Meet Chris
Chris has been married to his college sweetheart, Jackie, for nineteen years and they have four children. The Pedens have resided in Friendswood since 1989. Chris has attended Life Tabernacle of Houston for thirty years and the entire family now calls Life Tabernacle their church home.
Chris is a forty-three year old certified public accountant who graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a BBA degree in Accounting. As the founding partner for Peden & Associates, LLP, Chris has oversight responsibilities for more than 1,000 tax returns of high net worth individuals and 500 small to mid-sized corporation/entity returns. Additionally, Chris serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Select Asset Management, LLC, a private money manager with offices in Friendswood and Houston, TX and Moline, IL.
As a Friendswood city councilman, Chris is a strong supporter of NASA and the space program. With the Johnson Space center less than 2 miles from CD 14, many NASA workers and contractors live in CD 14. Recently retired astronaut Eileen Collins is a resident of CD 14, as are many of her colleagues in the elite astronaut corps.
Chris regularly volunteers to travel to Washington, D.C as a member of Citizens for Space Exploration whose mission is to promote awareness of the benefits of human space exploration and support for NASA and the Vision for Space Exploration. Additionally, the cutting edge work in nanotechnology and bioengineering being done in CD 14 at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston depends on NASA innovations so a prosperous NASA leads to a prosperous CD 14.
Chris has also taught Sunday school for a number of years at his church home, and for six years he was the president of Hope Village Foundation Board of Directors. Hope Village in Friendswood is a non-profit home for individuals with mental retardation; Chris currently serves as the vice president of the board.
Chris was elected to the Friendswood City Council in 2005 as part of a reform group of candidates backed by conservative talk show host Edd Hendee of C.L.O.U.T (Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes) and the Honorable Paul Bettencourt, Harris County's Tax Assessor.
Chris ran for public office to combat what at the time was out-of-control taxation and spending at Friendswood City Hall. Chris was elected with over 67% of the vote and set out to keep his campaign promises to reign in spending. After just one year in office, Chris was elected Mayor Pro Tem by his colleagues on council.
Much of Chris’s work on City Council has focused on working to cut local government spending and to put hard earned money back into taxpayers’ pockets – where it belongs. Seeking to limit local government spending, Chris led the fight to return more than $1,000,000 dollars back to Friendswood’s taxpayer’s in the first municipal tax refund in the city’s history.
As an advocate for personal property rights, Chris voted to limit the city’s power of eminent domain to traditional uses and not for purely economic development reasons; because in Texas a family’s home is their castle and Chris believes it deserves to be protected from government bureaucrats.
Chris has earned a reputation as a determined fighter for the principles that he believes are right, whether he’s in the majority or the minority. For his efforts in fighting for Friendswood’s taxpayers, the Americans for Prosperity commended Chris for being an “outspoken advocate for taxpayers”.
Chris passionately believes that English is the language of advancement in America. That’s why even though he fell short, Chris fought LULAC and the rising tide of liberalism and led the movement to get the question of making English the official language in the City of Friendswood on the ballot. Chris lost that battle, but he fought it and he’ll fight for the residents of CD 14 in the U.S. Congress.
Working to see that each taxpayer dollar is spent wisely and efficiently has been one of Chris's priorities on the Friendswood City Council and will be one of his priorities in Congress. Chris is committed to reducing the tax burden on working families and small businesses.
Chris has a well-earned reputation as a pro-family, pro-small business, pro-life Christian conservative who believes in free enterprise. Chris Peden is committed to standing up for us in Washington, D.C. He understands that our common sense conservative values -- placing a priority on God, country, family and work -- have helped us build a strong America; and that by sending a proven conservative Republican to the U.S. Congress, we can keep America strong.