Gary VanDeaver

Gary Wayne VanDeaver (born September 25, 1958) is the Republican state representative for District 1, which encompasses Bowie, Franklin, Lamar, and Red River counties in northeastern Texas. He is a retired educator with the New Boston Independent School District in New Boston, Texas, where he still resides.

Though born in Grimes County south of College Station, Texas, VanDeaver was reared on a cattle operation near Clarksville in Red River County in northeast Texas and graduated in 1977 from Clarksville High School. He holds a doctorate obtained in 1996 in professional education from Texas A&M University–Commerce, formerly East Texas State University. In December 2014, he retired as superintendent of the New Boston district. Having begun as a vocational agriculture teacher, VanDeaver has worked for thirty-three years in the education profession.

He is a member of the Red River County Fair Association and the Bogata Rodeo Association, also in Red River County, and he sits on the board of the Texas Future Farmers of America. He is a past president of the New Boston Lions International and his local Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the National Rifle Association and a deacon and Sunday school teacher at the First Baptist Church of New Boston. VanDeaver has been married since 1983 to the former Pamela Sue Nevill (born 1963), who is also an educator. The couple has two grown daughters, Kacey and Katelyn VanDeaver.

In the primary election held on March 4, 2014, VanDeaver, in his last year as school superintendent, unseated the two-term District 1 Republican incumbent, George Lavender, a businessman from Texarkana in far northeastern Texas. VanDeaver received 9,400 votes (54.3 percent) to Lavender's 7,898 (45.7 percent). VanDeaver had no Democratic opposition in the general election held on November 4, 2014. Both Lavender and VanDeaver call themselves "conservative Republicans."

VanDeaver defeated George Lavender in a rematch in the Republican primary on March 1, 2016. VanDeaver received 18,263 votes (61.9 percent) to Lavender's 11,242 (38.1 percent).

VanDeaver ran unopposed in the 2018 Republican primary. VanDeaver ran unopposed in the general election held on November 6, 2018; no Democrats or third party candidates filed to run for the legislative seat.