 That same year, Paul was returned to Congress, while businessman Tom DeLay captured the county's seat in the Texas House of Representatives.In 1984 DeLay succeeded Paul in Congress after the latter ran an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign, and became House majority leader by 2002.Beginning in 1982, Republicans won a number of county-level offices and judicial benches, and Fort Bend County's new reputation as a Republican stronghold culminated in the 1994 election of a Republican county judge to the commissioners' court for the first time since Reconstruction.