Lloyd Theodore Poe (born September 10, 1948) is an American politician who represented Texas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2019. Poe was the first Republican to represent the 2nd district. In November 2017, Poe announced that he would retire from Congress, and not seek re-election in 2018. Judicial career After serving as a chief felony prosecutor in Harris County (Houston) for eight years, Poe was appointed a felony court judge in Harris County in 1981, becoming one of the youngest judges in the state. In this position, he gained national prominence for his unusual criminal sentences that included ordering thieves to carry signs in front of stores from which they stole. However, in at least one case, Poe amended the sentence afterwards without notifying the victim's family. Elections to United States Congress In November 2004, Poe ran for the U.S. House in the 2nd District. The district had previously been the 9th, represented by four-term Democrat Nick Lampson. However, as the result of a controversial mid-decade redistricting, the new 2nd was considerably more Republican than the old 9th. It lost Galveston and the area around the Johnson Space Center, while picking up several heavily Republican areas north of Houston, including Poe's home in Humble. Poe won 55% of the vote to Lampson's 43%. While Lampson trounced Poe in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Poe swamped Lampson in the Harris County portion of the district. Poe made border security a centerpiece of his re-election strategy, calling for "more [National] Guardsmen on the border front". In November 2006, Poe won a second term with 65.6% of the vote, defeating Democrat Gary Binderim, who took 32.7%. In November 2008 and 2010, Poe did not face a Democratic challenger in the general election. In 2008, he defeated Libertarian Craig Wolfe, taking 88.9% of the vote to Wolfe's 11.1%. In 2010, he defeated Libertarian David Smith with 88.6 percent of the vote to Smith's 11.4 percent. Poe's district was made significantly more compact in the 2010s round of redistricting. It was cut back to an exclusively Harris County-based district, wheeling from Humble through northern and western Houston to just outside downtown. This district was slightly less Republican than its predecessor, and Poe was elected three more times from this district with over 60 percent of the vote. Poe announced on November 7, 2017, that he would not seek