Voting Resources
January 9th at the Capitol and 10th at the 85th TX Legislative Session – and the WINNER is... Joe Straus!
Wayne Christian was sworn in on January 9th as the latest addition to the Texas Railroad Commission. The William Travis building room 111 in Austin was standing room only, filled with conservatives from all over Texas to congratulate Christian. Texas US Senator Ted Cruz administered the oath of office to the former Texas legislator with Senator Bryan Hughes and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton participating in the introductions. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many active conservatives in one room; it felt great to be among them.
The Texas Capitol was full of activity on Tuesday, January 10th with lines at the elevators and stairs of constituents trying to reach the Senate and House chambers and galleries for the beginning of the 85th Texas Legislative session. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick gaveled the start of the perfunctory Senate session at high noon by welcoming new and old alike; Governor Greg Abbott ended his address to the senate by saying that Texas was ‘exceptional’. Justice Nathan Hecht gave the oath of office to all the new senators. Afterwards, time was spent taking photographs with family, friends and state wide elected officials.
The first act of the House of Representatives was to elect a Speaker, and Joe Straus reigned as he was elected unanimously by the 150 house members to become the Speaker for the fifth consecutive session. Straus defeated his strongest opponent so far in the primary for the HD121, located in San Antonio. Straus easily sailed to victory as Texas Speaker of the House with no opposition.
Anyone give any thought to the house representatives that won by strongly campaigning on NOT supporting Straus? Could it be ‘they’ finally understand that without Straus’s support their district’s needs might be overlooked or that working together might be a much better solution than fighting for control? Straus has proven to be a worthy warrior defeating challengers for HD121. As far as his Speaker’s position, it appears to be solidified for future sessions. Let’s hope that those that campaigned on NOT supporting Straus regain their dignity and learn to ‘man up’ for the challenges ahead.
Some of the priorities for this session are: Balanced Budget, School Choice, Convention of States, End of Life, ending abortion in Texas and the very controversial ‘Bathroom Bill’. All of these issues won’t be won without a fight. Tuesday marked the first day of the 140 days they will be in session.
