NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee speaker candidates are meeting with freshman House lawmakers in order to drum up support as the caucus prepares to nominate a new leader later this month.

Embattled House Speaker Glen Casada is scheduled to resign from the leadership post on August 2 following a series of scandals involving explicit text messages. Before that, however, the GOP House caucus will nominate a new speaker on July 24 ahead of a planned special legislative session later in August.

Tuesday's meeting with the freshman lawmakers and speaker hopefuls was closed to the press.

A handful of lawmakers have expressed interest in replacing Casada, including Reps. Ryan Williams, Jay Reedy, Curtis Johnson, Mike Carter, Cameron Sexton and Matthew Hill