Canseco, Quico, 1949-

Francisco Raul "Quico" Canseco (born July 30, 1949) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district from 2011 to 2013.

Born and raised in Laredo, Texas, he went to local schools before enrolling in Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. Canseco then attended St. Louis University, where he graduated with a B.A. in history in 1972. He matriculated to the university’s law school, earning a J.D. in 1975. Canseco worked in private practice and for a number of law firms between 1975 and 1987 before serving as general counsel for a bank for five years. He was also the director of another small bank conglomerate in the western suburbs of San Antonio. In 1991, Canseco became the president and director of a family-run development corporation based in San Antonio.

Canseco became involved in politics after a successful career in the legal and banking industries. He served as an associate general counsel for the Texas Republican Party and on the board of directors of the Texas Federation of Republican Women. He was also an at-large delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Canseco sought elective office when he unsuccessfully ran for a U.S. House seat in Texas’s 28th Congressional District in 2004. Canseco and his family moved about 150 miles north from Laredo to San Antonio to run in the 23rd Congressional District while building a stronger campaign team. Despite Canseco’s efforts, he lost to Bexar County, Texas commissioner Lyle Larson in the 2008 Republican primary. In 2010, Canseco was successful in winning the Republican nomination in a runoff against Will Hurd; he went on to defeat incumbent Democrat Ciro Rodriguez that November.

Sworn in to the 112th Congress in January 2011, Canseco earned a seat on the House Financial Services Committee and also was tapped as vice chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Conference. The newly minted freshman also delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address in Spanish in January 2012. After entering Congress, Canseco pursued an agenda that appealed to his conservative supporters. On the issue of border security, Canseco submitted the Southwest Cross-border Violence Recognition Act (H.R. 2124) a bill that directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to report on incidents of cross-border violence within a 90- or 180-day period. He also sponsored the Border Security Information Improvement Act of 2012 (H.R. 6368), a bill that directed the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit reports of cross-border violence to congressional committees.

For his 2012 re-election race, Canseco did not change his platform of smaller government, increased border security, and deregulation. He narrowly lost to Democrat Pete Gallego. In his 2014 bid to regain his seat in the 23rd district, he lost the Republican nomination to Will Hurd. In a 2018 bid to return to Congress, Canseco ran in the 18-way Republican primary for Texas's 21st congressional district to succeed the retiring incumbent Republican Lamar Smith. He was ultimately unsuccessful, garnering less than 5% of the vote.