Coastal Grill

Guest Speaker - Senator Larry Taylor

Senator Larry Taylor is a lifelong Texan and Baylor University graduate raised in Friendswood. He and his wife, Kerri, have three adult children and five grandchildren. Senator Taylor formerly owned Truman Taylor Insurance Agency in Friendswood, an independent agency started by his father more than 50 years ago. The agency merged with Galveston Insurance Associates in 2017.

Before his election to the Texas Senate in 2012, he served five terms in the Texas House of Representatives. Senator Taylor has served five sessions in the Texas Senate, four of them as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. Throughout his Senate tenure he has been a member of other committees including Higher Education, Veterans Affairs and Border Security, Water and Rural Affairs, and the budget-writing Finance Committee. He is a member of the Legislative Budget Board, a permanent joint committee responsible for developing budget and policy recommendations for legislative appropriations. 

During the 87th Legislative Session, Senator Taylor sponsored House Bill 4545, a comprehensive learning acceleration program, and House Bill 1525, a continuation of the landmark overhaul of the public school finance system accomplished by the 86th Legislature. He also served as Chair of the Senate Finance Article III working group, and was a member of the state budget Conference Committee, a select group of 10 legislators chosen to make budget decisions before the bill is voted on by the entire legislature.

Senator Taylor was named 2020 "Galvestonian of the Year" by the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and given the 2022 inaugural "Senator Larry Taylor Champion of Education" award by the League City Chamber of Commerce for his years of advocacy on behalf of Texas students and teachers. He serves on the board of Hope Village, a residential and day program for people with developmental disabilities, and as the Director and Chairman of the Board for Houston based Texan Bank. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. 

Senator Taylor proudly represents Senate District 11, which is comprised of portions of Brazoria, Galveston, and Harris Counties. 

Chairman Matt Rinaldi represented northwest Dallas County in the Texas Legislature from 2015 to 2019. During his time in office, Rinaldi was consistently rated among the top two most conservative members of the House by Rice University, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Young Conservatives of Texas and Texas Eagle Forum. Rinaldi was, according to the Dallas Morning News, "instrumental in strengthening the punishments in the sanctuary cities ban," and authored and passed into law measures that: remove from office public officials who adopt sanctuary city policies, require government contractors and subcontractors to use e-Verify, revoke pensions of teachers convicted of committing sex crimes against students, allow churches to utilize volunteers to provide security services without risking heavy fines, and prohibit any taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood. He served as the Pro-Life Whip for Texas Right to Life in 2017. 

Chairman Rinaldi earned his Juris Doctor with honors from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics from James Madison University. Matt