Joe Straus

Joseph Richard "Joe" Straus, III
Texas State Representative for District 121 (Bexar County)
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 2005
Preceded by	Elizabeth Ames Jones
Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 2009
Preceded by	Thomas Russell "Tom" Craddick
Born	September 1, 1959 San Antonio, Texas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Julie Brink Straus
Occupation	Businessman
Religion	Judaism

Joseph Richard Straus, III, known as Joe Straus (born September 1, 1959), is a Moderate Republican state representative from San Antonio, Texas, who has been since January 2009 the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He was initially elected to the House in a special election held in January 2005 to succeed Elizabeth Ames Jones, who resigned to join the Texas Railroad Commission, a post she has since vacated. A youthful admirer of the late U.S. Senator John Tower, for whom he was once a part-time chauffeur, Straus has, like Tower, supported pro-choice interests. His critics claim that he has also undermined free enterprise economics, but he contends that he has been a champion for economic development.

To win the Speakership, Straus, armed with Democratic backing, unseated fellow Republican Tom Craddick of Midland, Texas, the senior member of the state House and its first ever Republican Speaker, a post that he held from 2003 to 2009.

In the final weeks of 2010, a movement developed among some conservative Republican citizens and political figures to replace Straus as Speaker. State Republican Executive Committee member John Cook wrote in an e-mail to a colleague: "We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it." The dissident conservatives stressed that their opposition to Straus is not because he is Jewish but that the Speaker should have pro-life, pro-family values.

On January 11, 2011, the Texas House nevertheless reelected Speaker Straus, 132-15. The dissenters, including Bryan Hughes of Mineola, Warren Chisum of Pampa, and Ken Paxton of McKinney, Texas (who in 2015 became the Texas attorney general), have been termed by Tea Party activists as the "Texas 15."

On October 25, 2017, Straus announced that he will not seek reelection in 2018 to the state House and hence will vacate the Speaker's office. He said that his record five terms in the office has been a resounding success. No opponent had declared intentions to oppose Straus in the Republican primary scheduled for March 6, 2018. Already in the running for the Speakership are John Zerwas, a Straus loyalist from Richmond, Texas, and state Representative Phillip Stephen "Phil" King of Weatherford in Parker County, first elected in 1998. A question remains as to whether the Speaker will continue to be elected by the whole membership, which can allow a Democrat-Moderate Republican majority to prevail as with Straus, or only the majority party, which would give a conservative candidate, such as King, the advantage. Also bowing out in 2018 after eight terms in the Texas House is a Straus lieutenant, Byron Cook of Corsicana in Navarro County in north central Texas, who barely won re-nomination over a conservative challenger in 2016, Thomas McNutt, heir of the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana. Cook played the leading role in killing the bathroom legislation in 2017 by keeping the bill from obtaining a committee vote.