Texas House Speaker Joe Straus to head national push to turn more legislatures red [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

AUSTIN — Texas House Speaker Joe Straus had to curb his enthusiasm Tuesday when, as expected, he was named the head of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, a national GOP group that aims to turn more legislatures red.

Republicans have been annihilating the Democrats’ “bench” of state officeholders so rapidly in recent cycles that you could almost read a how-do-I-top-that lament in Straus’ reaction.

“We have a lot of ground to defend,” Straus said in a statement.

Boy, is that an understatement.

After the 2014 midterms, Republicans held majorities in 69 of 99 state legislative chambers. That was a 10-chamber increase. Back in prehistoric times — before the 2010 election, to be precise — the GOP controlled just 36 state legislative bodies.

Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/texas-house-speaker-joe-straus-to-head-national-push-to-turn-more-legislatures-red.html/