Phelan Claims Fragile Speaker Race Lead
with Cop Reform Pledge as Bait for Dems

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
November 4, 2020

GOP State Rep. Dade Phelan declared himself to be the tentative winner in the Texas House speaker's race on Wednesday after securing the support from almost three dozen Democrats with a vow to make criminal justice reform inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement a major priority during the regular session in 2021.

A third-term lawmaker from Beaumont who's been a top lieutenant for outgoing Speaker Dennis Bonnen, Phelan rolled out a pledge list with the names of 83 current and future colleagues including 33 Democrats before adding one more minority party member to the running count this afternoon.

The critical House leadership fight had been in a holding pattern throughout the coronavirus pandemic with potential speaker contenders keeping their powder dry until they learned who would be controlling the chamber next year when both sides had incorrectly believed it would be the Democrats. Republicans in recent weeks had been privately pondering which of the Democrats' top candidates to get behind trying when the GOP lost the majority in the general election on Tuesday.

The GOP's best pollsters in Texas had predicted that the Democrats would pick up at least six of the nine seats that they needed to take the Legislature's lower chamber back in a worst case scenario for the minority party. But most Republicans and Democrats alike had been fully expecting the House to go blue in 2020 after a blue wave added a dozen more seats to the minority party column just two years ago.

But Phelan hit the ground running last night as soon it started to look like the GOP majority would survive after all in an election in which the major parties will break even if narrow leads that Republican State Rep. Angie Chen Button of Garland and Democratic State Rep. Jon Rosenthal of Houston currently have in a races that could be destined for recounts and potential court fights.

Phelan scored commitments initially from seven more representatives than it would take to claim the gavel in a chamber with 150 members. Phelan announced later today that Democratic State Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston had rallied behind in the leadership competition as well.

All but a handful of the 51 Republicans on the original Phelan team are white men. But Phelan's bipartisan coalition is highly diverse thanks to his Democratic supporters that include 13 blacks, 12 Hispanics and a dozen women as well. Phelan - the chairman of the powerful State Affairs Committee during Bonnen's first and last term as the speaker - had been the departing incumbent's choice as his replacement.

GOP State Rep. Trent Ashby of Lufkin appeared to be Phelan's chief rival in the leadership battle early Wednesday morning after Republican State Rep. Geanie Morrison of Victoria cancelled a brief campaign and pitched her support to the East Texan. Ashby apparently had a fairly significant number of women Democrats in his corner or preparing to be before Phelan claimed to have more than the 76 votes that he would need to replace Bonnen in the dais.

But Phelan has a much shorter opening list of supporters than Bonnen did two years ago when he had more than 100 representatives from both sides of the aisle in his camp a week after the general election in 2018. In a chamber where pledges in a speaker's race are not binding, House members who favor Ashby or another potential contender have more than two months to try to encourage Phelan team defections.

Phelan would probably be able to push a criminal justice reform plan through the House that will still be controlled by establishment Republicans when the Legislature convenes in January for the first session during a major global pandemic. But such a proposal could be dead on arrival in the Senate where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick will still be in charge as a prominent President Donald Trump ally who's branded the Black Lives Matter crusade as a communist organization hell bent on bringing socialism in America.

The Democrats picked up a seat in the Capitol's east wing last night when State Rep. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio ousted GOP State Senator Pete Flores of Pleasanton. But the GOP will have an 18-seat majority in the Senate in 2021.

more to come ...

DADE PHELAN UNOFFICIAL PLEDGE LIST