West, Allen, 1961-

Allen Bernard West (born February 7, 1961) is an American politician, and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. A member of the Republican Party, West represented Florida's 22nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 and has served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas since 2020.

West was deployed to Kuwait in 1991 and Iraq in 2003. In 2003, West was charged in an incident that involved the beating and simulated execution of an Iraqi policeman, with West firing a gun near the Iraqi man's head during an interrogation. After an Article 32 hearing was held, West accepted non-judicial punishment, was fined $5,000, and allowed to retire as a lieutenant colonel. After leaving the military, West moved to Florida, where he taught at a high school for a year and worked for a defense contractor, part of this time spent in Afghanistan as a civilian adviser to the Afghan National Army.

West entered politics in 2008 as the Republican nominee for Florida's 22nd congressional district, losing to Democratic incumbent Ron Klein. In a re-match in 2010, he won the seat, coinciding with significant Republican gains in that year's midterm elections. West took office in January 2011 as the first African-American Republican member of Congress from Florida since Josiah T. Walls left office in 1876 near the end of Reconstruction. In Congress, West was a high-profile member of the Tea Party Caucus and the Tea Party movement. Redistricting due to the 2010 census resulted in West switching to Florida's 18th congressional district for the 2012 House elections. He lost to Democratic nominee Patrick Murphy in what was the most expensive congressional House race of that cycle.

West ran for the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Texas in 2020. West became the new state chairman after he defeated the incumbent chairman, James Dickey, on July 20, 2020. Widely described as a "firebrand conservative", West has been criticized for comments about Islam, descriptions of President Barack Obama as a "low-level Socialist agitator", and unfounded accusations that 81 Democratic members of Congress were members of the Communist Party.