GOP Speaker Dade Phelan pulled the plug on a re-election bid on Friday in a move that prompted powerful State Rep. Dustin Burrows to enter the leadership competition on the eve of a Republican caucus vote on a nominee who could have the majority party's official endorsement and still lose the fight in January.
The rapid-fire chain of developments that Capitol Inside reported to be under way on Thursday night left Burrows as Mansfield State Rep. David Cook's only current Republican foe in a speaker battle that apparently won't be resolved until the election on the House floor next month.
As the consensus challenger for conservatives, Cook expects to win a majority of the votes on Saturday in a caucus nomination quest that may have no effect on the eventual outcome of the official election inside the chamber on opening day of the regular session in 2025. Some House Republicans are discussing the potential for a compromise candidate for speaker with State Rep. Ryan Guillen's name being floated as a possibility. Guillen is a former Democrat who's based in Rio Grande City in a district on the Mexican border.
But Burrows could have the inside track if has all 62 House Democrats in his corner along with the Republicans who'd been aligned with Phelan. The West Texan only needs 14 Republican votes to claim the gavel if the Democrats are united behind him.
Phelan - a wealthy Beaumont developer in his second term as speaker - ended his campaign in an email that ignored the actual actions and events that made him radioactive for allies and others who've been closely associated with him. Phelan set the stage for an epic downfall with the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and subsequent failure to pass a school vouchers bill that had been Governor Greg Abbott number one priority at the state Capitol last year.
“Out of deep respect for this institution and its members, and after careful consideration and private consultation with colleagues, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the race for Speaker of the Texas House. By stepping aside, I believe we create the best opportunity for our members to rally around a new candidate who will uphold the principles that make our House one of the most exceptional, deliberative legislative bodies in the country—a place where honor, integrity, and the right of every member to vote their district takes utmost precedent.
Burrows, who's a lawyer in Lubbock, served as the chairman of the powerful Calendars Committee throughout Phelan's four years at the helm of the Legislature's lower chamber. Burrows led the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee in 2019 when Republican Dennis Bonnen was in his first and only term as the House speaker.
Burrows will be hoping now that his close association with Bonnen doesn't prove to be a liability in an eleventh-hour campaign for the top leadership post in the west wing in Austin.
Bonnen blew up his own re-election quest shortly after the regular session in 2019 with a targeting scheme aimed at GOP colleagues in the primary election the following year. Burrows was Bonnen's sidekick partner in the plotting against fellow House Republicans that conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan exposed with a tape recording from a secret meeting they'd invited him to attend.
more to come ...
