, with significant African-American and Hispanic populations. The district’s total population is 651,620, according to the 2000 census.
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Other resources:

The Wikipedia entry for TX CD-17 is HERE.

ResistNet has a profile HERE.