Richard Keith Armey (; born July 7, 1940) is an American economist and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Texas's (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s, in which Republicans were elected to majorities of both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades. Armey was one of the chief authors of the Contract with America. Armey is also an author and former economics professor. After his retirement from Congress, he has worked as a consultant, advisor, and lobbyist. Early life, education and career Armey was born on July 7, 1940 in the farming town of Cando, North Dakota, the son of Marion (née Gutschlag) and Glenn Armey. He grew up in a rural area. He graduated from Jamestown College with a B.A. and then received an M.A. from the University of North Dakota and a PhD in economics from the University of Oklahoma. Armey is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Armey served on the economics faculty at the University of Montana from 1964 to 1965. He was an assistant professor of economics at West Texas State (now West Texas A&M University) from 1967 to 1968, at Austin College from 1968 to 1972, and at North Texas State (now the University of North Texas) from 1972 to 1977. He served as chairman of the economics department at North Texas State University from 1977 to 1983. Armey has been married twice. His first marriage ended in divorce, but resulted in three children. Even though she called off the wedding three times, he married his second wife, Susan Armey, who already had two children. U.S. House of Representatives Armey was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1984 in Texas's 26th congressional district, narrowly defeating freshman congressman Tom Vandergriff. Armey was one of six freshmen Republican Party congressmen elected from Texas in 1984 that were known as the Texas Six Pack. He would never face another contest anywhere near that close, and was reelected eight more times, never dropping below 68 percent of the vote. His strongest performance was in 1998, when the Democrats didn't field a candidate and Armey defeated a Libertarian with 88 percent of the vote. This mirrored the growing Republican trend in his district. In his early years in Congress, Armey was influenced by Austrian economist Ludwig von