Freedom Caucus Combat Veteran
Takes Aim at GOP House Speaker

Capitol Inside
November 4, 2022

GOP State Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington launched a campaign on Friday for the powerful post that Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is seeking again in a development that gives the far right a candidate to support in a race that the challenger will run as a significant underdog.

Tinderholt's emergence as a candidate four days before the 2022 general election will mark the first time that an incumbent House speaker in Texas faces a challenge in a re-election race since Republican Joe Straus won his fourth of five terms eight years ago. That's contingent on Tinderholt's ability to make it all the way to the election on opening day of the 2023 regular session without pulling out of the fight.

Straus was elected for a fifth and last time as the lower chamber's top leader in 2017 on a unanimous vote without opposition. Former Republican Speaker Dennis Bonnen claimed the job in an open race in 2019 as an eleventh-hour contender after a group of GOP colleagues duked it out for months before he made his move. Bonnen chose not to seek re-election in the coastal district that he represented after a primary targeting scandal in his sole term as speaker. The House voted 143-2 to elect Phelan as Bonnen's hand-picked replacement on the first day of the regular session last year.

All four of the Republicans who've served as speaker since the GOP seized the majority at the polls 20 years ago were elected on the strength of bipartisan coalitions. With the House expecting minimal if any changes in partisan complexion in Tuesday's general election in a chamber that currently contains 84 Republicans and 66 Democrats, Tinderholt's hopes could be doomed as long as Phelan has eight or more Democrats in his camp for his first re-election bid.

Tinderholt warned that the House will remain a burial ground for conservative priorities if Phelan is still at the helm next year.

“Will the priority legislation of the Republican Party of Texas receive a vote on the Texas House floor?" Tinderhot asked in a statement today. "The truth is, we have no idea with our current speaker in control. In fact, most Republicans will tell you that they fully expect many important Republicans policies to die at the hands of liberal committee chairs appointed by Speaker Phelan."

Tinderholt is a charter Texas Freedom Caucus who's been on the outside looking in throughout his four terms in the west wing of the statehouse in Austin. Tinderholt as an example has only passed two of 56 bills that he's filed in the House in the past eight years. Tinderholt served as the House sponsor of a successful Senate bill and one joint resolution that originated across the rotunda as well.

But Tinderholt has shown signs of team player potential at times - having been elected as the chairman of the House Veterans Caucus. Tinderholt is a decorated military veteran who served in the both the Air Force and Army in a military career that spanned 21 years and received several awards for his actions in combat.

Tinderholt's wife, Bethany Tyler-Tinderholt, is a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who's the executive director of the Arlington Police Foundations.

more to come ...