Harold Vernon Dutton Jr. (born February 17, 1945) is a Democratic member of the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

representing District 142. He was first elected in 1984 and is one of the longest-serving members of the Texas House of Representatives.

Legislation

In 2015 an amendment written by Dutton to House Bill 1842 gave the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

the power to take over failing school districts. The agency used that authority in 2023 to take over the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

, of whose failings Dutton has been a longtime critic. Dutton has continued to support the

Houston Independent School District takeover The Houston Independent School District takeover is a 2023 takeover of the state's largest school district by the Texas Education Agency, replacing the superintendent and elected board of trustees with a board of managers and a new superintendent ...

. In May 2021, Dutton supported a bill that would restrict the ability of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

children to participate in sports aligning with their

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...

. Members of his party called it an act of retaliation, as an unrelated education bill supported by Dutton was killed on the House floor the night before he came out in support of the transgender bill. In May 2023, Dutton broke ranks with his party to vote in favor of a bill to ban gender affirming care for trans minors. He would later vote Present Not Voting on the impeachment of

Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a Tea Party conservative. Paxton was re-elected to a t ...

Personal life

Dutton is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, a member of Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Freedmen’s Town. Four of Dutton's known children are sons who were borne by his ex-wife, Phyllis Faykus-Dutton. Faykus-Dutton was divorced from him in 1995 but did not get child support payments from him on a regular or sufficient basis; in 2007, she tried to have him sent to prison over this issue. She was unable to get him sent to prison, but was awarded nearly $16,000 in child support back payments as well as $8,000 for her attorney's fees.

References

External links

Legislative page

Harold Dutton Jr. at the Texas Tribune
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutton, Harold Jr. 1945 births Living people Politicians from Houston Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Texas Southern University alumni Thurgood Marshall School of Law alumni 21st-century American politicians African-American state legislators in Texas Texas lawyers African-American Catholics Catholic politicians from Texas 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people