This Year, How Much Clout Did Texas Have on Capitol Hill?

Internal politics play a role on Texas representatives in Congress.
 

By Joy DiazDecember 28, 2015 12:45 pm

In presidential politics, the growing trend is for candidates to position themselves as outsiders. Even professional politicians have gotten in on the game.

While reports that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t have many friends in Washington, D.C. may help his presidential ambitions, does it hurt Texas?

The Houston Chronicle‘s Washington correspondent Kevin Diaz says Cruz’s affect is arguable.

“I don’t think it’s affected the state’s clout as much as it’s affected his,” Diaz says. “As we all know, he shamelessly called the leader of the Republican Party a liar on the floor of the Senate.”

Other representatives, Diaz says, have made strides for the state in 2015, like Congressman Kevin Brady, who represents Texas’ 8th district.

“Brady’s got a pretty ambitious agenda when it comes to rewriting taxes,” Diaz says of the senior member of the House & Ways committee.

What you’ll hear in this segment:
– “Stocking stuffers,” or key laws Congress passed before the holidays
– Which event led the state to lose clout early in 2015
– How this year’s leadership shake-up in the House of Representatives could help Texas