May 8, 2023- District 2 House Representative Bryan Slaton chooses to resign ahead of possible expulsion from the Texas House. Following investigations of Bryan Slaton, who had been accused of inappropriate sexual relations with a 19 year old staff member, and providing alcohol to said staff member. The staff member claimed that she felt dizzy and had double vision after consuming the beverage.
The Royse City Republican has been pressured since Saturday following investigations conducted by the House General Investigative Committee who released a 16-page report finding Slaton had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with his aide.
The committee of three Republicans and two Democrats recommended that Slaton be the first state representative expelled from the body since 1927. However, Slaton’s resignation may not stop a planned Tuesday vote on a house resolution expelling him from office.
Rep. Andrew Murr, a Junction Republican who leads the investigative committee, said Monday that he still plans to call up the resolution that he drafted and filed on Saturday.
Since the report’s release Saturday calls for Slaton’s resignation has grown. over the weekend, two of the three Republican parties for the counties he represented asked him to step down, and more than half of the 62-member State Republican Executive Committee had done the same by Sunday night.
Some of Slaton’s closest supporters left his side after the reports release. Texas Right to Life, a staunchly anti-abortion group that was a key supporter of Slaton’s political campaigns, revoked its endorsement in the morning, saying it was a “Christian organization” that held its staff, board members, scholarship recipients and political endorsees to high moral standards.
Slaton, 45 and married, was among the most socially conservative lawmakers in the chamber and had been one of this session’s loudest voices for cracking down on drag shows and decrying drag artists as “groomers” who want to sexualize kids.
The committee report said Slaton had invited the 19-year-old woman to his Austin apartment late March 31 and gave her a large cup of rum and coke, then refilled it twice making her unable to “effectively consent to intercourse and could not indicate whether it was welcome or unwelcome.”
Gov. Greg Abbott must call a special election to fill the vacancy for House District 2, but that election cannot begin before the legislative session ends on Memorial Day. That means Slaton’s constituents will be left without representation for the final days of the session.
