1. Background

2. Political career

3. 2014 elections

4. Legislation sponsored
    Abortion  Historical monuments 

5. References

6. External links

Charles Brandon Creighton (born August 5, 1970)^[1] 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

Creighton 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.^[1]

Creighton is vice president and general counsel of the Signorelli Company, a home and office building development firm in Conroe.^[2] He is also a rancher.^[3] He was formerly employed in the state attorney's general offices in both Oklahoma City and Austin, Texas and as a member of the staff of the Texas State Senate. He is a current member of the Conroe Noon Lions International. He was formerly affiliated with Rotary International. 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.^[1][3]

Political career

Creighton was an unsuccessful candidate for the Texas House District 16 in 2002 (based entirely in suburban Montgomery County, near Houston in the southeastern portion of the state), but he lost his party's nomination to the incumbent, Ruben Hope, 6,126 (55.6 percent) to 4,884 (44.4 percent).^[4] In the 2006 Republican primary, Hope declined to seek re-nomination. Creighton hence won the nomination with 56.6 percent of the vote over two intraparty rivals, Dale Inman and Vicky Rudy.^[5]

In the 2006 general election, Creighton defeated the Democrat Pat Poland, 23,945 (75 percent) to 7,963 (25 percent).^[6] Since his first election in 2006, Creighton has faced no further primary or general election opponents.^[2]

Creighton served on three House committees: Insurance, International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs, and Redistricting.^[1]

In the 2013 legislative 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. Texas Right to Life rated him 100 percent in 2011 and 116 percent in 2013.^[7]

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.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10][11]

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.^[12] 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.^[13][14]

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 Michael Galloway, who used to hold the seat.^[3]

In the May 10, 2014, special election Creighton came in first place with 45 percent of the vote.^[15] Creighton received 45.2 percent, Toth 23.7 percent, Bunch 21.8 percent, and Michael Galloway 9.3 percent.^[15] Creighton and Toth faced other in a runoff election on August 5, 2014.^[15]

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.^[16][17]

Legislation sponsored

Abortion

In 2017, he sponsored, in the State Senate, House Bill 214, which protects abortion opponents from paying for abortion procedures in Texas, allowing those who want to pay for the procedure to obtain a rider to their policy.^[19] 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.^[20]

Historical monuments

In 2017, Creighton introduced legislation,SB 112,^[21] which would forbid local governments from moving or changing memorials that have stood on public lands for more than forty years. Newer monuments could be moved only with voter approval, and under the legislation even those monuments would need to be placed in "a prominent location." 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." Creighton argued, conversely, that Texas should not "erase our history." "We should not delete evidence of our past to comply with current political correctness."^[22][23]

2014 Special Election

References

External links

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100323015359/http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist4/Dist4.htm Official webpage] on Texas Senate
• [https://twitter.com/CreightonForTX CreightonForTX] on Twitter
• [https://www.facebook.com/CreightonForTX CreightonForTX] on Facebook

• In the City (Joe Walsh song)
• In the City of No Limits
• In the City (Paul Weller song)
• In The City (song)
• In the City (song)
• In the City (The Who song)
• In the Clear
• In The Clear
• In the closet
• In The Closet
• In the Clutches of the Gang
• In The Coils of the Snake
• In the Coils of the Snake
• In the Cold, Cold Night
• In the Company of Angels
• In the Company of Angels II
• In The Company of Cheerful Ladies
• In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
• In The Company of Heroes
• In the Company of Heroes
• In the Company of Ice and Profit (seaQuest 2032)
• In the company of men
• In the Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening
• In the Country of Men
• In The Country Of Men