It’s official: Next NC House GOP speaker will be Destin Hall. What he’ll make a priority
On the same day Republican lawmakers circulated a proposal to take power away from top Democrats as part of a disaster relief bill, they chose their next House speaker.
House Rules Committee Chair Destin Hall, a Caldwell County attorney, has been expected to take on the role for some time, having already received the blessing of outgoing House Speaker Tim Moore, who won his race for Congress earlier this month.
Hall was elected without any opposition, he told reporters on Tuesday after the Republican caucus voted. That makes him all but certain to be chosen as speaker when the full House convenes for the 2025 session.
The next majority leader will be Rep. Brenden Jones. Jones is from Tabor City and represents Columbus and Robeson counties.
The only woman among 11 top leaders in the caucus is Rep. Heather Rhyne, who was just elected to her first full term and has served since August, when she was appointed to finish the term of former Rep. Jason Saine of Lincoln County, who had resigned that month. Saine had previously held leadership roles, including being a powerful budget writer. Rhyne will be the House freshman leader.
Hall, 37, is in his fourth term in the House and has served since 2017. He’s a partner in the Wilson, Lackey, Rohr & Hall law firm in Lenoir. The firm’s attorneys have experience in criminal defense, traffic law, family law, corporate law and personal injury cases.
Hall was born and raised in Caldwell County and is married. He is a graduate of West Caldwell High School and Appalachian State University, and received his law degree from Wake Forest University. He attends Union Grove Baptist Church in Lenoir, where he holds the role of brotherhood director.
He was named Rules chair in 2020. Hall described his time as Rules chair as being “the speaker on training wheels.”
On his campaign website, Hall says he will “make sure our voice is heard by advocating for lower taxes, economic development, strengthening our education system, and most importantly I will continue to work to protect our religious liberties, our (Second) Amendment rights, and the right to life for the unborn.”
Nominating a new leader
Hall’s election was the first order of business at the House Republican Caucus meeting on Tuesday, House Majority Leader John Bell said. Bell will serve as the next Rules Committee chair and ran the caucus meeting as majority leader. He said that there were 68 House members-elect there, with three absent of the 71 incoming members — assuming any recounts don’t change results.
That’s one vote short of a veto-proof supermajority of 72. In the current session, there are 72 House Republicans, giving the GOP total control of the General Assembly.
Bell described the caucus election results as a “united front.”
Bell said Hall is “energetic. He does a great job when he’s in the in the chair itself, we’ve gotten to see that over the last couple years.”
Bell said Moore has served the state well. He said Hall has a “different style of leadership” from Moore.
Rebuilding Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene will be the “number one, most important issue coming into 2025,” Bell said.
The proposed Helene relief bill, expected to get a vote on the House floor Tuesday, also includes a laundry list of power and control changes, including giving Republicans a majority on the State Board of Elections, which would be moved under the office of the state auditor. Republican Dave Boliek was just elected to the auditor position and takes office in January. The bill takes all the appointment power on the board away from Gov.-elect Josh Stein, a Democrat and current state attorney general.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Guilford County Democrat, told The News & Observer that lawmakers were “shamefully tying these problematic provisions to hurricane relief.”
“Playing politics with people’s lives and the public health is unconscionable,” she said.
Given that Republicans hold a supermajority until the end of the year, the bill’s passage and ability to override a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is all but assured.
Hall’s time as speaker starting in 2025 is sure to be dominated by Helene relief. He gave an indication of how he will lead when asked about the Helene bill.
Hall does not want to repeat ‘disgrace’ of previous disaster relief
Hall did not answer a question directly about the Helene bill including shifts in power, saying that House Republicans would meet later about that bill. He said he would answer questions about it after the caucus meeting later on Tuesday.
“But what I will say is this: You know, I’m from Western North Carolina. ... I’m fully committed to doing everything that we can to rebuild Western North Carolina.”
He said recovery efforts after past hurricanes in Eastern North Carolina have “not been sufficient.”
“And I’ll lay this blame at the foot of the executive branch and Gov. Cooper,” Hall told reporters during a news conference about the House Republican leadership.
“There are people, we’re almost eight years later, people who still don’t have their homes built. We heard yesterday in committee the director of that group admitting that mistakes were made, yet refusing to resign. And so we’re going to fix that,” Hall said, and make sure the “same mistakes” won’t be made in Western North Carolina.
“It‘s truly a disgrace what’s happened in the eastern part of this state on storm relief, and I think that it should be a national scandal quite frankly, that people still don’t have their homes built,” Hall said.
Hall said it has been an “utter disaster” and that there will be “wholesale reform” of Rebuild NC. The leader of the agency, which is also called the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, acknowledged unpaid bills and other problems during a legislative hearing on Monday.
Full list of Republican new House leadership
Here are the rest of the new House Republican Caucus leadership roles:
▪ Rep. Mitchell Setzer of Catawba County is speaker pro tempore
▪ Rep. Steve Tyson of Craven County is deputy majority leader
▪ Rep. Karl Gillespie of Cherokee County is majority whip
▪ Rep. Matthew Winslow of Franklin County and Rep. Jeff Zenger of Forsyth County are co-conference chairs
▪ Rep. Harry Warren of Rowan County is joint caucus leader
▪ Rep. Blair Eddins of Wilkes County is freshman whip
Senate elects Berger as leader again
On Wednesday, the Senate Republican Caucus held its own elections for the 2025 session, choosing the same top two leaders.
Senate leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County was reelected as Senate president pro tempore. The Senate president is the state’s lieutenant governor, which will be current Democratic Sen. Rachel Hunt, who takes office in January. The Senate president presides but only votes if there is a tie.
Republicans chose Sen. Paul Newton of Cabarrus County as majority leader again. Here are the rest of the roles:
▪ Deputy president pro tempore is Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County
▪ Senate whips are Sen. Amy Galey of Alamance County and Sen. Todd Johnson of Union County
▪ Sen. Carl Ford of Rowan County is caucus liaison
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 3:31 PM with the headline "It’s official: Next NC House GOP speaker will be Destin Hall. What he’ll make a priority."
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