Bill Zedler

William Wade Zedler, known as Bill Zedler (born August 19, 1943), is a retired medical consultant from Arlington, Texas who is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 96. He has served since 2003 except for the term from 2009 to 2011, when he was temporarily unseated by Democrat Chris Turner.

A board member of the bipartisan Texas Conservative Coalition, Zedler is considered one of the most conservative of current Texas legislators.

In February 2019, Zedler came out supporting the anti-vax movement by introducing a Texas bill that would allow parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements. He was quoted as saying “They want to say people are dying of measles. Yeah, in third-world countries they’re dying of measles. Today, with antibiotics and that kind of stuff, they’re not dying in America.” Measles is caused by a virus, and therefore cannot be treated with antibiotics. In the U.S. 1-2 people die for every 1000 people infected with measles; the last fatality in the U.S. was in 2015.

2018 reelection

Zedler won his seventh nonconsecutive term in the state House in the general election held on November 6, 2018. With 32,656 votes (50.9 percent), he defeated Democrat Ryan E. Ray, who polled 30,295 (47.2 percent). The Libertarian Stephen Parmer held another 746 votes (1.9 percent).