Lance Gooden is a departing two-term Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 4. In the 2010 primary election, Gooden narrowly upset the six-term incumbent Republican Representative Betty Brown, having polled 50.5 percent of the vote. A native of Terrell, a city east of Dallas, Texas, Gooden graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, from which he received both a Bachelor of Arts in government and a Bachelor of Business Administration. Upon taking office early in 2011, Gooden worked on the state budget in an attempt to eliminate wasteful spending. He serves on these House committees: Appropriations, County Affairs, and House Administration, the latter of which handles employment by the House. In 2010, Gooden had no Democratic opponent in his heavily Republican district. Gooden won renomination to a second term in the Republican primary held on May 29, 2012. He polled 6,385 votes to 5,545 for his opponent, Stuart Keith Spitzer of Dallas. Gooden was then unopposed in the November 6 general election for his second term. However, on March 4, 2014, Spitzer in a second bid for the office unseated Gooden in the Republican primary. 

December 1st, 1982 in (Age 41)