Senator Lois W. Kolkhorst is a fifth-generation Texan, with ancestral roots to the Texas War of Independence. A Brenham native, she went on to graduate from TCU where she played collegiate golf. In December 2014, Kolkhorst was elected to the Texas Senate in a special election, after previously serving fourteen years in the Texas House. Recognized as a fiscal conservative, she is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and has served three times on the state's budget conference-committee, most recently during the final negotiations on the states $209 billion budget passed in 2015. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and has written landmark legislation to toughen Texas laws on medical privacy. She earned statewide attention for crafting alternatives to Obamacare for healthcare providers.