Poe Statement On Speaker Vote

Statement

Today, Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) issued the following statement:

"Today the House voted Paul Ryan in as the next Speaker of the House.

For years, many Americans have been frustrated with the lack of conservative leadership in Congress. Not only are they frustrated with this brand of faux-conservatism, they are also fed up with the continual pattern of a few elite members calling the shots and excluding the voices of the many. As your advocate in Washington I too have been irritated by this for a long time. Finally, the gavel has been passed.

Grassroots conservative efforts fueled by this frustration led to Speaker Boehner's retirement and ultimately prevented Kevin McCarthy from taking over the position. Those of us who opposed Speaker Boehner opposed McCarthy for the same reason which is why despite initially being viewed as a shoe-in candidate he is not the Speaker today. We did not want more of the same.

Back at square one, the conference went through a methodical and democratic process to find and elect the next Speaker. Some showed interest in running but ultimately we were left with two candidates, Paul Ryan & Daniel Webster. The candidate with the most conservative record won--Paul Ryan.

Over the past week I have personally participated in discussions (both in a group and one on one) with Paul Ryan where we were able to have frank conversations about the future direction of the House. We may not agree on every issue, but he is the clear choice to push our conservative agenda forward. He is a policy expert who has been the architect of conservative reforms and he is also an open-minded and accessible person. He promised us procedural changes and now it is time for him to unite the conference and give a voice to those Members (and the people they represent) who have felt left out of the process. I am cautiously optimistic that this will be the start of a new chapter for the House."

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