Donna Campbell


Donna Sue Burrows Campbell is a politician and physician who is the 25th District member of the Texas Senate. On July 31, 2012, she became the first person in Texas history to defeat an incumbent Republican senator, Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, in a primary election.
Her district serves all of Comal County, a small portion of Guadalupe County, a large portion of Hays County, all of Kendall County, and portions of northern Bexar and southern Travis counties.

Early life and education

Campbell was born on the naval base in San Diego, California, and reared in Oklahoma. Her father served in the U.S. Navy and later as a trooper in the highway patrol. Her mother was a factory worker for much of her life but became a registered nurse at the age of forty-eight.
Campbell obtained her undergraduate degree in nursing from Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma. Campbell earned her Masters of Nursing from Texas Woman’s University. She specialized in cardiovascular clinical nursing and nursing administration.
She received her M.D. from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock in May 1989 and completed an internship in general surgery at Methodist Hospital in Dallas from 1989–1990. She completed her residency at the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston from 1990 to 1993.

Medical career

Campbell is the medical director of the emergency department at Columbus Community Hospital in Columbus, Texas, a city west of Houston.
Campbell is a member of the American Academy of Physician Specialists and the Texas Medical Association.
Campbell has volunteered her time and expertise to perform hundreds of eye surgeries in Ghana, West Africa, working through the Christian Eye Ministry, an organization which focuses its efforts to bring back sight to people living in Africa.

Tenure

On her first day in the legislature, an aide to Senator John Whitmire passed out and Campbell provided assistance.
Campbell was named the vice-chair of Nominations Committee and given a seat on the Education and Transportation Committees of the Senate.

Political positions

Campbell is conservative. Campbell is also pro-life. Texas Governor Rick Perry and Campbell support a proposed 2013 law, one that would restrict abortions after the twentieth week of pregnancy, place abortion clinics in the same regulatory category as other ambulatory surgery centers, and require doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within thirty miles of the facility where they perform abortions.
On the last day of the regular legislative session in 2017, Democrat Jose Menendez of San Antonio used a filibuster to kill Campbell's bill which would have made it more difficult for municipalities to annex surrounding territory.
In 2019, Campbell expressed opposition to expanding medical marijuana to cover post-traumatic stress. She claimed that a study had shown that 70% of veterans who committed suicide had cannabis in their system; PolitiFact rated her assertion false and said it could find no such study.

Personal life

Campbell married her husband, Stan Campbell, in 2000 and has four adopted daughters. They live in New Braunfels, Texas

Election results

2010 election results

Campbell, running as the "Tea Party favorite", lost to U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett by an eight percent margin in the 2010 Congressional election for the 25th District Congressional seat.

2012 election results

Republican primary, Texas Senate District 25, May 29, 2012
In the Republican primary on May 29, 2012, for Texas Senate District 25, Campbell came in second, advancing to the runoff. Elizabeth Ames Jones, the former Railroad Commissioner was eliminated from the runoff. The incumbent, Jeff Wentworth, who was in the Texas Senate for more than two decades, led the voting with 27,040 votes; Campbell followed with 25,458 primary votes. With 23,075 votes, Jones finished in a strong third place in the primary.
In the Republican primary, Wentworth spent $727,568. Campbell spent about $175,000. And Jones, who had the backing of Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s political action committee, spent $1,754,310.
Republican primary runoff, Texas Senate District 25, July 31, 2012
Republican political strategist Allen Blakemore joined Campbell’s team and helped Campbell defeat incumbent Jeff Wentworth, who was in the Texas Senate for over two decades, by a two-to-one margin in the state Senate primary runoff on July 31, 2012. Campbell defeated Wentworth in every county in the 25th District except the portion of the district in southern Travis County. She built upon the base of support she gathered during the 2010 run for Congress to create the numbers that she needed to finish second in the Republican primary on May 29 and to win the July 31 Republican primary runoff against Wentworth. After the results were announced Campbell stated, "People were tired of the status quo government – that's the folks who came out and voted for us. We have a large grass-roots movement. People identified with our message: smaller government, lower taxes and a vision for having a strong economy with job creation in the private sector." Campbell also stated that she believed that she benefited from the endorsement of Ted Cruz. Others saw her win as a victory for the Tea Party over the establishment Republicans.
General election, Texas Senate District 25, November 6, 2012
In the general election for the Texas Senate District 25 of November 6, 2012, Campbell won a victory over John Courage, a high school teacher from San Antonio. Campbell easily out-spent Courage and took two-thirds of the votes.

2014 election

In the Republican primary on March 4, 2014, Campbell won re-nomination to her first four-year term in the state Senate. She received 40,767 votes. Her two opponents, Elisa Chan and Mike Novak, received 17,887 votes and 14,942, respectively.