Brandon Creighton
Charles Brandon Creighton (born August 5, 1970) is an American attorney and politician from Conroe, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas Senate from District 4, and a former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 16. Background. Brandon Creighton was born in Conroe, Texas to Patricia (née Kincannon) and Morris Creighton. He is the youngest of their three children. He is a long-term member of the First Baptist Church of Conroe. He is an eighth-generation Montgomery County resident, where he resides with his family. Creighton graduated from Conroe High School, and  holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctor from Oklahoma City University School of Law in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. While he was a student at the University of Texas, Creighton worked as a Senate Messenger, and is the first to ever go on to serve as a State Senator. He also served as a policy advisor in the Texas Senate. Creighton is vice president and general counsel of the Signorelli Company, a home and office building development firm in Conroe. He is also a rancher. Political career. Creighton's first campaign  was for the Texas House District 16 in 2002 (based entirely in suburban Montgomery County, near Houston in the southeastern portion of the state). He lost to the incumbent, attorney Ruben W. Hope, Jr., 6,126 (55.6 percent) to 4,884 (44.4 percent). In 2006, Hope decided to retire and not seek re-election. In 2006 after Hope's decision to retire, Creighton joined two intraparty rivals, Dale Inman and Vicky Rudy, in the Republican primary. Creighton won the Republican nomination for House District 16 with 56.6 percent of the vote. In the 2006 general election, Creighton defeated the Democrat Pat Poland , 23,945 (75 percent) to 7,963 (25 percent). Since first winning the seat in 2006, Creighton has faced no further primary or general election opponents. While serving in the Texas House of Representatives for the 80th Legislative Session, Creighton was appointed to serve as Vice Chair of General Investigating and Ethics, Vice Chair of Local Government Ways and Means, Natural Resources and State Water Funding. Creighton ran unopposed in 2008, and won re-election with 49,263 votes. In 2009, during the 81st Texas Legislative Session, Creighton was appointed to serve as a Member of the Appropriations Committee, the Calendars Committee, General  Investigating and Ethics and Natural Resources. Creighton again did not draw a challenger in the 2010 election, and was re-elected for a 3rd term to the Texas House of Representatives. In 2011, Creighton served as Chair of the Committee on State Sovereignty, Vice Chair of General Investigating and Ethics, and appointed to serve on Natural Resources and the Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee. He was also appointed to the Medicaid Reform Waiver Legislative Oversight Committee and Texas Response to Sequestration Interim Committee. In the 2013 first called session, Creighton supported the ban on abortion after twenty weeks of  gestation; the bill passed the House, 96–49. He voted for companion legislation to increase medical and licensing requirements of abortion providers. Creighton voted against a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools; the measure nevertheless passed the House, 73–58. He supported legislation to provide marshals for school security. He opposed the bill requiring the immunization of minors without parental consent, a measure which the House nevertheless approved, 71–61. He co-sponsored the law to extend the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses. Creighton voted against the measure to prohibit texting while driving. He voted to require testing for narcotics of  those receiving unemployment compensation. He voted against an "equal pay for women" measure, which passed the House, 78–61. He voted to forbid the state from enforcing federal regulations of firearms and in support of another law allowing college and university officials to carry concealed weapons in the name of campus security. He voted for the redistricting bills for the state House, the Texas Senate, and the United States House of Representatives. In 2013, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party, rated Creighton 95 percent. The Young Conservatives  of Texas ranked him 80 percent. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, founded by Michael Quinn Sullivan, rated him 100 percent in 2011 but only 84 percent in 2013. The Texas Association of Business gave him a cumulative score of 89 percent. He ranked 59 percent from the Texas League of Conservation Voters and 33 percent from the Sierra Club. The National Rifle Association ranked him 92 percent. On January 11, 2019, Creighton filed Senate Bill 345 with the 86th Legislature and entitled it the Jones Forest Preservation Act ("Jones Forest Act"). The Jones Forest Act protects the 1,722 acre William Goodrich  Jones State Forest from development. In 2018, Texas A&M University suggested that the university would develop a Texas A&M campus on the land, which sits next to The Woodlands, Texas. Neighborhood associations in the area complained that the development would add to traffic congestion and eliminate a forest that has been part of Texas heritage since 1923. 2014 elections. Creighton did not seek a fifth term in House District 16 in the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014. Instead he ran for the District 4 seat in the Texas Senate, vacated in the fall of 2013 by the resignation  of Republican Tommy Williams of The Woodlands, who accepted a position with Texas A&M University in College Station. Creighton had announced that he would seek the position of Texas Agriculture Commissioner to succeed Todd Staples, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. Instead Creighton quickly left that race to run instead in the special election for the unexpired portion of Williams' term as well as the regular election for the Senate seat. Creighton faced opposition for the Senate vacancy from neighboring District 15 Representative Steve Toth of The Woodlands, entrepreneur Gordy Bunch, who serves on The Woodlands township council, and Mike  Galloway, who used to hold the seat. In the May 10, 2014, special election Creighton came in first place with 45 percent of the vote. Creighton received 45.2 percent, Toth 23.7 percent, Bunch 21.8 percent, and Galloway 9.3 percent. Creighton and Toth faced other in a runoff election on August 5, 2014. Creighton won the August 5, 2014, special election runoff for the District 4 seat in the Texas Senate, 67 to 33 percent, over fellow former state representative Republican Steve Toth of The Woodlands. Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said both Creighton and Toth "are significantly more  conservative than Williams." Views. Abortion. In 2017, he sponsored, in the State Senate, House Bill 214, which limited insurance coverage for abortion procedures in Texas. Known colloquially as “Rape Insurance,” this law would have banned private and public health insurance plans from offering coverage for abortion except through the purchase of an optional rider, which insurance companies, HMOs, and employers are not required to provide and which must be purchased prior to pregnancy. Confederate monuments. In 2017, Creighton introduced legislation, SB 112, which would forbid local governments from moving or changing memorials that have stood on public lands for more  than forty years. Monuments older than 20 years and less than 40 years old could be moved only with legislative approval, and under the legislation those monuments would need to be placed in "a prominent location." Monuments less than 20 years old could be moved if approved by the Texas legislature, the Texas Historical Commission, or the State Preservation Board. The measure would prevent San Antonio officials from removing the obelisk statue of an unnamed Confederate soldier in the downtown Travis Park. City council member William "Cruz" Shaw, who supports removing the monument, said that cities should have "symbolism that  is representative of our diverse community." LGBTQ rights. In 2019, Creighton sponsored SB 15, which weakens anti-discrimination laws passed by Texas cities. Creighton said it stood for "Texas values." The Human Rights Campaign labelled it "a wholly unacceptable bill", saying "Texans don't have an appetite for discrimination."