San Antonio–New Braunfels is an eight-county metropolitan area in the United States defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The metropolitan area is colloquially referred to as "Greater San Antonio" and is situated in South-Central Texas. The official 2011 U.S. Census estimate showed the metropolitan area's population at 2,194,927—up from a reported 1,711,103 in 2000—making it the 24th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Greater San Antonio is bordered to the northeast by Greater Austin.

The San Antonio–New Braunfels MSA is the third-largest metro area in the state of Texas, after Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington and Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown. It is also the third-fastest growing large metropolitan area in the state (over 1 million population), after Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, respectively.

The MSA covers a total of 7,387 sq. mi. 7,340 sq. mi. is land and 47 sq. mi. is water.

The San Antonio–New Braunfels metropolitan area is home to six Fortune 1000 companies. Valero Energy Corp, Tesoro Petroleum Corp, Clear Channel Communications, USAA, and NuStar Energy are located in San Antonio. Rush Enterprises is located in New Braunfels. There are over 4 million people in the San Antonio-Austin corridor.

San Antonio ( /ˌsænænˈtoʊni.oʊ/) is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.3 million. It was the fastest growing of the top 10 largest cities in the United States from 2000-2010, and the second from 1990-2000. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. San Antonio has characteristics of other western urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city limits. The city is one of the two principal municipalities of the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area, the other being New Braunfels. Commonly referred to as Greater San Antonio, the metropolitan area has a population of 2.2 million based on the 2011 U.S. Census estimate, making it the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the United States and third-largest in the state of Texas.

The city was named for San Antonio de Padua, whose feast day is on June 13, when a Spanish expedition stopped in the area in 1691. Famous for Spanish missions, the Alamo, the River Walk, the Tower of the Americas, the Alamo Bowl, Marriage Island and host to SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme parks, the city is visited by approximately 26 million tourists per year according to the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city is home to the four-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, one of the largest in the country.

Harvey Ray Hilderbran (born February 9, 1960) is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 53, which includes fifteen central Texas counties. Hilderbran resides in Kerrville west of San Antonio.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1988 and was most recently re-elected in 2010 to serve the people of District 53.

In 2011, he was appointed chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which deals will all legislation relating to the state’s tax code. As chairman of the committee, Hilderbran sits on the Legislative Audit Committee and the Legislative Budget Board. The board prepares the draft appropriations bill along with budget estimates for each state agency. Hilderban also serves as a member of the Redistricting Committee, State Affairs Committee, and the Select Committee on Voter Identification and Voter Fraud.

From 2003-2008, he served as chairman of the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism. As chairman of the committee, Hilderbran oversaw the regulation and control of hunting and fishing, the preservation of wildlife and fish, the operation and control of state parks, the development and regulation of the state's cultural and historical resources, and the promotion of international and interstate tourism. The committee has jurisdiction over the Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Historical Commission, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Kay Bailey Hutchison (born Kathryn Ann Bailey; July 22, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison also became the first Texas U.S. senator to receive more than four million votes in a single election.

Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, and fifth most senior female senator, having assumed office in June 1993 behind Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD, 1987), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA, 1992), Barbara Boxer (D-CA, Jan. 1993), and Patty Murray (D-WA, Jan. 1993).

Hutchison was born Kathryn Ann Bailey in Galveston, the daughter of Kathryn Ella (née Sharp) and Allan Abner Bailey, Jr., an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas.

She married her first husband, John Pierce Parks, a medical student, on April 8, 1967; they divorced in 1969. She married her present (second) husband, Ray Hutchison, in Dallas on March 16, 1978. They have two adopted children: Kathryn Bailey and Houston Taylor, both adopted in 2001. She also has two stepdaughters, Brenda and Julie, from her husband's previous marriage. Ray Hutchison is a former member of the Texas Legislature, a former state Republican chairman, and ran an unsuccessful bid for the Texas governorship, having lost the Republican nomination in 1978 to Bill Clements, a senior partner with the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, of Dallas.

Dolph Briscoe, Jr. (April 23, 1923 – June 27, 2010) was a Uvalde, Texas rancher and businessman who was the 41st Governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979.

Because of his re-election following an amendment to the Texas Constitution doubling the Governor's term to four years, Briscoe became both the last governor to serve a two-year term and the first to serve a four-year term.

A lifelong resident of Uvalde, Briscoe was first elected to the Texas Legislature in 1948 and served as a state representative from 1949 to 1957. As part of the reform movement in state politics stemming from the Sharpstown scandal, Briscoe won election as governor in 1972. During his six years as governor, Briscoe presided during a period of reform in state government as Texas's population and commerce boomed. Following his two terms as governor, Briscoe returned to the ranching and banking business in Uvalde. He is recognized as having been one of the leading citizens of the state and a benevolent supporter of many civic, cultural, and educational institutions in Texas and the nation. Most recently before his death the former Texas governor established the Dolph and Janey Briscoe Fund for Texas History at the University of Texas at Austin.