A group of self-styled Texas House reformers appeared to be substantially short of support on Friday in a bid to depose GOP Speaker Dade Phelan when four dozen Republicans voted to unite behind a consensus challenger in the 2025 leadership election after their first choice bowed of the competition.
State Rep. David Cook of Mansfield emerged as the GOP alternate in the speaker's race after State Rep. John Smithee of Amarillo removed his name from the list of contenders after scoring the most votes on an initial ballot that featured five Republicans who'd announced as candidates.
Smithee and three other challengers pitched their support to Cook after the vote.
State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress, James Frank of Wichita Falls and Shelby Slawson of Stephenville were eliminated at a private meeting at a location that organizers refused to disclose.
Forty-eight Republicans participated in the vote.
A second-term lawmaker who served more than a decade as his hometown mayor, Cook reportedly received 21 votes compared to 27 for Smithee. The finalist's combined count was almost 56 percent of the GOP Caucus in the House when all 86 current representatives are taken into account. That leaves Cook 22 votes shy of the 76 Republicans he would need to take the gavel from Phelan in January without the need for any support from Democrats.
Cook's informal casting as the sole challenger could turn out to be a wasted effort if House Democrats are united behind Phelan in a contest that he may be more of a favorite to win now based on the unique advantages that he has as the incumbent.
While Democrats expect to gain some House seats this fall, Phelan would only need 14 Republicans in his corner if the major parties broke even and he has the minority party's on his side again. The number of GOP votes that the incumbent speaker would need to keep the gavel would go down in direct relation to the count of House districts that Democrats flip this year.
With 86 Republicans on the lower chamber's current roster, Democrats could reclaim the House in November with a net gain of a dozen seats. State Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos of Dallas is the only Democrat in the current ring of speaker contenders for 2025. That would probably change if Democrats seized the majority at the polls in November for the first time since 2001.
A united front among the House Republicans would be all but impossible to conceive at this point in light of the vicious warring in GOP ranks in the west wing. Anti-Phelan representatives are hoping that GOP colleagues who appear to be in his camp will capitulate to intense outside pressure for the current speaker's extraction.
But the Phelan opposition would need 76 House Republicans on board to give him the boot in January - and the speaker's detractors were 22 short based on the reported turnout at the Friday meeting.
Phelan depicted the meeting as a grandstanding play that would cause the House GOP Caucus long-term harm.
"Today’s gathering is little more than an orchestrated scheme to generate headlines and fuel social media clicks, driving our caucus headlong into unnecessary chaos," Phelan contended in a post on X before the metting. "A very small handful of self-anointed instigators put on this gathering, refusing to invite the majority of the current Republican caucus, misleading members to get them in the room, and permitting unauthorized proxy voting for those not in attendance in order to artificially inflate their numbers. The organizers of this distraction have completely and deliberately shortcut established caucus rules to generate an outcome benefitting nobody but themselves. Not only are their actions disappointing and unacceptable, they are futile, as I proudly have the clear majority votes needed to be the Speaker today, and will have the clear majority support needed to become Speaker again come January.
Phelan argued that the dissidents hurt the institution badly - but he suggested that forgiveness could still be a possibility.
"Now is the time to end the sideshows, unify our caucus—and with session fast approaching—refocus on what matters most: crafting smart policy and delivering solutions for the people of Texas," the speaker said. "For those members I have heard from who feel their trust was broken today, and that this scheme has caused great, irreversible damage to our once strong caucus, my door remains open to each and every one of you."
