Texas State Rep. Dennis Bonnen Elected As House Speaker

AUSTIN, TEXAS — State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, a Republican from Angleton, Texas, was unanimously elected as House speaker on Tuesday, succeeding Joe Straus, who previously announced he would not seek re-election to the post.

Bonnen has big shoes to fill. Straus, a fellow Republican from San Antonio, was House speaker for a record-tying five terms after his 2009 election. In past comments to media outlets related to his campaign for the seat, Bonnen has referenced public school funding, school safety, combating human trafficking and reforming property tax collection as areas of priority focus.

"I’m honored to be able to serve as the next Speaker of the TX House," Bonnen wrote on Twitter after his unanimous 147-0 election. "Today we celebrate the start of the 86th #txlege. Tomorrow we get to work on priorities including school finance & property tax reform. Thank you to my colleagues for their confidence in me. Onward!"

Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey lauded the election via Twitter: "Congratulations to newly elected Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen," he wrote. "We are proud that Republicans united to elect a qualified Speaker. We look forward to working with Speaker Bonnen for our RPT Legislative Priorities during this 86th Legislative Session.”

As Texas House speaker, Bonnen has vowed to keep the Texas Legislature from becoming "...caught up in things that don't lead to real results," he once said, as reported by the Texas Tribune. He also pledged transparency, even if manifesting itself bluntly: "I've never seen the point in sugar-coating things," he said, as quoted by the Tribune. "I am direct and I am a problem solver."

Bonnen's election was met with spontaneous cheers and applause from fellow lawmakers. In his closing remarks during which he pleaded for unity among House members, Bonnen rendered an emotional tribute to his late father who passed away in 2017.

"Let's be sure when we adjourn sine die we leave this House and this state better than we found it," he said, as quoted by the Tribune. "There's a saying we have in Texas: as Texas goes, so goes the nation."

Like Bonnen, Straus also distinguished himself by a sense of individuality beyond partisanship. Toward the end of his tenure, Straus ran afoul of fellow conservatives with his disparate stances on some conservative causes. Most prominent among these ideological differences was Straus's strident criticism over the failed crafting of a so-called "bathroom bill" that was a pet cause of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who sought to ban transgender individuals from using public bathrooms labeled with the gender of their personal identities.

For his part, Patrick was absent from the first day of the Texas legislative session that ushered in the new House speaker, opting instead to attend a border security meeting at the White House.

Bonnen hails from the city of Angleton, the county seat of Brazoria County located amid the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. He has served in the Texas House of Representatives for more than 20 years, representing the 25th House district that encompasses southern Brazoria County and the entirety of Matagorda County. First elected to the Legislature at the age of 24, Bonnen joined the House in 1997 and began his 12th term of office in January 2019.

Prior to becoming Speaker of the House, Bonnen served for the past three legislative sessions as Speaker Pro Tempore. In the 84th and 85th sessions, he served as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and in the 85th session as a member of the House Culture, Recreation & Tourism Committee. Speaker Bonnen has previously served as Chairman of the Environmental Regulation Committee, Sunset Advisory Committee and the House Special Purpose Districts Committee, as Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee of Oversight of Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency, and as a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

He was born and raised on the Gulf Coast and resides with his wife, Kim, and their two sons in Lake Jackson, Texas.

Get Patch's Daily Newsletters and Real Time Alerts

>>> Photo of State Rep. Dennis Bonnen via Texas House of Representatives