State Rep. David Cook of Mansfield claimed a diluted GOP caucus nomination on Saturday before State Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock announced that he had the votes to win the Texas House speaker's race in January with support from a bipartisan alliance of colleagues.
“The speakers race is over," Burrows said at a hastily-called news conference in the speaker's committee room after the caucus vote. "I have secured enough to be speaker this next session.”
Burrows said he would release a list of pledges in the near future. None will be binding until the actual leadership election on the House floor when the 2025 regular session convenes on January 14. Burrows said he had pledges from 76 House members - the minimum it would take to land the speaker's job.
But Burrows failed to have Democrats united behind him like outgoing Speaker Dade Phelan managed to do in two successful races for the gavel before dropping a bid for a third term late this week as an incumbent who'd become radioactive with Republicans. Twenty-five House Democrats declined to endorse Burrows including one who he'd listed as a supporter.
Cook
released a list with 56 House Republicans who he billed as supporters after Burrows portrayed himself as the tentative victor. Cook picked up 10 Republicans to go with 46 who he'd list as pledges in late September.
The Cook backer list contained a handful of Republicans whose support Burrows said he had.
The wild maneuvering during and after the caucus endorsement vote gave the appearance that the competition was far from over with more than a month to go before the actual election in the chamber.
Burrows, who's served as the powerful Calendars Committee chairman for four years under Phelan, appeared
to be in position to shut the competition down after a surprising show of support in the private caucus meeting where he had 41 votes before he and allies bolted before a third vote that Cook would win.
Cook put a victory on the floor next month at considerable risk when he and his supporters vowed to ban Democrats from chairing committees in the Legislature's lower chamber in a dramatic departure from longstanding tradition. But Cook and the Republicans who supported him in the caucus tally had been counting on GOP representatives who'd hadn't pledged to him to wilt under unprecedented pressure from the right to support the purging of Democrats from the leadership team.
Cook failed to score the caucus nod on the first two ballots when Burrows had support from 40 fellow Republicans in the initial tally compared to 48 for the leader who's been the consensus conservative choice before Phelan withdrew from the contest late this week.
Cook needed 53 votes - or 60 percent of the first count - when all 88 current and incoming House Republicans were on hand for the nominations quest. Burrows, who entered the competition for speaker on Thursday, picked up one supporter at Cook's expense in the second caucus vote that reduced his lead to a mere six votes.
But tensions flared when a request for a break for deliberations was rejected before a third vote in a move that prompted Burrows and his supporters to leave the meeting. The caucus reportedly had 59 members on hand less an hour before a final vote was taken. That meant a candidate would only need 36 votes to gain the formal caucus endorsement for the leadership election on opening day of the regular session in January.
House Democrats who put Phelan in position to win two speaker races revealed that they'd met with Burrows but stopped short of pledging to him as a group. The events on Saturday leff the speaker's job up for grabs.
"Because of our unity, Democrats will help govern in a bipartisan Texas House that recognizes traditional institutional norms," the House Democratic Caucus said in a statement late this afternoon. "After extensive discussions with Chairman Burrows, Democratic members have been released to support the Speaker candidate of their choice, except for David Cook. Democrats have been assured that the bipartisan traditions of the Texas House will continue."
Burrows or another Republican could win the speaker's election on the floor next month with support from less than half of the Democrats in the lower chamber if he or she garnered a similar share of support as the powerful Lubbock legislators enjoyed before a significant number of his supporters bolted before the final vote.
The caucus appeared to be hopelessly divided at the outset of a private meeting at the Capitol where conservative activists who were backing Cook had been praying in the extension before the vote on a nominee for the post that Speaker Dade Phelan decided to give up without a fight on the eve of today's tally.
Cook received 48 votes on the first ballot compared to 40 for Burrows - a sum that was roughly double the amount of support that Phelan claimed to have among fellow Republicans before dropping out of the race abruptly. Burrows picked up another supporter on a second vote to trim Cook's lead to 47-41.
But Burrows and a substantial number of allies stormed out of the meeting before the caucus took a third vote after a request for a break was denied. The Republicans who were still on hand appeared to reverse course and granted a break that a Cook backer sought in a move that gave the opposing sides an opportunity for a truce that would get the voting back on track.
more to come ...
