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The Speaker’s main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House. Politically, the speaker may also play a leading role in deciding the fate of legislation. Phelan advanced to the runoff with rival David Covey, a former chairman of the Orange County Republican Party who has been endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and former President Donald Trump.
One dead in North Austin shooting, APD says
Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, replaced former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who retired from office after a secret recording scandal that fractured relationships in the 150-member lower chamber. Phelan has billed himself as a figure who has earned the trust of his colleagues and who wants to lead the House by letting members drive the business of it. Phelan also cited recent reporting by The Texas Tribune about an increase in rural hospitals no longer delivering babies and committed to reversing that trend.
List of speakers of the Texas House of Representatives
Phelan countered with accusations that Covey, who has never before served as an elected government official and is simply a pawn of Paxton and other far-right interests. Phelan’s base of support included many local Republican leaders in his three-county district as well as former Gov. Rick Perry, who appeared with the speaker on the campaign trail in Beaumont, Vidor and Jasper ahead of election day. "This runoff is not just another race, it's the frontline of the battle for the soul of our district," Phelan said in a statement Tuesday evening. "While my opponent hides behind empty rhetoric, dishonest advertising and surrogate voices, I stand before voters with a clear record of service and conservative success." Also gone is Amarillo state Sen. Kel Seliger, a business-oriented Republican who had an independent streak and would sometimes tank legislation supported by Patrick.
Texas House of Representatives
He was defeated by a progressive Democrat, Fred Head, who was a sitting House member who moved to Price's district to challenge the speaker, according to "The House Will Come to Order," a history of the Texas House speakership published in 2010. Phelan fought back in blunt and often personal terms against Paxton, with campaign ads reminding voters of the corruption and abuse of office allegations that gave rise to the impeachment trial. In the months before the session begins, several legislators typically declare themselves candidates for the speakership. A ‘speaker’s race’ then takes place, involving backroom deliberations among members of the House. These contests may play out outside of public view, though sometimes candidates or factions may make public statements about the race. The speaker is elected by a vote of the members of the Texas House on the first day of each regular session (in January of odd-numbered years).
House Republicans issue demands for next Texas speaker - The Texas Tribune
House Republicans issue demands for next Texas speaker.
Posted: Tue, 09 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When yesterday’s demonstration became disruptive to the students, faculty and staff in Meiling Hall, the university issued multiple warnings. Ohio State has an unwavering commitment to freedom of speech and took this action in alignment with our space use rules to provide for the orderly conduct of university business. Dozens of state troopers and police officers in riot gear were at the scene after hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the war in Gaza and demand the university divest from companies that manufacture machinery used in Israel’s war.
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
In the March 5 primary, Covey bested Phelan by roughly 3% of the vote in House District 21, along the Texas Gulf Coast, forcing Phelan to become the first House speaker to face a runoff since the 1970s. Phelan's campaign has called Covey's claims about reaching out to the incumbent to schedule a debate false and highlighted that as of Thursday the challenger's campaign has yet to respond to the TV stations' official debate invitation, which was sent April 1. Paxton wasn’t the only Republican attacking fellow Republicans in Tuesday’s primaries. Abbott targeted nearly two dozen incumbents who helped defeat his plan to spend tax money on private schools, putting some lawmakers in the crosshairs of both men as targets for removal. Phelan advanced to a May 28 contest with Covey, an oil and gas consultant and party activist endorsed by Paxton and former President Donald Trump.
'Battle for the soul': Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan headed to runoff with Trump-backed challenger - KUT
'Battle for the soul': Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan headed to runoff with Trump-backed challenger.
Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Tuesday’s election was expected; the day after Election Day, Phelan announced he had more than the needed votes to secure the gavel. Since then, he has been transitioning from House member to House speaker, assembling his policy staff and outlining his vision for the session during media interviews. Phelan, who has served in the lower chamber since 2015, had bipartisan support for his nomination for speaker, with Republicans Will Metcalf of Conroe and J.M. State Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, also spoke in support of Phelan, describing him as someone who will unify the body and listen to members. After Phelan's election, Gov. Greg Abbott addressed the chamber, congratulating the new speaker and emphasizing a line from Phelan's speech about permanently repealing some regulations that the governor suspended during the pandemic.
Fox 7 photographer among those arrested at University of Texas at Austin
House Republicans who blocked McCarthy’s leadership for more than a dozen votes, grinding Congressional business to a halt for four days last week. The university said it is considering keeping the campus closed beyond the weekend, and accused students of stealing items and breaking “numerous laws”. Local news station Fox 7 Austin has confirmed that one of its photographers was arrested on campus during the protests Wednesday. While there have been reports of antisemitism on campuses in recent weeks, protest organizers have blamed such incidents on outside agitators, insisting that their movements are peaceful.
Isabella Guinigundo, a spokesperson for Ohio youth for climate justice, told the student newspaper that the protesters were told by the police that they were being too loud before officers approached the crowd, pulling them out and arresting them. Two Ohio State University students were arrested on Tuesday and charged with criminal trespassing during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the university campus, school officials said. A photographer was among those arrested during clashes between protesters and law enforcement on the University of Texas at Austin campus on Wednesday. The rules also allow the Speaker to appoint conference committees, create select committees, and to direct committees to conduct interim studies when the legislature is not in session.
She could activate a vote at any time so Johnson should know he is skating on thin ice. Greene had vowed to press her challenge after Johnson announced a strategy to pass $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan earlier this month. About two-thirds of that money was for Ukraine, an issue Greene had called her "red line" for moving against the speaker.
The GOP speaker, however, has grown more willing to confront the threat from the right, and Democrats have suggested that they're willing to protect him from an ouster effort if he allowed a vote on Ukraine aid. In the two years since Russia's invasion, opposition to aiding Ukraine has grown from a fringe position to a majority view among House GOP lawmakers. Many argue the money should be spent domestically or that policy changes at the US-Mexico border should take precedence. “We have witnessed police punching a female student, knocking over a legal observer, dragging a student over a chain-link fence, and violently arresting students for simply standing at the front of the crowd,” the statement said.
New York House Republicans have called on Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to resign immediately for failing to end the protests. Mike Johnson said he will call on the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, to resign when he joins Jewish students at the university later today. The encampment marks the largest protest on Harvard’s campus since former university president Claudine Gay’s resignation earlier this year, the Harvard Crimson reports. Pro-Palestinian protesters launched an encampment at Harvard University’s Harvard Yard this morning to protest against the suspension of the university’s undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee and demand the university divest from Israel’s war in Gaza. “UT Austin does not tolerate disruptions of campus activities or operations like we have seen at other campuses,” a statement by the university’s division of student affairs said.
Student negotiators said in a statement that university leaders had threatened to call in the National Guard and NYPD if their demands were not met. Campus protests are growing across the US, with arrests this week at Yale and New York universities. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has weighed in on the student campus protests, calling them “antisemitic” and claiming they “incite terrorism”.
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