RALEIGH — Elections were held to choose House leadership spots on Tuesday and were announced at a press conference following Republican caucus voting.
Key positions announced included:
Rep. Brendan Jones was named majority leader, replacing Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne), who will become chair of the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations Committee in 2025.
Rep. Steve Tyson (R-Craven) will be deputy majority leader, the position Jones currently holds.
Rep. Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba) will serve as speaker pro tem. He replaces Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), who has held that spot since 2017.
Rep. Carl Gillespie (R-Macon) was reelected as the House whip.
Reps. Matthew Winslow (R-Franklin) and Jeff Zenger (R-Forsyth) were elected to serve as co-chairs of the Conference Committee. Reps. Jarrod Lowery (R-Robeson) and Erin Paré (R-Wake) currently hold those positions.
Rep. Harry Warren (R-Rowan) will continue to serve as caucus joint liaison with the Senate.
Rep. Heather Rhyne (R-Lincoln) will be the freshman House leader, and Rep. Blair Eddins (R-Wilkes) will be the freshman House whip.
Finally, 37-year-old Rep. Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) was elected as North Carolina’s next speaker of the House.
“I’m glad to report that the caucus has elected me by acclamation to be their speaker designate in the next biennium,” Hall said during the press conference. “I want to thank my caucus members for the tremendous support that they’ve given me over the past couple of years and then again today. And so I think the message that we have coming out of our caucus today is one of unity.”
Hall takes over for House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain), who is headed to Congress representing the state’s 14th District. Moore has been a speaker since 2015, a tenure that makes him the longest-serving speaker in state history.
An attorney, Hall was first elected to the General Assembly in 2016. In August 2020, he was appointed as co-chair of the House Rules, Calendar and Operations Committee. Hall would quickly become chair of that committee the following year at the age 33, the first millennial to hold one of the three most powerful positions in the House.
At the time Hall was tapped to chair the Rules Committee, Moore said Hall had “quickly distinguished himself as a young House lawmaker who can address a broad range of complex issues and forge bipartisan policy solutions to matters before the legislature, and we are fortunate to add his legal acumen to this important leadership position.”
Hall grew up in Caldwell County and was raised by both sets of his grandparents when he was very young.
“I began living with them when I was about 7 or 8. I was blessed with wonderful grandparents on each side,” Hall told North State Journal in a 2021 interview. He added that he holds “no ill will” against his parents because “they were just not at a place in their lives where they could be parents.”
Hall graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor’s degree with a double major in finance and risk management and insurance. He then went on to Wake Forest School of Law for his law degree, practicing law in Charlotte after law school before returning to Caldwell County when his grandparents began having health issues.
Hall and his wife, Madison, live in Granite Falls, a small town with a population of just under 5,000 people located between Lenoir and Hickory.
