families under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), supported middle class tax cuts, and protected Medicare and Social Security benefits for America's seniors. As a lifelong person of faith, Edwards was honored by the Baptist Joint Committee, and earned the Walter Cronkite Award from the Interfaith Alliance for his principled stand to keep government regulations out of churches and houses of worship. Congressman Edwards also received the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Award. Political campaigns Edwards was elected to the U.S. House in 1990 with 54 percent of the vote in what was then the 11th District, defeating Republican Hugh Shine. He was re-elected in 1992 with 67 percent of the vote, defeating Republican James Broyles. He defeated Broyles again in 1994 with 59 percent of the vote. During the 1990s, like much of rural Texas, the 11th District trended increasingly Republican. Edwards was able to hold onto his seat, though with shrinking margins. In 1996, he was re-elected with 57 percent of the vote against Republican Jay Mathis. He won in 1998 without any Republican opponent. In 2000 he won with 55 percent of the vote over Ramsey Farley; in 2002, he beat Farley again, this time with 52 percent of the vote. In 2000, he became President Bush's congressman; the district includes Prairie Chapel Ranch just outside Crawford, which was Bush's legal residence during his presidential term. As part of the 2003 Texas redistricting, Edwards' district was renumbered as the 17th District and radically altered. The ethnically diverse cities of Temple and Killeen were removed, as was the Army post of Fort Hood. In their place, his district absorbed College Station, home to Texas A&M and a long-standing bastion of conservatism. It also absorbed some heavily Republican territory near Fort Worth. While Edwards' old district had been trending Republican for some time, the new district was, on paper, one of the most Republican districts in the country. Edwards defeated conservative State Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth in November 2004 by 9,260 votes, or approximately a 3.8% margin. Proving just how Republican the new 17th district was, Bush carried it with a staggering 70 percent of the vote—the most of any Democratic-held district, and Bush's 17th-best district in the entire country. Edwards was one of two Democrats to represent a significant portion of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Congress, along with Eddie Bernice Johnson. In much of the district, Edwards was