This same approach has been used in [[Texas]] since 2009, when Moderate Republican [[Joe Straus]] of [[San Antonio]] won the first of five elections for Speaker with a similar coalition of Moderate Republicans and Democrats, thus gutting the nominal Republican majority in the Texas House. Straus unseated the conservative Speaker [[Tom Craddick]] of [[Midland]], whose tenure as the longest-serving Republican member of the Texas House began in 1969. | This same approach has been used in [[Texas]] since 2009, when Moderate Republican [[Joe Straus]] of [[San Antonio]] won the first of five elections for Speaker with a similar coalition of Moderate Republicans and Democrats, thus gutting the nominal Republican majority in the Texas House. Straus unseated the conservative Speaker [[Tom Craddick]] of [[Midland]], whose tenure as the longest-serving Republican member of the Texas House began in 1969. |