A rookie Republican lawmaker sought to give colleagues cover from attacks from the right during the weekend when he portrayed the state GOP as irrelevant and predicted that the party caucus in the Texas House could be in the twilight stages in the aftermath of the speaker's election two weeks from now.
State Rep. Carl Tepper of Lubbock reiterated his support for hometown State Rep. Dustin Burrows in the leadership fight in an interview on Friday with Jack Fink on the CBS News Texas show Eye on Politics. Tepper argued that Burrows was the most conservative candidate by far in the contest despite State Rep. David Cook's claim to the moniker based on his status as the GOP caucus nominee for the past three weeks.
Tepper contended that the majority party caucus was broken in the west wing in Austin - and he went as far as to predict that new groups would spring up in its place in a chamber where he said the Republicans are split effectively among several factions.
"i reject the premise that the Republican caucus had selected Cook," Tepper said. "The caucus was at a stalemate. The caucus has been breaking rules for over two years now. And essentially the caucus has dissolved. I don't know if anyone's noticed - but there's three or four different camps in the Republican Party in the House right now. And the caucus doesn't seem to matter anymore."
But Tepper reserved his most stinging rhetoric for the Texas GOP when asked about threats of retribution that state party chief Abraham George has dished out to House Republicans who have refused to abandon their support for Burrows
in favor of Cook as the formal caucus choice for speaker.
"He can bring it on - and we can challenge him as well," Tepper said when asked George's promise to field primary opponents against GOP representatives who don't toe the party line and back Cook in the speaker's election on the floor on January 14. "Or we could continue to watch the dismantling of the Republican Party of Texas."
Tepper isn't worried about a primary challenge in a district where voters may not be apt to punish him for voting to give Lubbock its first ever Republican speaker in a chamber that the GOP has controlled for the past 22 years. Tepper told Fink that he could say with "almost mathematical certainty" that Burrows will be leading the House in 2025.
Burrows is clearly the favorite in the race with pledges from 30 Republicans who've held their ground in the face of threats from the state party and others who've hijacked the state party and sought to manipulate the Legislature and the electorate based on Tepper's account. Burrows expects to have most if not all of the Democrats in his corner for the vote on opening day even though some have kept their powder dry up to now for the sake of leverage in collective bids for concessions before they commit.
Cook has been courting Democrats now that it's become apparent that he can't win with Republican votes exclusively like he set out to do when he entered the leadership competition in September when Speaker Dade Phelan was planning to seek a third term in the dais. Cook has appeared to peak with 60 Republicans pledged to support him in a race that requires at least 76 votes to win.
Tepper - a former Lubbock County GOP chair - suggested that the contest had boiled down to a referendum on whether House members are going to put their individual districts and constituents over their political party when casting votes for speaker.
"I just don't take my orders from the Republican Party of Texas," Tepper said. "I take my orders from the Republicans in the Republican primary in Lubbock County. And I take my orders from my voters here."
Tepper is the first House Republican to take aim at the Texas GOP in public comments on the battle for speaker.
"So I think it's sad how the Republican Party of Texas has evolved and become fringed," the freshman lawmaker from West Texas added. "It's leadership has taken its order from reclusive billionaires in Midland and other places. And I would argue that the Republican Party of Texas in no way, shape or form represents the rank and file of the Republican Party in Texas right now."
