{"id":299002,"date":"2026-05-19T01:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:29:11","slug":"texas-sen-brian-birdwell-gets-u-s-senate-ok-for-pentagon-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299002\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell gets U.S. Senate OK for Pentagon post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Senate confirmed Texas Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/brian-birdwell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Birdwell<\/a> to serve as an assistant secretary of defense on Monday, a return to the Pentagon for the five-term Granbury Republican.<\/p>\n<p>Birdwell was confirmed on a 46-43 vote in the Senate alongside several dozen other nominees. He previously worked as staff for the Department of the Army at the Pentagon, where he suffered severe burns during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when a plane crashed yards away from his office.<\/p>\n<p>Birdwell announced in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2025\/06\/30\/texas-senate-brian-birdwell-retiring-david-cook\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June<\/a> that he would not seek reelection to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/districts\/tx-senate\/22\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senate District 22<\/a>, where he has served for 15 years. The White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/10\/nomination-sent-to-the-senate-f090\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> Birdwell\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2025\/10\/22\/trump-appointment-brian-birdwell-pentagon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nomination<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenatorBirdwell\/status\/2056508594237927655\/photo\/1\" rel=\"nofollow\">statement<\/a>, Birdwell thanked his constituents and Texas\u2019 U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn for assisting with his nomination through committee and full Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me again thank you for the privilege and honor of serving you for nearly 16 years in the State Senate,\u201d Birdwell said. \u201cI ask your prayers for my future duties and that you keep our next state senator in your prayers for wisdom as they serve the district.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/david-cook\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Cook<\/a>, R-Mansfield, is running to replace Birdwell after decisively <a href=\"https:\/\/thetexan.news\/elections\/2026\/state-rep-david-cook-easily-wins-republican-primary-for-texas-senate-district-22\/article_4b78541e-c2e6-4623-857b-95df45145b96.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">winning<\/a> the Republican party nomination for the seat in March. He will face off against Democrat Amy Martinez-Salas, a first-time candidate, in November.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/ayden-runnels\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cropped-Ayden-Runnels-2025-NP-Update-120x120.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAyden Runnels is the afternoon\/evening reporter. Previously, they were a breaking news reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. A graduate of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, Ayden&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/ayden-runnels\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ayden Runnels\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Senate confirmed Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell to serve as an assistant secretary of defense on Monday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13079,53286,2133,2328,21542,2424,27,29,28,2134],"class_list":["post-299002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brian-birdwell","tag-david-cook","tag-democrats","tag-granbury","tag-mansfield","tag-republicans","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}