Earl Jeffrey Wentworth, known as Jeff Wentworth (born November 20, 1940), is a Republican former member of the Texas Senate from San Antonio. He represented District 25 in the upper legislative chamber from January 1997 to January 2013. In addition, from 1993 to 1997, he represented District 26, having been initially elected to the state senate in 1992 to succeed fellow Republican Cyndi Taylor Krier, when she became the county judge of Bexar County. District 25 included northern portions of Bexar County, all of Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, and Kendall counties, and a part of southern Travis County.
From 1988 to 1993, Wentworth was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 123. He won a special election on May 7, 1988, called when the Republican Representative Kae T. Patrick of San Antonio resigned in his fourth term.
In 2012, Wentworth was defeated in his bid for re-nomination. In the Republican primary runoff held on July 31, he lost to Tea Party candidate Donna Campbell, who amassed 45,292 votes (66.2 percent) to Wentworth's 23,168 (33.8 percent).
A fourth-generation Texan, Wentworth was born in Mercedes in Hidalgo County in south Texas. At the time of his defeat for the Texas Senate in 2012, he was serving his seventh term. From 2004 to 2005, he was the Senate president pro tem. On November 20, 2004, he was "Governor for a Day".
Wentworth was the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Open Government and serves on the Select Committee on Redistricting; Higher Education; Administration; Transportation and Homeland Security; and Intergovernmental Relations committees. He is a member of the board of directors of both the Natural Resources Foundation of Texas and of the Center for Public Policy and Political Studies at Austin Community College.
Wentworth's public service prior to the Texas Legislature includes one year as a university system regent, six years as a county commissioner, two years as a city attorney, three years as a congressional assistant, and three years' active duty as a counterintelligence officer in the United States Army from 1962 to 1965. Earlier, Wentworth worked as a newspaper carrier, television station copy boy, waiter, dishwasher, library clerk, and a taxicab driver.
A 1958 graduate of Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Wentworth earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962 from Texas A&M University in College Station. After his military service, he was an assistant from 1966 to 1968 and 1971 to 1972 to the late Republican United States Representative Bob Price of Pampa, Texas.
Wentworth worked as a general assignments reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal for a year and then as an assistant to the Lubbock County Attorney while he was pursuing a degree at Texas Tech University School of Law. Wentworth served as vice president of his high school student body, senior class officer in college, and president of his law school student body. In addition, he was the national president of the law student division of the American Bar Association. In 2000, Wentworth was named the "Distinguished Alumnus" of Texas Tech University School of Law.
Wentworth is a member of the National Executive Committee of the Council of State Governments. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the 21st Century Foundation of the Council of State Governments and served from 2008 to 2009 as the chairman of the 16-state Southern Legislative Conference. He is a member of the board of trustees of the American Council of Young Political Leaders.
A practicing attorney, Wentworth is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the San Antonio Bar Foundation. He is admitted to practice law in both Texas and the District of Columbia.
Wentworth and his wife Karla, a licensed professional interior designer, have two sons, Jason and Matthew Wentworth. After his term in the state Senate, Wentworth was appointed to the position of Precinct 3 justice of the peace by the Bexar County Commission.
In the Republican primary for the District 25 seat in the state Senate in 2002, state Republican chairman Susan Weddington, who normally remained neutral in primary contests, openly backed Wentworth's unsuccessful conservative opponent, then State Representative John Shields of San Antonio. Weddington became involved because of Wentworth's support for abortion.
