New Year Means New Texas House Speaker!
It’s a new year and a new legislative session! On January 14th, the Texas Legislature will reconvene for the 89th Legislature and on that day, the Texas House will select their new Speaker!
Currently, there are two Republicans claiming to have won the Speaker race! Rep. David Cook, who won the Texas House Republican Caucus vote in December and Rep. Dustin Burrows who claims he has the votes to win!
The official vote will take place on the opening day of the 89th Legislative session on January 14th which currently begins at 10:00 a.m. If you care about the Speaker race, stop by the Texas Capitol Tuesday to make your voice heard! If you’re planning on attending, stop by our office, we would love to see you!
AG (Attorney General) Paxton and RPT (Republican Party of Texas) Chairman, Abraham George, toured the state this week making strategic stops in multiple House Districts that have Republican House Members who are supporting Rep. Dustin Burrows to rally grassroots support for Rep. David Cook! Chairman George and AG Paxton stopped in Ft. Worth, Tyler, Leander and the Woodlands this week!
In other news, while AG Paxton and RPT Chairman George were rallying grassroots support, Rep. Cody Harris made an unexpected move! Rep. Cody Harris who is openly supporting Rep. Dustin Burrows filed a Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) complaint against Chairman George!
Rep. Cody Harris’s TEC complaint, says in part, that Chairman George is breaking the law “by threatening to expend funds on mail pieces targeting complainant, which would be an effort to intimidate members in order to influence their vote for speaker of the house” as well as threatening to reject certain members from being on the Republican primary ballot.
The Republican Party of Texas came out with a statement in response to the TEC complaint stating, “Asking Republican members of the Texas House to support their own rules and the Republican Party of Texas legislative priorities and rules is lawful and constitutionally protected speech.”
Chairman George also responded to the TEC complaint stating, “If I have to go to prison for asking Republican elected officials that they need to follow the Republican party platform and pass grassroots priorities, I’m going to be in a lot of trouble!”
At Texas Values, we agree that House Republicans should follow their own rules and support Rep. David Cook for Texas Speaker of the House. To learn more about this important issue you can read our blog post!
To hear more about the race, listen to the latest episode of the Texas Values Report where Texas Values President, Jonathan Saenz discusses the race with Senator Bob Hall!
