Reflective Writing

Ron Reynolds

Ron Reynolds, male, was born in 1973 in Jackson, Tennessee to Conrell B. Brown and the late Glenda Purham. Reynolds is the first African American to serve as Texas State House Representative of Fort Bend County. He has served as the House representative for 7 years since 2011, and has been the House Minority Whip and presently is the Texas legislative Black Caucus’s second vice chair (Texas House of Representatives, n.d).  He acquired a Bachelor of Science degree, Doctors of Jurisprudence and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree. Reynolds is a lawyer by profession but is currently involved in community serving programs. As a politician, he is affiliated to Democratic Party. He is a husband to Dr. Jonita Reynolds with who they have three children. As a Christian, he worships at The Church Without Walls (Texas House of Representatives, n.d). He belongs to the Election and Environmental Regulation committees in the House of Representatives. He has authored and sponsored various Bills and has actively been involved in serving his community.  Reynolds performance can be rated as 5 in a scale of 1 to 10. Though he has been involved in authorship and sponsorship of various Bills in the House, he has not been participating well in the key votes and has also been involved in various lawsuits. For instance, in scorecard evaluating performance in the House, he was given a score of 30 percent (Americans for Prosperity, 2015).. In addition, he has been involved in various law suits including violation of barratry law and failure to submit financial disclosures on campaigns. 

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz, male, was born in 1970 in Calgary, Canada. He has served as in Texas as a junior senator for 5 years.  He has a Bachelors Degree in law and is a lawyer by profession.  Ted is affiliated to the Tea Party which propelled him to the senate seat. He professes Christian faith and is a husband to Heidi Cruz since 2001 and they have two daughters (BIO NEWSLETTER n.d).  He sits in various committees in senate including Commerce, Science and transportation, Judiciary and Rules and Administration committees and Joint Economic Committee. Ted has been able to accomplish quite a number of political milestones in formulation of policies through sponsorship of various bills.  He has little to show for in community leadership in comparison to Ron Reynolds, which means he has not been involved serving the community. In terms of representation, Ted has managed to score 7 in the scale of 1 to 10. The performance can be attributed to the many bills he has sponsored, the fight for repealing of Obamacare and securing of the country’s border.  He has not participated in 216 votes of the overall 1,520 votes, which indicates a 14.2 percent below the 1.3 percent median (GovTruck, n.d).

John Cornyn

John Cornyn, Male, was born in 1952 in Houston Texas. He has a Bachelors of Arts in Journalism, a Law Degree and a Masters of Law Degree and served as a district Judge in 1984. He professes Christian faith and a husband to Sandy Cornyn with whom they had two children. He is affiliated to Republican Party and has served as a senator in Texas for 16 years (US Senate, 2018). He serves in the Senates Finance and Judiciary Committees, Select Intelligence Committee and Caucus on International Narcotics Control.  His success in services spurns over a large period, where he served as a judge and attorney general and has been issued with a Leadership Award due to his dedication to government transparency and oversight issues. He has been an advocate for various issues regarding governance, business, community and international relations. He scores is 9 out of ten. The is attributed to his sponsorship of 23 bills that have been enacted and voting record that is at par with 1.3 percent median (GovTruck, n.d). He has been able to outperform Reynolds and Crux in terms of leadership, community and representation roles.

Conclusion

Political leadership requires one to be involved in many activities relating to policy making, community issues and governance. A good background paves a way for a person to occupy a representative position. Suspicion of poor integrity can be a stumbling block.

References

Texas House of Representatives,(n.d). Rep. Reynolds, Ron.Biography:  Retrieved from: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=27

Americans for Prosperity, (2015).Texas Legislative Report Card. Retrieved from: http://americansforprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/AFPScoreCard.pdf: