Pete Olson is a decorated Naval aviator, and a graduate of Rice University and University of Texas School of Law in Austin.
Pete has flown missions over the Persian Gulf to enforce the international sanctions levied upon Iraq after the first Gulf War, the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and across much of the Pacific. In 1994, Pete’s combat aircrew was named Pacific Fleet’s best in anti-submarine warfare. He was transferred to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1994 and a year later was assigned to be a Naval Liaison Officer to the U.S. Senate.
While Pete was a Senate Liaison Officer, he assisted Texas’ then senior Senator, Phil Gramm, on several trips overseas to inspect military installations.
Senator Gramm asked Pete to join his staff in 1998 to head up the Senator’s work protecting and improving critical military facilities in Texas – including the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Ellington Field, the Army truck manufacturing facility in Sealy, and other installations.
Pete eventually assumed responsibility for Gramm’s vaunted Texas Special Projects team that fought for NASA funding, transportation funding like I-69, and infrastructure investments like Houston’s Medical Center, and the Port of Houston.
Upon Senator Gramm’s retirement, Pete was asked by newly-elected Senator John Cornyn to be his Chief of Staff. Pete served as Senator Cornyn’s Chief of Staff for nearly five years (December 2002 - May 2007) and among many responsibilities, helped the Senator in his efforts to protect NASA funding, confirm conservative judges to the federal bench, pass a Federal Marriage Amendment, and lay the groundwork for enforcement-first Immigration policies.
