Tennessee House Republicans convened on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 to elect their new leaders. After months of speculation about who will replace Beth Harwell as speaker of the House, we now know that Glen Casada (Thompson’s Station) will serve in such capacity. Casada won the nomination with 47 out of 73 votes. The months-long campaign for speaker was not the only election held by the caucus. The House Republicans elected William Lamberth (Portland) as the new majority leader, Bill Dunn (Knoxville) as Speaker Pro Tempore, Cameron Sexton (Crossville) as Republican Caucus Chair, Ron Gant (Rossville) as Assistant Majority Leader and Rick Tillis (Lewisburg) as Republican Whip.
The 111th General Assembly will convene on January 8, 2019, and the House will formally elect its new speaker. The Republicans hold a 73-26 supermajority over the Democrats. The new speaker will be responsible for selecting the chairs of all of the House committees.