Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Blake is from a well-known political family. He is the step-grandson of Sissy Farenthold, a long-time liberal Democratic icon in Texas, who was married to his grandfather, George Farenthold, from 1950-1985. His grandmother, Annie Blake Morgan, was married to Hayden Head Sr., a longtime South Texas political power broker instrumental in the election of Republican U.S. Senator John Tower. Head was also influential in deepening the Port of Corpus Christi ship channel, establishing Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and building Choke Canyon Reservoir

Blake attended Incarnate Word Academy, the University of Texas at Austin where he received a BS in Radio, Television, and Film, and St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio.

His diverse career includes working as a radio disc jockey in high school and college, seven years of practicing law at the Kleberg Law Firm in Corpus Christi and founding Farenthold Consulting LLC, a computer consulting and web design firm. Blake was also the co-host for Lago in the Morning, a top rated conservative talk radio program.

Blake has been a longtime civic and community leader in Corpus Christi, serving on the boards of St. James Episcopal School, the Texas State Aquarium, Computer Section of the State Bar of Texas, and on the leadership team of the Social Media Club of Corpus Christi. Before his election, he spent time refereeing youth basketball games and volunteering to teach computers and digital photography to senior citizens.

Blake met his wife Debbie while at college waiting in line for tickets to a Jimmy Buffett concert. They have two daughters. Morgan attends Texas Tech and Amanda attends Vanderbilt University.

Blake defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Solomon Ortiz by 799 votes on election night and kept the same margin of victory after a manual recount requested by Ortiz. His final margin of victory over Ortiz was 47.85 to 47.1 percent and was considered one of the biggest upsets of the 2010 election in which Republicans gained 63 House seats nationwide.

Since his election, Blake has become widely recognized for his work on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, helping lead the fight against Fast and Furious, a program run by the U.S. Department of Justice where federal agents put over 30,000 weapons into the hands of Mexican drug gangs, then halted all tracking activities of where those weapons were going. One of those weapons was used to kill a U.S law enforcement official.

Blake also serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He is also a member of the Republican Study Committee, as well as the Tea Party Caucus.