Burrows Maneuvering Puts Him on War Path
Against Democrats Who Carried Him to Dais
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
August 22, 2026
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows appears to be writing off the prospects for a second leadership race on the shoulder of Democrats after joining Governor Greg Abbott's quixotic quest to turn Harris County red this week in a move that put him on a war path against Democrats who carried him to victory last year.
Burrows gave the Harris conversion plan a spirited plug on Wednesday when he appeared with the governor and several GOP representatives and candidates at a rally in the Houston area as the 10th stop on a tour across Texas under the banner of protecting the majority in the state Capitol's west wing.
"Let’s turn Harris County RED, and keep Texas, TEXAS!" Burrows declared from the stage at the event there on Wednesday.
The powerful Lubbock lawmaker who'd voted to impeach Ken Paxton in 2023 found himself being showered with praise by the attorney general's camp for the effort that he's made on its behalf in the fight with Democrat James Talarico in the U.S. Senate race that's crowning the Texas ticket this fall. Paxton senior advisor Michelle Smith saluted the speaker on Saturday in a gushing social media post that declined to mention that he'd voted to impeach the attorney general in 2023 as a top lieutenant on the House leadership team at the time.
"I just wanna make a statement about this. I am not a RINO," Smith said on X. "I don’t even play one on TV. Everyone knows where I stand. I don’t mince my words and I’m not a great poker player, but I wanna tell you something and I’m saying this from my heart not just from somebody that’s trying to like win over somebody because I don’t need to in this case."
Burrows "has really been a fighter to try to help General Paxton get elected," Smith added. "I would say of all the state wide elected officials. He has been amazing. He has personally picked up the phone and told many members and many people get behind Ken Paxton. he’s been working hard to protect Texas and I say this for no reason other than to say I believe in truth and I want people to know the truth. I appreciate what he’s done. I have seen him in action."
The Burrows pom-pom waving triggered outrage among some of the House's most conservative members who portrayed him as a charlatan who's played the Republicans like a maestro in pursuit of maximum power at the expense of conservatives and anyone else who gets in his way.
But Burrows' enlistment in the Abbott push to transform the state's largest blue mecca into GOP turf gives the impression that the speaker no longer sees Democrats as the path to victory in a bid for a second term with the gavel in 2027. Burrows appears to be gambling that he can win the leadership post again without the need for a united front among the Democrats on which he and the three GOP speakers before him all had depended as prerequisites for the dais.
By signing on with the Abbott effort aimed at transforming Harris County into Republican turf, Burrows is effectively endorsing Republicans who are trying to oust a handful of House Democrats who supported him for speaker at the start of the regular session in 2025.
Abbott identified seven specific House seats that Democrats control as formal targets late last year when he revealed the plan to transform the largest Texas county into Republican turf. The governor slapped targets on the backs of five Democrats who are seeking new terms in the House - State Reps. Ana Hernandez, Penny Morales Shaw, Mary Ann Perez, Armando Walle and Gene Wu - in districts in the Bayou City.
All five incumbent Harris Democrats are prohibitive favorites despite the governor's promise to pour $25 million into the effort aimed at winning Harris County in his own re-election bid and flipping the seven House seats that Abbott designated for takeovers. Abbott also set his sights on his sights on a pair of Houston House seats that are up for grab in open races in a district where veteran State Rep. Hubert Vo was eliminated in a Democratic primary runoff and another where State Rep. Jon Rosenberg decided to forego a re-election race so he could run for Texas Railroad Commissioner instead.
Six of the seats in Harris County districts that Abbott vowed to spend more than a third of his own record campaign war chest trying to flip are ranked as safely Democrat in the Capitol Inside rankings for the general election 72 days from now. A seventh targeted Harris seat - House District 144 - is rated as likely Democratic in the ratings for the fall as the only one of Abbott's seven targets where President Donald Trump won in 2024.
Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump by almost 13 points on average in six of Abbott's seven target districts while Trump defeated her by less than 3 points in HD 144 where Perez is on the ballot again. But Democrat Colin Allred beat U.S. Senator Ted Cruz by nearly 8 points in 2024 when Trump's popularity was at an all-time peak.
But the president's approval marks have been in the tank for months at record lows - and he's been doing nothing to suggest that he's trying to get them off rock-bottom before the November election rolls around. Abbott could decide to rethink the investment of millions of dollars on a plan for a Harris County power grab that's been widely perceived as delusional on both sides of the aisle at a time when the prospects for a blue wave in a league with 2018 have never been higher than they are now.
Burrows' association with such an effort could create the appearance of desperation by a speaker who appears increasingly likely to try to make history as the first speaker to ever win the leadership position without the need for Democrats in two dozen years of GOP rule in the Legislature's lower chamber.
Tom Craddick, who's on the ballot again in House district based in Midland, was the first Republican to be elected speaker of the Texas House since Reconstruction when he claimed the job in 2003 when the GOP had its first majority there in the same span of time. Craddick might have been able to win without Democrats after the Republicans seized control of the chamber with an 88-62 majority after picking up 16 seats on a new map that GOP leaders on the Legislative Redistricting Board produced for the House elections in 2002. But Craddick is a savvy operator who understood the value of having some if not all of the Democrats in his corner where he had a dozen or more en route to the first of three terms as the chamber's top leader.
All but three of 62 current Democratic House members supported Burrows for the post in 2025 when 53 Republicans in a chamber with 88 representatives backed David Cook as the GOP caucus choice for the job. Some conservatives aren't buying into Burrows attempt to play loyal Republican now.
"I see a lot of folks sucking up to him because he is the Speaker and they want a seat at the table," GOP State Rep. Wes Virdell of Brady said Saturday in a scathing review of Burrows. "I see people acting in fear and self interest. I see people believing the conversations inside their bubble. I see people willing to deny their own values to have a seat at the table.
"I see a man who has sat by quietly while government has and is doing some egregious things to its own people," Virdell added. "I see a man who is now trying to make nice with people from which he needs their vote to stay in power. I see a man who has made zero attempt to apologize or reconcile with the citizens he threw under the bus to save himself. I see a man who is an opportunist for his own gain and isn't remorseful for the people he claimed to stand up for and didn't. After this job is over, I have to live with myself as do my colleagues. Is it our duty to sacrifice good people or to stand up for them? Is it our duty to turn a blind eye and morally disengage from our actions so we can have a seat at the table? Or...are we called to be better than serving our self and to stand up for others?"
more to come ...
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| |
DEMOCRAT |
2024 PRES |
MOV |
2024 SENATE |
MOV |
135 |
Odus Evbagharu |
Dem 52.8% |
07.8 |
Dem 56.4% |
16.0 |
137 |
Gene Wu (I) |
Dem 57.8% |
17.8 |
Dem 60.6% |
24.1 |
140 |
Armando Walle (I) |
Dem 58.0% |
17.0 |
Dem 62.9% |
29.3 |
143 |
Ana Hernandez (I) |
Dem 56.3% |
13.7 |
Dem 60.5% |
24.2 |
144 |
Mary Ann Perez (I) |
GOP 50.8% |
02.9 |
Dem 52.3% |
07.8 |
148 |
Penny Morales Shaw (I) |
Dem 53.5% |
08.6 |
Dem 56.7% |
16.3 |
149 |
Darlene Breaux |
Dem 54.3% |
10.7 |
Dem 57.5% |
18.1 |
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REPUBLICAN |
2024 PRES |
MOV |
2024 SENATE |
MOV |
126 |
Stan Stanart |
Trump 58.1% |
18.1 |
Cruz 55.2% |
13.0 |
127 |
Charles Cunningham (I) |
Trump 56.9% |
15.0 |
Cruz 53.9% |
10.2 |
128 |
Tommy Butler |
Trump 68.7% |
38.3 |
Cruz 64.5% |
31.5 |
129 |
Scott Bowen |
Trump 57.9% |
17.7 |
Cruz 54.9% |
12.5 |
130 |
Tom Oliverson (I) |
Trump 66.2% |
33.9 |
Cruz 62.7% |
27.9 |
132 |
Mike Schofield (I) |
Trump 55.9% |
13.9 |
Cruz 52.6% |
7.9 |
133 |
Mano DeAyala (I) |
Trump 52.4% |
7.0 |
Cruz 50.6% |
3.5 |
138 |
Lacey Hull (I) |
Trump 53.3% |
8.5 |
Cruz 50.5% |
3.6 |
150 |
Valoree Swanson (I) |
Trump 57.4% |
16.4 |
Cruz 54.2% |
11.0 |
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