Glen Casada was born on August 2, 1959. He graduated from Western Kentucky University with a B.S. in Agriculture and Education in 1982.
Career
In 1994, Casada was elected to the County Commission of Williamson County. In 2003, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. 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 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 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 October 2016, Casada ran for re-election against Democratic candidate Courtenay Rogers. Casada won the election by more than 17,000 votes. In February 2017, he was selected as the Republican Majority leader. 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.
2019 Capitol Hill Scandal
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. 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:
It was also uncovered that Casada hired Michael Lotfi, a political operative, on the House payroll, but did not have to report to work daily. He was only required to come "when needed." Lotfi was tasked with spinning a story to make Rep. David Byrd's sexual assault accusers look like they were fabricating their story.
The FBI opened an investigation on the controversial vote on Educational Savings Accounts.
Members of the House of Representatives noticed there were additional "Research Analysts" hired, but they were assigned to be "hall monitors" and track certain members of the body. Shawn Hatmaker was confirmed to be one of the "hall monitors" and was relieved of his duties.
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 Speakerof the House but will remain in the chamber as a member.
Personal life
Casada is divorced, and has four children and six grandchildren. He attends the Brentwood Baptist Church.
