News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee House of Representatives Speaker Cameron Sexton said he is hopeful to continue to be the house speaker as the house will nominate a speaker during the Republican GOP Caucus this week.
Sexton has been the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2019. Sexton said he would like to remain as speaker and in a sense has to campaign for the position.
“You do work the state and work the members and go meet with them and talk to them and see what they are wanting,” Sexton said. “We continue to do that, look, being a speaker is a full-time job and so I’m on the phone constantly talking to members, I’m constantly meeting with members and so I’m hopeful that they see that I’ve done a good job and I’m hopeful that they’ll give me another two years.
Sexton said he defines doing a good job as representing the state, improving the state, following the law, and showing decorum to others. Sexton said he believes under his leadership the state has made improvements and is headed in the right direction.
“I think it shows in how well we are performing and what we are doing,” Sexton said. “The Republican Caucus is stronger than it has ever been. We are one big unit and we are looking forward to coming back in January.”
Sexton said the speaker of the house is in charge of appointing committee members to many different committees. Sexton said fortunately he has not had to intervene on committees in the past several years.
“If you put people in the right places like you would if you were running a business you will be successful,” Sexton said. “And so I come in on the bigger issues when things blow up and we try to calm people down. Look, at the end of the day we are still 75 Republicans and there are 24 Democrats. We will have flare-ups but you have flare-ups with your own family, with your siblings, with your relatives, but at the end of the day you can have flare-ups but if you build a relationship and you work with them in the past you can overcome those differences and for the most part we have.”
Sexton said he believes the caucus is a cohesive unit as they allow debate and descention. Sexton those conversations help prevent issues from becoming bigger issues in the future.
