Exclusive–Katrina Pierson Pressures Pete Sessions to Vote Against Boehner

Katrina Pierson, the Tea Party activist in Texas who challenged House Rules Committee chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) in a primary in 2014, is calling on Sessions to vote against the re-election of House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday.

“I’m stunned to hear that Pete Sessions suddenly claims that he is not a ‘Boehner guy,’” Pierson said in response to a Breitbart Texas exclusive interview with Sessions. “Have they had a falling out? This is striking to those in his district as he has publicly announced time and time again over the years that he is, in fact, a ‘Boehner guy.’ If that is now the case, shouldn’t he be voting against Boehner for Speaker?”

Sessions was criticized for enabling the passage of the 1,774-page, $1.1 trillion “cromnibus” spending bill pushed by Speaker Boehner during the lame duck session of the last Congress. Pierson even floated potentially running against him again. As Chairman of the Rules Committee—arguably the most powerful committee in Congress as it sets the terms of debate for the House floor for bills, and as such can either ensure the passage of or doom major pieces of legislation—he helped get the cromnibus that funds President Obama’s executive amnesty through the House.

Sessions was hammered over and over by the grassroots for that, with conservatives ripping him for it in public statements and grassroots elements back home gearing up to fight him in a 2016 primary nearly two years before the next cycle begins.

In an effort to calm the base in Texas, Sessions sat down with Breitbart Texas for a lengthy interview in which he promised—something Boehner hasn’t done—that the forthcoming Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill will block funding for Obama’s executive amnesty. He also said he’s “not a Boehner guy” during the interview, something that prompted Pierson to pressure him to vote against Boehner for Speaker on Tuesday. Now that there are two alternative Republican candidates for Speaker—Sessions’ fellow Texan Rep. Louie Gohmert and Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho—Sessions has a choice and doesn’t have to vote for Boehner if he doesn’t want to.

Sessions’ spokesman Doug Andres, however, hasn’t yet answered a request from Breitbart News about who the powerful Texan plans to vote for in the speakership elections on Tuesday.