Jodey Arrington, Brandon Creighton being considered for Texas Tech System’s top job

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U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, and Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, are in the running to be the next chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, according to four people with knowledge of the conversations.

The Texas Tech University System Board of Regents met Saturday to get an update on the search process and discuss “duties, assignments, and expectations” of the chancellor. Regents met behind closed doors for about four hours, then adjourned without taking any action.

Arrington, a Republican who was first elected to Congress in 2016, is among the most powerful Texans in Congress. As the House Budget Committee chair, he shepherded Republicans’ tax and spending megabill through the committee earlier this year, negotiating with various factions of the Republican conference to ultimately pass the legislation. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act — President Donald Trump and Republicans’ signature achievement this year — bears Arrington’s name as lead sponsor.

A fiscal hawk who advocates for steep federal spending cuts, Arrington is poised to lead the effort for a second Republican budget reconciliation bill if he remains in Congress. His candidacy for the Texas Tech job was first reported by Punchbowl News.

“As a proud Red Raider, former Texas Tech Vice Chancellor and lifelong West Texan, I can tell you unequivocally and from experience: the same thing that makes West Texas the best place on Earth is what makes Texas Tech the greatest university system in all the land — our people and our values,” Arrington said in a statement to the Texas Tribune. “I’m confident Chairman [Cody] Campbell and the Regents will select the right person to lead the Texas Tech University System.”

Creighton, a staunch conservative with close ties to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has served in the Texas Senate since 2014.

“Out of respect for the process, I will not comment on the important decisions the Texas Tech Regents have ahead of them,” Creighton said in a statement to the Tribune. “What I can say is that the Texas Tech University System is the tip of the spear for the future of higher education, both in academics and athletics. The nation will soon better understand the solutions and innovations that will come from these efforts as Texas Tech’s potential is truly unmatched.”

Creighton currently chairs the Senate Education K-16 committee and has carried major public and higher education legislation in the upper chamber in recent years, including the state’s newly approved school voucher program, the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices in Texas public colleges and universities, and legislation that increases state oversight of public universities while eroding faculty’s influence on campuses.

He was also instrumental in passing legislation that allowed college athletes to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness in 2021. This year, he carried legislation that also allows universities to directly pay players.

Creighton chaired the Senate Higher Education Committee in 2019 and both the higher and public education committees in 2021 before they were combined into one in 2023.

Before he was elected to the State Senate, Creighton served for seven years in the Texas House of Representatives. If selected for the Texas Tech position, he would be new to Raider country. Creighton is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and earned his law degree from Oklahoma City University.

The people who told the Tribune that the two men were in the running asked that their names not be used, given the sensitive nature of the high-profile selection process.

The new job would be a homecoming for Arrington, a West Texas native who got a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from Texas Tech in the 1990s.

A longtime presence in Texas Republican circles, Arrington worked for George W. Bush when he was governor and then as a senior adviser in the Bush White House. He went on to return to Texas Tech, first as the university system’s chief of staff in 2006 and then as the vice chancellor for research and commercialization in 2011.

Arrington served under then-Chancellor Kent Hance, another former member of Congress from Arrington’s same West Texas district.

Texas Tech University System spokesperson Kristina Butler declined to confirm or release additional information about the finalists other than to say the board has developed a pool of candidates rather than hire a search firm.

“Considering the quality and caliber of the candidates, confidentiality is imperative,” she said.

The system is based in Lubbock and includes five institutions that enrolled 69,502 students in 2024: Texas Tech University, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University.

Tedd Mitchell, who has served as chancellor since 2018, announced his retirement on July 11. In 2023, Mitchell was the 12th highest- paid public college presidents in the country, earning about $1.3 million, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Mitchell’s retirement marked the latest shake-up in the state’s higher education leadership. In recent months, former GOP elected officials have increasingly stepped into roles that put them at the helm of Texas’ public university systems, as governing boards have sought leaders with strong political ties and experience navigating the Legislature.

In March, former Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar was tapped to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, and in July, former state lawmaker John Zerwas was picked to lead the University of Texas System.

The shift coincides with a series of new state laws limiting faculty advisory bodies and expanding the control of regents over curriculum and hiring, on top of a 2023 ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices and initiatives in public higher education.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University System, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Texas Tech University System, University of Texas System and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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