Frank Corte, Jr.

Frank Julius Corte, Jr. (born August 10, 1959), is a real estate businessman in San Antonio, Texas, who served as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from Bexar County between 1993 and 2011. In 1982, Corte was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and served three years on active duty. He joined the Marine Corps Reserve and was activated in the Gulf War of 1991. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Corte was recalled to duty and sent to Egypt. In 2002, he graduated from the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A colonel in the United States Marine Corps, Corte served in the Iraq War for more than six months. He was awarded the Bronze Star. While he was away twice on military deployments, Corte designated his wife, the former Valerie Ann Ryder (born ca. 1967), the mother of their three children, as his stand-in for his legislative duties, a procedure allowed in Texas. Corte's former colleague, Carl Isett of Lubbock, also designated his wife as his legislative proxy in 2006, while as a commissioned officer in the United States Naval Reserve, Isett was deployed in Kuwait and Iraq.

Corte was elected in House District 123 in 1992, when the incumbent Jeff Wentworth instead ran successfully for the District 25 seat in the Texas State Senate. Corte is remembered for his unwavering attempts to limit abortion, including his update to the Women's Right to Know Act to ensure the requirement of ultrasounds before a woman in Texas can legally proceed with the termination of a pregnancy. From 1993 to 1996 and again from 1996 to 1998, Corte was the president of the legislative bipartisan Texas Conservative Coalition. He was moved from District 123 to neighboring District 122 in 2003 to succeed John H. Shields, who did not seek reelection to the House that year but instead unsuccessfully challenged Jeff Wentworth within the Republican primary. In the 1996 U.S. presidential election, Corte was a Republican elector for the Dole/Kemp ticket. Corte is the son of Frank Corte, Sr. (born ca. 1930), and the former Rose Dean (born ca. 1932) of San Antonio. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in building construction from Texas A&M University in College Station. He has been a cubmaster for the Boy Scouts of America. Corte is a Sunday school teacher and a deacon at the University Baptist Church in San Antonio. Corte is in the property-management and land-development business. He did not seek a tenth two-year term in the Texas House in the 2010 Republican primary. Corte was succeeded in the legislature by former Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson.