Tennessee House speaker to resign amid text scandal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s embattled House Speaker Glen Casada announced Tuesday he plans to resign from his leadership post following a vote of no confidence by his Republican caucus amid a scandal over explicit text messages.
The move is unprecedented in Tennessee’s modern political era. The last Senate speaker resignation came in 1931. And in 1893, a House speaker declined to resign and his office was declared vacant, according to legislative librarian Eddie Weeks.
“When I return to town on June 3, I will meet with caucus leadership to determine the best date for me to resign as speaker so that I can help facilitate a smooth transition,” Casada said in a statement.
Casada announced the decision just a day after previously shrugging off a 45-24 secret ballot vote from his GOP caucus determining they no longer had confidence in his ability to lead the Tennessee House.
An increasing number of Republican leaders, including the House’s top officers, began demanding he step aside. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he would call a special legislative session if Casada didn’t voluntarily give up the key spot.
Casada has been dogged by calls to resign since it was revealed he exchanged text messages containing sexually explicit language about women with his former chief of staff several years ago, among other controversies.
The governor and Senate Speaker Randy McNally were among the Republicans who said Tuesday that Casada was making the right call in resigning.
“Speaker Casada has made the right decision, and I look forward to working with the legislature to get back to conducting the people’s business and focusing on the issues that matter most to our state,” Lee said in a statement.
The resignation announcement marked a quick, turbulent downfall for the Franklin lawmaker who has spent only a few months in the House’s top position.
His political support began to waver when his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, was pressured into resigning after the release of years-old racist texts and the sexually explicit messages, and Cothren’s admission that he used cocaine in his legislative office years before becoming Casada’s top aide. Casada was included in one of the group texts with a racist message, but he said he never saw it.
Another scandal that sparked early doubts was the report of possible evidence tampering by Cothren with a young black activist’s criminal case, which a special prosecutor is still investigating.
Casada denied that tampering allegation and a variety of others that continued to pile up, ranging from accusations that he spied on legislative members to a GOP colleague’s claim that Casada tried to “rig and predetermine” an ethics review regarding his controversies.