Conservatives could be scrambling for an alternate candidate to rally behind in a push to oust Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan from the leadership post if State Rep. David Cook fails to win the GOP Caucus nomination in a private meeting at an undisclosed location in Austin this weekend.
Cook appears to be a half-dozen votes short of the 60 percent threshold that would be required for a formal caucus plug if all of 88 current and incoming House Republicans participate in the highly-anticipated vote that will be cast on secret ballots more than a full month before the speaker's election in January.
A Mansfield Republican in his second term, Cook claimed to have pledges of support from 48 Republicans who will be colleagues in 2025 when he emerged from an informal vote as Phelan's singular foe in late September. But Cook only identified 46 of his supporters while labeling two others as *Confidential* in the pledge list he released at the time.
Cook picked his first new public pledge in over two months when State Rep. David Spiller of Jacksboro bolted from the Phelan leadership team and joined the opposition on Monday.
But the Tarrant County lawmaker sought to give the impression a week before the caucus vote that he's on track to claim the gavel with ostensible support from a majority of the Republicans who will be House members in 2025.
"Together, we are going to UNIFY and REFORM the Texas House!" Cook declared in a post on X.
Cook faces a challenge that will be far more challenging to overcome with House Republicans having the luxury of casting votes in the caucus nomination process without any way of knowing who they backed for speaker unless they make their choice public on their own after the meeting on Saturday. Cook supporters have weighed a possible motion to force a caucus vote on the record on the issue of Democrats as House committee chairs.
Like the caucus nomination, a separate vote on Democratic panel leaders would have no bearing on the election on opening day unless it scares Phelan backers enough to prompt them to switch allegiances before the leadership competition is decided on the lower chamber floor. But all of three Republicans who served as Texas speaker before Phelan's election in 2021 had a dozen Democrats or more chairing committees in the west wing in Austin. Conservative delegates at the state Republican convention in San Antonio this year told Capitol Inside they'd been led to believe that Phelan had been the first to appoint colleagues from the opposing party as committee chairs.
There'd been speculation that the caucus would convene at the Westgate Building across the street from the Texas Capitol. But the statehouse might be a safer bet for the caucus vote in light of the security they would be guaranteed there. Fifty-three votes would be necessary to score the caucus nomination for speaker if all of the Republicans who'll be representatives next month participate.
Cook's chances would increase with every Phelan supporter who does not cast a vote. But the challenger could win a caucus supermajority and still be two dozen votes short or more when the speaker's election is held on January 14 when the Legislature convenes in regular session.
With the GOP picking up two House seats at the polls last month, Phelan only needs 14 votes from Republicans if he has all of the chamber's 62 Democrats in his corner for the leadership contest next month. The Beaumont resident has a decided if not monstrous advantage as the incumbent who has a sufficient number of GOP committee chairs in place to keep the job if they remain loyal to him despite monumental outside pressure from MAGA conservatives.
