Cecil Bell Could Announce Speaker Bid on Monday

State Rep. Cecil Bell Jr., R-Magnolia, has a “major announcement” to make on Monday — and while he’s mum on the details, the Southeast Texas lawmaker didn’t deny that it would include a bid for speaker of the Texas House.

“That would be an interesting conversation on Monday,” he said Thursday when asked about his plans to run for the office currently held by Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican. “At this time I would just say that I think it will be something significant to Texas and could possibly have much larger ramifications.”

In June, Straus filed to run for a fifth term in the speaker's chair; he is currently unopposed.

Bell said his Monday announcement will include details on his new initiative, the “PACT for Constitutional Restoration of State Sovereignty.” It's Bell's roadmap for how Texas should respond to recent Supreme Court rulings, from gay marriage to Obamacare to Texas' abortion regulations.

“While attorneys may contend that the Supreme Court is the end-all-be-all, that is not what our founding fathers believed,” he said.

In the last legislative session, Bell led the fight against gay marriage, authoring failed bills that would have forbidden the use of public funds to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

If Bell does run for speaker, the election would occur on the first day of the next regular legislative session.