BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Former Harris County Judge Willie E.B. Blackmon has been dreaming of a run for public office since he was about 13 years old and growing up in Pleasantville.
"I always told my father I'd like to run for the Texas State Legislature," Blackmon said. I was never able to do that because I was traveling all over the world with the U.S. Armed Forces."
Blackmon stopped in Bryan on Veteran's Day to talk with the public and local veterans while he announced his run for the 17th Congressional District on the Republican ticket. The district is currently represented by Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, who was elected in 2020.
Blackmon's dreams of running for office were put on hold after he graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston. He was a standout athlete and said he was personally recruited by Gen. James Earl Rudder and granted one of the first athletic scholarships for African-Americans in the history of Texas A&M University.
He entered the university in 1969 and graduated with a degree in marketing in 1973. Blackmon was a member of the 1970 Southwest Conference Championship Track and Field Team and is a three time All-Southwest Conference athlete and an All-American in the 880-yard dash. In 1994, he was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2005, was named a Texas A&M Distinguished Alumnus in 2005.
He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1984 and he served as a military attorney (JAG). He would serve in the U.S. military for about 40 years, both on active and inactive duty. He said one of his most memorable moments during that time was acting as the staffed judge advocate on September 11, 2001.
"I was the staffed judge advocate of the 147th Fighter Wing and one of our fighter jets, F-16s, was escorting the president after Tower I and II came down," Blackmon said. "That was a memorable, heart wrenching day because I had to walk into my courtroom and tell 500 people that America now had been attacked."
His dream of running for office, though, has never been far from his mind. After retiring from the Houston Municipal courts in 2004, he retired from the U.S. Armed Forces in 2009. He said he wants to not only help people live better lives, he wants to help them have a better quality of life.
"I just wanted to do something for the country to make a contribution that said I want to help make this nation even greater than the nation I was born into, make it better and that excites me to no end," he said.
The straight-forward talking retired judge and military man isn't shy about sharing his views or his platforms. "I'm a Republican. Most people say 'you're a Black Republican?' Yes I am," Blackmon said. "The Republican party is the party of Lincoln. I'm affiliated with them (Republicans) because some of the core values of what the Republican party stands for is what I like. I'm a very conservative person."
So why does he want to serve the 17th Congressional District? One of the biggest reasons is it's a way to give back to Texas A&M and Aggieland.
"My memories of A&M and the Aggies have made me what I am today. Without A&M, there would not be a Willie Blackmon standing before you with the honors I have," he said. "All my instructors, my teachers, my coaches, Earl Rudder - all of them made me who and what you see before you today."