East Texas state lawmakers get Pro-Worker scores from Texas AFL-CIO

TYLER, Texas (KETK) – The Texas AFL-CIO has released their Pro-Worker Scorecard, which ranks how much Texas State Representatives and State Senators agreed with the labor federation’s views on bills in the 89th Legislative Session.

The Texas AFL-CIO is a state labor federation consisting of more than 240,000 union members from across the state and they have priorities for every legislative session.

This session they’ve released Pro-Worker Scorecards for the state house and state senate, ranking lawmakers based upon how much they agreed with the group’s priorities like opposing school vouchers and expanding mental health leave.

Two East Texas lawmakers are ranked among the Texas AFL-CIO’s highest scoring Republicans in both the Texas State House and the Texas State Senate. State Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville received a 38% out of 100% score from the Texas AFL-CIO putting him above every other Republican State Senator ranked this session.

State Rep. Gary VanDeaver of New Boston received a 52% ranking from the Texas AFL-CIO. VanDeaver’s score is the second highest score for a Republican in the State House after State Rep. E. Sam Harless of Spring who was scored at 53% by the Texas AFL-CIO.

VanDeaver was one of the only Republicans in the State House to vote against Senate Bill 2, a bill to create school vouchers that the Texas AFL-CIO opposed.

Scores for East Texas state lawmakers from the Texas AFL-CIO can be seen in the list below:

• State Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola – 22%
• State Senator Bob Hall of Edgewood – 26%
• State Senator Robert Nichols of Jacksonville – 38%
• State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney – 23%
• State Representative Gary VanDeaver of New Boston – 52%
• State Representative Brent Money of Greenville – 10%
• State Representative Keith Bell of Forney – 47%
• State Representative Cole Hefner of Mt. Pleasant – 34%
• State Representative Daniel Alders of Tyler – 28%
• State Representative Jay Dean of Longview – 45%
• State Representative Cody Harris of Palestine – 40%
• State Representative Trent Ashby of Lufkin – 32%
• State Representative Joanne Shofner of Nacogdoches – 28%

Click here to see a detailed breakdown of how the Texas AFL-CIO ranked each Texas State legislator.