GOP Speaker Dade Phelan sought to shore up his support among current and future colleagues from the Texas House's minority party when he showed up in San Antonio on Monday for a Mexican American Legislative Caucus event that was dominated by Democrats.
But Phelan may have found the reception that he received at the annual MALC Golf Classic & Spa Day to be icy at best as a consequence of concerns that House Democrats were expressing about the GOP leadership team's plans for the regular session in 2025.
Phelan's attendance at the MALC event in the Alamo City demonstrated his dependence on Democrats in a bid for a third term as the lower chamber's top leader. Having had the Democrats united behind him in two winning races for speaker, Phelan will be a significant favorite to claim the gavel again in January as long they all are in his camp for the vote on the new session's first day.
But Democrats have complained among themselves that Phelan has been taking their support for granted and could fumble it away if he seeks to pander to conservatives who have pledged to back GOP State Rep. David Cook of Mansfield as the consensus choice for challenger in the current speaker's fight.
A Dallas Democrat who serves as MALC chair - State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado - declined to recognize the Republican speaker in the audience at a meeting that the group held in conjunction with the golf tournament. But Neave Criado sharply criticized the agenda that House leaders have pushed on Phelan's watch as speaker and expect to revive in the upcoming regular session.
Four dozen Republican incumbents and nominees who are seeking first terms voted to rally behind Cook last month in the leadership contest. Cook failed to pick up any new support in his first week as the current speaker's chief opponent. Cook and his supporters have portrayed themselves as reformists.
The Democrats' only candidate in the competition for speaker - State Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos of Dallas - appeared to be sending a message to Cook and Phelan as well in a social media post late last week.
"Make no mistake, the “Reform Caucus” has a #Project2025ForTexas: defunding public schools and stripping women of their rights — all while silencing voices that oppose them," Ramos wrote on X. "Texans deserve a Speaker who will fight to give them a fair shot, not push the agenda of out-of-state billionaire donors."
The MALC event that wraps up today in SA featured a cocktail hour and casino night on the schedule for Monday.
Thirty-five House Democrats and four Republicans are listed on the MALC web site as members. But MALC has always been perceived to be a Democratic organization despite the bipartisan roster. But State Rep. J.M. Lozano of Kingsville is the only MALC Republican who's pledged his vote to Cook for speaker next year.
While Phelan hasn't made his own pledge list public, members on both sides of the aisle will presume that MALC's other three Republicans - State Reps. Ryan Guillien of Rio Grande City, Janie Lopez of San Benito and John Lujan of San Antonio - are in the speaker's camp until proven otherwise.
Some of the Democrats at the event in the Alamo City were troubled by inflammatory remarks that one of his top allies has made about the GOP leadership agenda in 2025.
GOP State Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco hit a nerve with a tweet late last week that gave the impression that the Phelan team would take a hard right turn after his election to another term.
