Legislative Leaders Want GOP to Bury
Hatchets as Dem Wave Threat Grows
Capitol Inside
February 17, 2026
In a highly-rare distress signal that recognizes the growing threat of a blue wave in the fall, the Texas Legislature's top two leaders
issued a call for a kumbaya for the GOP before the general election after unprecedented warring among the Republicans up and down the ballot in the first round of voting in 2026.
But Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows made no attempt to get the plea for unity under way without delay - saying only that the reconciliation should begin after the primary election two weeks from now and the runoffs in the spring. Patrick sound a clarion call for a united front for November on the Mark Davis show on Dallas radio.
"After the primaries and runoff elections are decided, we must come together as one united Texas Republican Party," Patrick said in a post on X. "Democrats lost Texas a couple of decades ago because their party split in several directions. We cannot and must not allow that to happen to our party in 2026."
Burrows - a Lubbock lawyer in the early stages of his second year with the gavel - echoed the Senate president's pitch and urged GOP voters to guard against the tendency to take winning for granted.
"Republicans have built the foundations for Texas’ strength and prosperity, but success is never an excuse for complacency," the speaker wrote on X in a repost of the Patrick message. "The moment we stop pushing forward is the moment we start falling behind.
"Once primaries are over, Republicans from every corner of our state must unite around our Party’s nominees for the November election," Burrows added. "Unity and focus are what will preserve our leadership—and secure Texas’ future for the next generation."
But the powerful leaders of the House and Senate in Austin face an imposing challenge if they hope to make their visions of Republicans marching together to confront the common enemy become reality after some of the ugliest and most vicious first-round fights for offices at the state level here in modern times. A pair of open races for House seats on the GOP primary ballot here are glaring examples.
Texas House District 98
Southlake Republican Fred Tate has sought to tap into the anti-Muslim fever that Governor Greg Abbott has been stirring up with attempts to stop developments like EPIC City north of the Dallas area while designating groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorists.
Tate - a businessman and longtime party activist - released an ad that claims GOP primary rival Armin Mizani is good friends with an activist who support Sharia law and has been tied allegedly to a pro-Islamic terrorist group. Tate contends that Mizani backed off a proposed Sharia law ban in his role as the Keller mayor after the ostensible friend came out against it.
"Democrats and Islamic radicals declared victory,".the ad assert. "Islamic leaders want Sharia in Tarrant County and Mizani in the Texas House."
Tate's supporters have tried to link Mizani to the Islamic faith with claims that he took campaign cash from a donor who'd contributed to Democratic U.S. Rep. IIhan Omar of Minnesota. Mizani is a native of Puerto Rico and has been a devoted Catholic since his upbringing. Mizani has been the mayor in the Tarrant County suburb of Keller since 2000 when he won a promotion after six years as a council member.
Tate has Abbott and the deep-pocket Texans for Lawsuit Reform in his corner for the race in the House district that's nestled into Tarrant County's heavily-Republican northeast corner.
Mizani is an attorney who'd raised more than $1.1 million for the HD 98 race after the first three weeks in January. Tate rounded up almost $670,000 since his emergence as a candidate in August. The GOP primary fight for HD 98 is one of three House races with combined price tags that have surpassed the $2 million mark in terms of total fundraising for the top two candidates in each.
But the focus on fears that the far-right base has about a potential Muslim invasion has overshadowed the actual issues that the Legislature will be forced to tackle in 2027. The Republican primary in HD 98 has runoff potential in a field that includes a third candidate - Zee Wilcox - who hasn't had a sufficient amount of money to be competitive. But Wilcox scored some free publicity when she had to fight the GOP for a spot on the primary ballot after having an application rejected.
Despite the opposition's efforts aimed at hanging the albatross of Islam on him, Mizani has reaped most of the significant endorsements from conservative groups and leaders in the Texas GOP. Mizani has endorsements from 15 of the House's most conservative members and the congressional members from the area - U.S. Rep. Beth VanDuyne. Mizani has an array of council members from Southlake and Keller backing his bid for HD 98 as well. He blames Tate for the nasty tone of the race.
"Fred Tate began his campaign in the mud, and he’s going to end it in the mud," Mizani said in a post on X. The winner of the Republican primary will face one of two Democrats who are vying for the nomination in HD 98 - Cate Brennan and Aaron Hendley. President Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points there in 2024.
Texas House District 88
A verbal firefight broke out among some Texas House Republicans on Tuesday when far-right State Rep. Wes Virdell of Brady popped up in an attack ad that accused powerful State Rep. Ken King of Canadian of lying about his record, killing key conservative bills and exacting revenge against colleague who defy him.
King's bid for a new term in House District 88 became a ring for colleagues to duke it out over his fate in the primary election two weeks from now.
Virdell fired the first shot when he appeared in a 30-second spot for Plainview's John Browning as the Republican primary challenger in HD 88 at the northern end of the Panhandle. The GOP primary in HD 88 turned into a tag-team competition at that point - with four participants after GOP State Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo rode to King's defense with a rhetorical scorching of Virdell.
"Don’t be fooled by Wes Virdell," Darby warned in a post on X. "He’s ineffective, so he lies."
Virdell got the quartet warring under way when he argued in the spot for Browning that King had been the executioner in his role as the State Affairs Committee chairman for legislation that had been important to the people in a district that reaches from the Hill Country into west central Texas. Virdell contended that King sought to portray "big city politicians" as his only true critics when some conservative voters across rural Texas are unhappy with his performance as well.
"You see - with Ken King - it's not about right and wrong. It's what you can do for him,"
Virdell says in the spot for the Browning campaign. Virdell said worthy bills that Republicans sponsor won't "see the light of day" if they've offended King or opposed him on measures.
The exchange of allegations and insults between Virdell and Darby stole the spotlight in the district in the Panhandle that King won initially in 2021. Virdell slammed Darby and King in a post on X for pushing wind power and "other green energy garbage that is ruining Texas" and the independent electric grid here. Virdell ripped King and Darby for a summer camp regulation and restriction plan that emerged from the Texas House during a summer special session as a response to deadly Guadalupe River on July the 4th last year.
Virdell - a rookie Republican who opposed Burrows in his first vote as a representative - turned to Hollywood for an analogy in the social media broadside in response to Darby's jab.
"P.S. Remember that scene at the end of Cast Away where Tom Hanks is standing at an intersection trying to figure where he would go next? It was a beautiful area 10 miles from Ken's hometown. Now it is covered in windmills," Virdell said. "Our duties are to be good stewards of Texas, not cover it in crap (and paid for by taxpayers) while ignoring the need for reliable generators fueled by natural gas that improves our grids reliability. While you may desire Texas to look like the silicon valley, I want people to look at Texas the way people look at Montana. My kids and grandkids still have to live here after we are gone."
The winner of the GOP primary in HD 88 will square off in the general election with Democrat Heather Wallace. Trump won 85.9 percent of the vote in the district that King is fighting to defend. That was the second highest share that Trump received in state House districts here just over a year ago.
more to come ...
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