Texas's 23rd congressional district

Texas's 23rd congressional district stretches across the southwestern portion of Texas. It is a prominently Hispanic-majority district and its current Representative is Republican Will Hurd.

Geography

The district runs along the majority of Texas's border with Mexico, just north of the Rio Grande. While it encompasses numerous county seats and a few towns of regional economic importance, the district is predominantly rural, with no major urban area in the district. It abuts El Paso at its western point and San Antonio at its eastern point. Its large size is due to its low population density—one of the lowest in the country. It encompasses all of Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. Major economic activities in the district include farming, ranching, oil and mineral extraction, recreation and tourism.

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, the district contained 651,620 people. Of these, 41% are non-Hispanic white, 55.1% Hispanic regardless of race, 2% non-Hispanic black, and 2.2% other. The district's population is 74.6% urban. Per capita Income for the district is $18,692. The district has a 6.5% unemployment rate. Of the employed, 71.8% is private, 19.4% government, and 8.4% self-employed. Major industries include Retail trade, Education services, Health Care, and Manufacturing. 222,012 households are within the district, with an average of 2.8 persons per household.

Texas State Highway 23

State Highway 23 or SH 23 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The highway, located in eastern Lipscomb County in the Texas Panhandle, begins at US 83 northwest of Canadian and extends northward through the town of Booker to the Oklahoma state line. The highway's route designation is numerically continuous with subsequent routes in Oklahoma and Kansas and, together with Oklahoma State Highway 23 and Kansas Highway 23, forms part of a single route from US 83 in Texas to US-83 near Selden, Kansas.

The route number was one of the original highways proposed by the state highway department in 1917, and was used over various shifting alignments in central and north central Texas in the 1920s and 1930s. The current highway was originally built as part of Texas' system of Farm to Market Roads in 1949. The state began signing the route as SH 23 in 1959, although the highway officially retained its Farm to Market designation until 1990. SH 23 intersects one other state highway, SH 15, at Booker.