Texas House Re-Elects Joe Straus as Speaker

Tuesday, at 12 Noon the 84th Legislature officially convened in Austin. The first order of business for the Texas House was electing a speaker.

Representative Scott Turner challenged Representative Joe Straus (pictured) for the position, but Straus won re-election to the post in a landslide, 127-19.

Lubbock's state rep. delegation was split on the vote with Rep. John Frullo voting for Straus and freshman Rep. Dustin Burrows voting for Turner.

After he took the Oath of Speaker, Straus speaking at the dais said, "I pledge to lead this House in a way that enables you to put your constituents first. Leading up to this day a small number sought to divide us with misleading and personal attacks, but you cannot effectively govern this House by dividing it. What happens on this floor isn't about any single member, myself included.  This House is about something bigger than all of us."

Straus continued with a dig to his opposition led by watchdog Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans, "This House belongs to no special interest, no single interest, it belong to almost 27 million Texans, all of the people we represent and their scorecard is the only one that matters."  Loud applause then broke out in the House.

The full vote for Speaker of the House is shown below.  Votes for Straus are denoted with an "N".