House members of the GOP are holding leadership elections Tuesday. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is expected to easily win reelection, despite his sometimes complicated relationship with president-elect Donald Trump. But there are a few races that could give Texas congressional members roles at the top.
Jamie Lovegrove, Washington Correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, says Rep.Roger Williams, a Republican representing a stretch of the Hill Country, has a chance at becoming the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The committee focuses on candidate recruitment, fundraising and supporting congressional Republicans in elections.
“His big pitch to Republicans in the House has been reducing their dues to the NRCC,” Lovegrove says. “A lot of Republicans complain that they have very expensive dues that they have to submit all the time to the NRCC – that they make up a significant portion of their funds. He wants to give people a bit of a break and that’s a pretty attractive proposal to some folks.”
Bill Flores, a Republican from Bryan, is vying for Vice Chairman of the House Republican Caucus. That’s the broader Republican Party in the House. He currently serves on an independent research committee.
“The Caucus is really where it’s all going on and the Vice Chair role is actually fairly amorphous – it’s fairly undefined – so you can really do with it what you want,” Lovegrove says.
If elected to the role, Flores wants to improve communications and messaging within the party, according to Lovegrove.
“He thinks there’s a handful of congressional Republicans who are very good at going on TV, talking to reporters,” Lovegrove says. “He wants to make sure that everyone can do that and everyone’s comfortable talking to the press.”
One factor helping the Texas Republicans is the number of Republicans from Texas. Lovegrove says they tend to stick together.
“They all said the more Texans the better. I’m a Texan so I support Texans,” Lovegrove says. “They are really a collaborative bunch, so that certainly gives Williams and Flores an early advantage there.”
On the other side of the aisle, Lovegrove says it looks like Henry Muñoz of San Antonio will throw his name into the hat to run the Democratic National Committee. But he’s not the favorite.
“I would still say at this point the consensus on the Hill still seems to be around Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress,” Lovegrove says. “Munoz has been suggesting that there really needs to be a little more Latino representation in the DNC, but they both certainly got diverse credentials to be presenting to the party.”
Post by Sunny Sone.
