Anti-Vouchers Republican Gambles
with GOP Speaker Helping Pass Hat
Capitol Inside
December 18, 2023
Republican State Reps
in Texas House in 2023 |
86 |
Democratic State Reps
in Texas House in 2023 |
64 |
| GOP Reps with Primary
Opposition in 2024 |
45 |
| GOP Reps with Primary Foes after Backing Impeachment |
42 |
GOP State Reps with Two
or More Primary Foes |
20 |
| Dem Reps with Primary
Opponents in 2024 |
10 |
GOP State Reps Who Voted
Against School Vouchers |
21 |
GOP Reps with Primaries
after Opposing Vouchers |
15 |
| GOP Reps Who Gov. Abbott Targets for Vouchers Votes |
6 |
| GOP State Reps with Primary Foes
as Phelan Chairmen |
10 |
GOP State Reps with Foes
from Democratic Party |
51 |
Democratic State Reps
with Foes from GOP |
20 |
GOP State Reps
Unopposed in Primary |
30 |
Democratic State Reps
Unopposed in Primary |
43 |
GOP State Reps Not
Seeking Re-Election |
10 |
Democratic Reps Not
Seeking Re-Election |
7 |
Texas Senate Republicans
with Primary Foes |
1 |
Texas Senate Democrats
with Primary Foes |
1 |
U.S. House Republicans
with Primary Foes |
11 |
U.S. House Democrats
with Primary Foes |
5 |
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With the mother of an iconic Texas Republican breathing down the neck, State Rep. DeWayne Burns ventured into perilous territory on Monday when he announced plans for a fundraiser for a re-election race in January with Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan as the featured guest.
Burns - a Cleburne Republican who's seeking a sixth term in House District 58 - is one of 45 GOP representatives who are facing primary opposition in 2024. Burns is one of only 14 House Republicans who have two targets on their backs after voting for Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment in the spring and an amendment that killed Governor Greg Abbott's prized school vouchers bill in special session last month.
Burns is doing battle in the March 5 primary election with a pair of challengers in Helen Kerwin of Glen Rose and Grandview attorney Lyndon Laird of Grandview. The HD 58 contest is a rematch on paper in light of the fact that Laird was one of four Republicans who lost to Burns when he won the seat initially in 2014. Laird finished fourth in a primary field of four that year with 6 percent of the vote.
Kerwin appears to be the incumbent's most serious threat this time around - however - with Donald Trump associate Brooke Rollins as a daughter and most aggressive supporter since she entered the HD 58 competition right before the filing deadline.
Rollins - an attorney and former aide to Rick Perry in the governor's office - built the Texas Public Policy Foundation from the ground up as the think tank's chief executive officer for 15 years until she joined Trump's team in Washington D.C. in 2018 as the director of the Office of American Innovation before a stint as the Domestic Policy Council's acting leader. Rollins founded the America First Policies Institute in 2021 as Trump's own version of the TPPF on a national scale.
Kerwin's emergence as a challenger means that Burns will be running against the expected White House nominee for the GOP in round one next year. Burns is on the Paxton revenge tour list and can probably expect to have Abbott coming after him as well.
Burns' enlistment of Phelan for the fundraising event in Austin on January 16 is a high-risk gamble given the speaker's radioactive status with conservatives mostly as a product of the lead role he played in the House's failed attempt to oust the elected attorney general. The speaker's team rallied support for the AG's impeachment with the promise that it would be successful. But it wasn't close when the Senate acquitted Paxton in September with only two Republican votes to impeach.
Phelan has his hands full with two Republicans gunning for him in round one in his home district in southeast Texas. The appearance at the Burns event is one of the first signs of the speaker coming to the rescue of a GOP colleague who stuck with the leader team on the impeachment vote. Burns was one of 60 Republicans who voted to impeach the three-time elected state lawyer during an ambush the House staged in the regular session's final weekend.
The HD 58 fight is ranked 16th on Capitol Inside's top Texas Races to Watch for seats that state House Republicans are attempting to defend in 2024. But Burns has been popular in his district - having run unopposed in the last three primary elections after defeating a challenger with 54 percent of the vote in his first bid for a new term in 2016.
Ninety-five of the HD 58 residents are based in Burns' home base of Johnson County. The remaining 5 percent are located in tiny Somerville County where Kerwin served as a county commissioner and mayor in Glen Rose.
more to come ...
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