On the last Friday in May, shortly before the end of the 85th Texas Legislature, two state senators walked into the office of the speaker of the House carrying a new proposal for a bathroom bill.

Debate about regulating bathrooms used by transgender Texans had dominated the session and attracted national attention. Social conservatives insisted that women and girls needed protection from a sliver of the population -- less than 1 percent who don’t identify as the gender on their birth certificates.

In the House, 80 Republicans signed on to its version of a bathroom bill, indicating strong party support. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had championed the measure for more than a year and the Senate passed a bathroom bill by a 2-to-1 margin. Gov. Greg Abbott was on board and most Republicans said it was important, including 70 percent of tea party Republicans.

A few House members stood in the way, led by Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio. They had kept a bathroom bill from coming to the floor and ensured that the restrictions couldn’t be amended to other legislation.

Now there was a late proposal and Straus was about to make the most important political stand of his career.

“Don’t bother pulling it out of the envelope,” Straus said about the offer. “You can tell the lieutenant governor that I’m not gonna have the suicide of a single Texan on my conscience.”

That moment, recounted by Straus, was essentially the end of the bathroom bill and the beginning of the end of his job as speaker. He had protected Texas from some of its worst political impulses, prevented serious damage to the economy, and brought together enough bipartisans to check the far-right dominance in the Republican Party. He also stood firm on other issues during the session, including school vouchers, property tax caps and local government control, and later refocused attention on how to keep Texas competitive. For his uncommon impact, Joe Straus is the 15th annual Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year.

Straus, 58, was raised on traditional Republican values. His mother, Joci Straus, helped bring the party to prominence in Texas. As a teenager, he was an intern for Sen. John Tower and he's long admired George H.W. Bush. To him, blocking the bathroom bill was a matter of conviction.

“I was proud to do it because I felt very strongly that my position was the right one,” Straus said during an interview in his Capitol office. “I didn’t ever feel like it was a sacrifice.”

While the legislation came back in a special session and passed the Senate once more, it died in the House again. Defeating the bill was one of the most consequential developments of the year.

It prevented tourism boycotts and business defections projected to cost Texas billions of dollars annually. It allowed Texas to dodge the taint of state-sanctioned discrimination, which would have drawn national ridicule. Most important, Straus turned the spotlight on the real people whose lives would be affected.

"As one parent to another, thank you for standing up to my son's bullies, and please don't ever back down," Amber Briggle, a Denton mother of a young trans boy, wrote to Straus.

After Straus rejected the senators' offer without seeing it, he said it was absurd to spend so much time on bathrooms while failing to fix school finance. In fact, the contents of that envelope were never made public; the proposal died with Straus, who said he wanted to protect the economy and some very vulnerable Texans.

"There is no reason to make a tragic and costly mistake," Straus said at a news conference.

Patrick pushed back hard, calling the speaker “one man, standing alone.”

But Straus never relented, and he wasn’t by himself. Rep. Byron Cook, who chaired the state affairs committee, held a hearing on the bathroom bill and chastised corporate executives for not showing up for it. He kept the legislation bottled up in committee.

Thousands of companies, some among the largest in the world, eventually joined the effort. They signed petitions and letters that urged rejection of the bathroom bill and embraced diversity and inclusion. IBM ran full-page ads and warned it would reconsider future investment in the state. The business response was crucial to killing the bill, Cook said.

Many transgender students and their families spoke openly about navigating the challenges of gender identity. Briggle described her son, as a first-grader, holding his bladder for hours because he was unsure about which school bathroom to use.

Amber Briggle walks to enter the courtroom with her transgender son MG Briggle, 8, where a hearing for the federal lawsuit on transgender bathroom rules will be held at Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse in Fort Worth on Aug. 12, 2016. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

Ethan Avanzino said a bathroom bill would put transgender people in danger. He has a full, trimmed beard and low voice, but his birth certificate reads female. So he'd have to use a women's restroom.

“Just from looking at you,” a lawmaker said in the hearing room, “it seems like that might cause a problem, don’t you think?”

A trans woman, Ashley Smith, snapped a selfie with Abbott. Both smiled broadly and draped an arm around each other.

"How will the Potty Police know I'm transgender if the Governor doesn't?" Smith wrote in an online post that went viral.

She and many others stepped forward and put a human face on the controversy. They raised awareness among legislators and the public and showed the value of accepting everyone, in all their differences.

San Antonio-raised

Joe Straus' family has deep ties to the Republican Party and San Antonio. His mother was chairman of the "Nixon girls," a group of women who campaigned for Richard Nixon, and she raised money for other Republican candidates, according to a 1982 biography from the Junior League of San Antonio.

In 1980, Joci Straus co-chaired George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign in Texas. In 1990, The Washington Post called her "The San Antonio arm-twister" after she persuaded first lady Barbara Bush to hold an event in the Alamo city for the wives of foreign leaders.

Her husband, Joe Straus Jr., is a businessman and thoroughbred horse breeder who's best known for co-founding the Retama Park Race Track in the 1990s. He also was a key advocate in Texas' push to legalize gambling on horse racing.

Straus family businesses have been operating in San Antonio for over a century. The first was a saddle and harness manufacturing company in 1870, which eventually evolved into an auto parts distributor. Today, the speaker has a firm, Bennett and Straus, that specializes in insurance and investments.

He was dabbling in politics early. In 1977, the summer before his senior year in high school, he interned for Tower in Washington. He was class president at Alamo Heights High School and vice chairman of the Teen Republicans of Texas. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in political science, and he likes to say he challenged his liberal professors.

First Oasis with jockey Glenn Murphy up wins the first race at the new Retama Park racetrack in Selma, Texas, Friday, April 7 1995. The number four horse Peaches n' Delight ridden by Susan L. Cate finished second in the race. Big-time horse racing returned to the San Antonio area for the first time in 58 years with the first race at the park. (CHARLES BARKSDALE / AP)

Straus was campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith in 1986, and met his wife, Julie, at a campaign event in San Antonio. They have two grown daughters, Sara and Robyn.

Straus served as an aide in the Customs Service in the Reagan administration and worked in the Commerce Department under President George H.W. Bush. He had several roles in local Republican politics before winning a state House seat in 2005.

Four years later, Straus became speaker with the backing of an initial group of 11 House Republicans. The members met at Byron Cook’s house in Austin to find a new leader.

“In the end, we all agreed to put our egos aside and get behind the last man standing,” Cook said.

Straus is described as deliberate, thoughtful and respectful, and open to sharing power. He won over Democrats and eventually was elected unanimously, and garnered attention for being the state's first Jewish speaker.

During Straus’ tenure, Republicans improved from a two-seat edge in the House to a 40-seat majority. The House balanced every budget, cut taxes, passed pro-gun bills and invested in border security -- all core Republican issues.

Straus is especially proud of a 2013 state water plan, progress in transportation and efforts at bipartisanship. In the last session, 14 of 40 committee chairs in the House were held by Democrats, and 15 committee chairs were held by Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans, according to Straus’ office.

“He empowers people and puts them in positions they can handle,” Cook said.

Since 2010, the Texas GOP has been shifting further to the right, as the tea party gained followers and some of the most conservative members of the Legislature created a voting bloc.

In 2014, Dan Patrick defeated David Dewhurst in the Republican primary runoff by 30 points, a resounding victory for a social conservative over a traditional Republican. The same trend followed in the attorney general’s race with Ken Paxton and Dan Branch.

Critics started taking aim at Straus, insisting he wasn't conservative enough. Three years ago, the Americans for Tax Reform called him the Harry Reid of Texas.

Straus didn’t budge. As the party drifted further to the right, he became a more frequent check, especially on issues of local government control.

After the Senate passed a bill this year to lower the cap on property taxes, the House countered with a higher figure and resisted efforts to reduce it. The special session ended without a new cap becoming law and many Texas mayors cheered.

The House this past session stopped a bill that prohibited cities from giving money to Planned Parenthood, an important provider of women’s health services. Straus also has consistently opposed Patrick’s push for private school vouchers and repeal of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.

Such positions are consistent with his traditional political values.

“I haven’t changed,” Straus said. “I’m still the same Republican I was when I was a really young man. Maybe the ground is shifting around, but I haven’t.”

He supports reforming and expanding legal immigration, a longtime priority for traditional Republicans. He has never endorsed Donald Trump: “I can’t even recognize what’s happening in the White House today,” he said.

In late October, Straus suddenly announced he would not seek re-election in 2018, giving up the speaker's seat after 10 years. That will tie for the longest speaker's tenure with Gib Lewis (1983-1993) and Pete Laney (1993-2003).

To outsiders, his departure is a casualty of the culture wars and deep divide between social conservatives and pro-business Republicans. A week before Straus' announcement, Texas conservatives unveiled a new political action committee with the goal of replacing House leaders.

Cal Jillson, who has followed Texas politics for four decades, said Straus deserves great credit for standing up to Patrick and Abbott. But there was a price to pay.

“Joe Straus’ choice was to give in to them or leave,” said Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “The Republican Party is no longer a comfortable home for his kind of leader.”

Was Straus burned out by the job or beaten down by political attacks?

“I didn’t want to be one of those people who hung around and risk staying too long,” Straus said. “It’s a good time for me to say, ‘Give this back,’ and to go on my own terms, feeling strong and good and somewhat successful.”

Straus still has ambitions and is regularly encouraged to run for higher office. That’s not in his plans for 2018, but he didn’t dismiss the notion.

“There’s a real market for a responsible Republican voice and a rational Republican vision for the future,” Straus said. “And I want to play a role in that, whether it’s as a private citizen or some other public service down the road.”

From business to people

Straus had the right first take on the bathroom bill. It wasn’t needed, would hurt the economy and there was more important work to do. But as he learned about transgender issues, his thinking evolved, and so did his resolve.

“I had never heard of this whole thing, really,” Straus said.

In San Antonio, the tourism industry was worried as Patrick pressed his case for a bathroom bill. North Carolina had adopted a similar law in 2016 and suffered immediate consequences. The NCAA moved several tournaments, the National Basketball Association moved the all-star game, and PayPal and Deutsche Bank abandoned expansion plans. Bruce Springsteen pulled a concert, and some state and city governments canceled travel there.

After the law was repealed, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said it had stained the state's reputation and caused great economic harm.

When the Texas Legislature began in January 2017, Straus warned about the economic effects and urged business leaders to speak up. By May, he had heard from transgender families about the impact of discrimination and his motivation shifted.

“There was a human element of this that I had missed at the beginning,” Straus said.

According to a 2014 study, 41 percent of trans adults had attempted suicide, a rate nearly 10 times higher than the general population. Among them, 59 percent reported being denied access to appropriate bathrooms. Half were harassed or bullied at every level of school.

Soon Straus started to hear from leading chief executives, including Apple’s Tim Cook, who was “very personally concerned.” IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty called and made it clear that IBM would halt expansion plans until the issue was resolved.

Another executive conceded that he didn’t care much about the bathroom bill. But his employees did, so the company was about to take a public stand.

That exchange was telling because it showed that opposition was coming from the bottom up. Millennials value diversity and inclusion, and attracting them to Texas would be harder with a bathroom bill. Tech recruiters said the issue was coming up in job interviews.

In CNBC's rankings of top states for business, Texas dropped to No. 4 and was called one of the "least inclusive states in the nation."

Texas’ economic success is often attributed to low regulation, low taxes and tort reform. But the bathroom bill demonstrated that the definition of business-friendly was changing, and many Texas lawmakers didn’t realize it.

Big companies will expand elsewhere if Texas has a bathroom bill, said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. They rely on a wide range of talent, including transgender employees.

"How can they, in good conscience, go someplace where that person would be put at risk?" Cuban said.

Jim Lites, chief executive of the Dallas Stars, offered another reason to drop the idea. In 35 years in sports and entertainment, he said he has worked with venues that have attracted more than 500 million fans.

“We have never had an assault in a bathroom, ever -- let alone an assault by a transgender person,” Lites said.

Team president Jim Lites addresses the media as Ken Hitchcock is introduced as the Dallas Stars new coach during a press conference at the American Airlines Center on Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Dallas. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Refocusing lawmakers on jobs

Cuban and Lites were among more than 40 experts who spoke recently to Austin lawmakers about economic competitiveness. Refocusing lawmakers’ attention on a more worthy topic, Straus created a House committee to study the most effective ways to compete for jobs, investment and workers.

Witnesses called for improvements in education, immigration, infrastructure and the arts. They also slammed the bathroom bill. The committee will soon report on the principles that the House believes are crucial to economic growth, just in time for the March primaries. Straus wants candidates to be pressed on where they stand.

“Whether they like it or not, I’m still the team captain,” Straus said. “I’ll be campaigning, raising funds, helping Republicans who deserve to be re-elected.”

Will the speaker’s stand prove to be the end of the bathroom bill in Texas? That’s still to be determined, perhaps by the 2018 election. The business community wants to engage more employees in the process, aiming to boost turnout and elect better candidates.

Nothing should be taken for granted. Another controversial bill, to ban sanctuary cities, raised deep fears this year, and many hoped that Straus would soften it. Instead, the bill got tougher in the House. Republicans passed an amendment to let police question the immigration status of anyone they detain.

It's been compared to the "show-me-your-papers" law passed by Arizona in 2010. That led to boycotts and long legal fights. Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and others joined a lawsuit to stop the law, now being contested in federal court.

Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus poses for a portrait in the rotunda of the Texas state capitol on Monday, December 11, 2017 in Austin. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Abbott made a sanctuary cities ban an emergency item, so there was going to be a vote in the House, Straus said. After a debate ran into the early morning, a compromise fell apart.

“It was a failure of the House, and ultimately a failure to bring people together,” said Straus, who took responsibility for the breakdown.

He didn’t like the outcome, but said there’s a limit to his influence, even as speaker.

That’s a sobering reminder of what could have happened with a bathroom bill. Straus had more allies on that measure, including Republicans who didn’t want to vote on it. But he wasn’t certain it would be stopped.

“You never know what you can do and what you can’t do,” Straus said. “I knew what I should do.”

This time, that was exactly what Texas needed.

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