While the state’s 89th Legislature is still in office, The Texas Newsroom will be helping you get to know the people behind the politics. This story is a part of an ongoing series profiling Texas’ lawmakers in their own words.
Unlike most Texas lawmakers, Andy Hopper wasn’t born and raised in the Lone Star State – or even the South. The Denton representative started his life in Kansas City.
“My family's not from Kansas City. There's no Hoppers that live in Kansas City now, or even Missouri,” Hopper said. “But my dad worked for Western Electric. It was like Bell Labs.”
Hopper didn’t spend too much time in Kansas City. While in elementary school, his family relocated to North Carolina for his dad’s work. That’s where he spent most of his formative years, growing up with two older brothers and discovering his passion for music, yard work and basketball.
“I was definitely a nerd,” Hopper said. “I was in band, I was rolling the ham radio, I did play church league basketball. You can’t grow up in North Carolina and not be into basketball.”
The basketball part was a rite of passage as a North Carolina resident.
“It cut across all social boundaries. Everybody had to play. Like you were ridiculed if you didn't play on church league basketball,” Hopper said.
When Hopper wasn’t playing basketball, his father made sure to keep him and his brothers active by doing work on the family’s few acres of land.
“There was always some trench to dig,” Hopper said. “One time, we put in a water line that stretched hundreds of feet from the woods to the house. We were digging forever.”
Though their home was modest — “an old ranch, probably built in the '50s or '60s” — Hopper remembers the contrast with the nearby upscale golf-course homes.
One perk of that proximity?
“I remember when I was maybe a sophomore in high school, I walked across and saw Tiger Woods playing,” Hopper said.
Another move came just as Hopper was starting his junior year of high school. His father’s job was relocating again — this time to Columbus, Ohio. Hopper didn’t want to make a move so late into his high school career, but now he admits, “it worked out great.”
“That’s where I met my wife, in chemistry class,” Hopper said. “She was a flag in the marching band, and I played trumpet. The rest is history.”
Hopper and Amanda stayed together, attended Ohio University, and got married on graduation day in 1997.
“It was funny because Hillary Clinton actually spoke at our graduation and me and Amanda were both Republicans,” Hopper said. “We're like ‘we're not going to go.’ So then we just got married that day and moved to Texas the next week.”
They settled in North Texas, where Hopper earned his graduate degree from the University of North Texas. The couple soon started a family — unexpectedly early.
“I remember Amanda told me she was pregnant when we were 21. I was like, ‘what in the world?’” said Hopper. “You know it's too young.”
They went on to raise three sons: Grant, Sam and Ian. All were homeschooled while Hopper worked as a software engineer for a defense contractor.
These days, when he’s not in Austin for the legislative session, Hopper is back on his small farm — 11 acres of land in Wise County — where he and Amanda have turned their attention to homesteading.
“Trying to do small-scale agriculture. We have tons of pecan trees, which we desperately needed to graft this year,” said Hopper. “We try to run meat birds.”
With the Texas Legislature not set to reconvene until January 2027, Hopper says working the land will once again become the family’s top priority — at least for now.