Glen Casada

In May 2019, several scandals broke out in regards to the operations inside of the speaker's office from several investigations that were conducted by WTVF, a local television station. First, it was uncovered that Cade Cothren, his former Chief of Staff had possibly attempted to frame Justin Jones, a local civil rights activist, for violating a restraining order. This claim was later found to be false by a special prosecutor appointed to the case. [1] text messages acquired showed Casada received one racially charged and several sexually explicit text messages from Cothren. One of the messages included Cothren. Cothren resigned his position on May 6. Several lawmakers then encouraged Casada to resign as more information was coming out from several subsequent findings of the WTVF investigation. The other revelations were:

On May 8, 2019, he apologized to his GOP colleagues and said that he would unify the House with an action plan. Casada met with the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators on May 20, 2019. Later that day, the TBCSL announced that they had lost confidence in his ability to lead and asked for his resignation. The Tennessee House Republican caucus met to discuss their future with Casada as speaker. After a 3-hour meeting, the vote was 45–24 in favor of the No-Confidence resolution. After the resolution was adopted, Governor Bill Lee announced that he would consider holding a special session of the legislature to hold a removal vote if Casada did not resign. On May 21, 2019, he announced that he will be resigning as Speaker of the House but will remain in the chamber as a member.

Casada voted for Ted Cruz in the Republican primary of the 2016 presidential election, and he voted for Donald Trump in the general election. On March 4, 2017, Casada was one of the main speakers at a rally in Legislative Plaza in Downtown Nashville to celebrate the policies of President Trump.

In October 2016, Casada ran for re-election against Democratic candidate Courtenay Rogers. Casada won the election by more than 17,000 votes (a ratio of nearly 3 to 1). In February 2017, he was selected as the Republican Majority leader.

In November 2015, Casada said he wanted to stop admitting Syrian refugees in Tennessee. He also wanted to return those who were already in the state to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In April 2011, Casada tried to repeal a workplace non-discrimination bill for sexual orientation and gender identity in Nashville. In an interview, he explained he was trying to "create a uniform environment across the state, similar to what the interstate commerce clause does for our country." The bill was supported by David Fowler's socially conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee, and the Log Cabin Republicans were opposed to it.

In 2009, Casada was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit in federal court, Captain Pamela Barnett v. Barack Hussein Obama, which claimed that Barack Obama was not an American citizen and therefore ineligible to be President of the United States. Judge David O. Carter ruled that Casada and other state legislators did not have standing to sue, since the supposed harm they feared was "highly speculative and conjectural."

In 1994, Casada was elected to the County Commission of Williamson County. In 2003, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Richard Glen Casada Jr. (born August 2, 1959) is an American politician, member of the Republican Party in the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he represents District 63 (Williamson County). He was the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives from January 8, 2019 through August 2, 2019, whereupon he resigned his post amid scandal. This was the shortest stint of a Tennessee Speaker of the House in modern history. Casada was previously the Majority Leader of the Tennessee House of Representatives. His opposition to Syrian refugees attracted national attention in the media in 2015.

Glen Casada was born on August 2, 1959. He graduated from Western Kentucky University with a B.S. in Agriculture and Education in 1982.