A. Jeff McLemore

Atkins Jefferson McLemore (March 13, 1857 – March 4, 1929) was an American newspaper publisher, State Representative and United States Representative from Texas.

Early life McLemore was born on a farm near Spring Hill, Tennessee, on March 13, 1857. He was educated in local schools and by private tutors. McLemore moved to Texas in 1878 and was employed as a cowboy, printer, and newspaper reporter, and later as a miner in Colorado and Mexico. He returned to Texas and settled in San Antonio working primarily in the newspaper business in Kyle, Texas.

Political career McLemore moved to Corpus Christi in 1889 and established the Gulf News and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, serving from 1892 to 1896. He later moved to Austin, where he was elected to the Board of Aldermen for one term. McLemore was elected Secretary of the Democratic State executive committee from 1900 to 1904. In 1903, he founded a weekly magazine entitled State Topics, which eventually became Texas Monthly Review and State Topics. McLemore was one of the 50 representatives who voted against declaring war, the only member of Congress from Texas to do so. When McLemore became a strident opponent of the president, the Democratic-dominated Texas legislature redrew the state's congressional districts to eliminate McLemore's statewide at-large district and drew 18 districts, forcing McLemore into the same district with fellow Houston incumbents Joe H. Eagle and Daniel E. Garrett in the 8th District. Garrett bowed out of the contest, and Eagle defeated McLemore.

Later life In 1919, McLemore moved from Houston to Hebbronville, and he resumed the newspaper publishing business in South Texas and eventually resided in Laredo. In 1928, McLemore made one more run for public office for an open US Senate seat, but he was defeated by Thomas T. Connally. McLemore died in Laredo on March 4, 1929, the day after he would have taken office if he had won the Senate race. He is interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.