House GOP Shows First United Front
in Vouchers Fight with Vote for SB 2
Capitol Inside
April 17, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott's historic scare tactics paid off on Thursday morning when the Texas House gave a preliminary nod to a school vouchers measure in a party line vote that featured all of the Democrats on the floor and two Republicans including a former speaker in the dissent.
The House backed the vouchers measure in Senate Bill 2 on an 86-63 tally after the ruling Republicans torpedoed more than 40 Democratic amendments on similar party line votes including a proposal that would have let voters make the final call in a statewide election.
GOP Speaker Dustin Burrows, who rarely votes on policy issues, voted for the bill that all of the House Democrats on the floor for the final count opposed. Former Speaker Dade Phelan and State Rep. Gary VanDeaver of New Boston were the only two Republicans who voted with the Democrats to kill the school vouchers bill.
A half-dozen Republicans who helped Democrats bury school choice in special session in 2023 - State Reps. Keith Bell of Forney, Drew Darby of San Angelo, Jay Dean of Longview, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Ken King of Canadian and Stan Lambert of Abilene - abandoned their opposition this time around with votes for SB 2. The GOP lawmakers who flip-flopped on vouchers said they were representing the will of their constituents when they voted against school choice less than two years ago.
Democrats accused the ruling Republicans of bowing in submission to demands and threats that Abbott vowed to carry out against GOP members who defied him on the perennial issue like some had done when a vouchers bill crashed in the House in special session two years ago.
Abbott called some Republicans who'd been perceived as wavering into his office to warn them of the wrath they could expect if they failed to fall in line in the House version of the school choice proposal in Senate Bill 2. The governor promised to veto all of the bills that defiant Republicans passed in regular session - and he pledge to turn re-election bids into bloodbaths for those who broke ranks on the plan.
Abbott wasn't as confrontational in a pep talk earlier on Wednesday with Republicans that featured a pitch from President Donald Trump in a conference call. Abbott touted an endorsement that U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon delivered this morning in a tweet.
More than 20 Republicans teamed up with Democrats to bury the vouchers bill in the fall of 2023. While nearly half of those retired without re-election races in 2024, Abbott targeted 10 of the GOP members who opposed the school choice bill and bankrolled challengers in primary election races that seven incumbents lost that year.
But seven House Republicans who survived Abbott's vengeance for votes to kill vouchers last time around stuck with the governor on the floor tonight with votes to table Democratic amendments that were cast almost exclusively along party lines. The odds for GOP defections on a vote tonight or Thursday morning for preliminary approval appeared to be growing remote as the debate on SB 2 dragged late into the night.
Barring a dramatic exodus by Republicans for a final vote, the proposal would return to the Senate, which could vote to go conference committee or to accept the measure with the House's alterations in a move that would send it to Abbott's desk.
The outcome did not appear to be in doubt after the Republicans displayed united fronts in votes that torpedoed the first few amendments that Democrats served up before the sun went down on the Capitol City.
The closest thing to a test vote on the House substitute for SB 2 came when the Republicans voted unanimously to table an amendment that Democratic State Rep. Chris Turner of Arlington proposed in a move that would have deleted the measure's enabling clause and effectively gutted the bill. The plan died two years ago with an amendment to strike the provision that was necessary for the legislation to take effect.
The Republicans buried the Turner amendment on 85-60 vote that had all of the GOP members on one side and all the Democrats on the floor at the time on the other.
Former Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont was the only majority party member to break ranks on an amendment that would have made the measure contingent on a nod from the electorate in a statewide referendum in November. The amendment with the election mandate that State Rep. James Talarico of Austin proposed died on a motion to table that prevailed 86-62.
Talarico said the idea for an election came originally from former Republican Governor Rick Perry and gained momentum with an endorsement from a group of MAGA moms. Talarico said the push for a vote of the people had bipartisan support until Governor Greg Abbott intervened with threats of red pen retaliation and primary election doom.
The Republicans recorded their first amendment kill when they voted 91-47 to reject an amendment that Democratic State Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston offered in a bid to keep billionaires from having their children's private schooling subsidized with tax dollars.
GOP State Rep. Brad Buckley of Salado - the House sponsor of SB 2 as the Public Education Committee chair - was no match for Democrats in terms of style or substance points in a debate that couldn't turn a vote. But Buckley managed to hold the Republicans together as the evening unfolded in the face of piercing questions from Democrats that sparked some testy moments.
Republican State Rep. James Frank of Wichita Falls - as an example - took umbrage several times with Democrats portraying the school choice proposal as a vouchers bill.
more to come ...
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