Texas Speaker Dade Phelan to face runoff in GOP primary

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• KVUE would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.
• Texans need truth. Help us report it.
• Donald Trump endorses challenger to Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan
• By tradition, the minority party gets to chair some Texas House committees. Some in the GOP want to end that.
• Texas House speaker heads to a runoff against a Trump-endorsed challenger
• Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan says he has a path to victory in primary runoff battle
• NFL draft grades: Our experts evaluate Cowboys’ Day 3 choices, new rookie class

The original censure resolution was passed by the Jasper County Republican Party with at least two-thirds support and required a three-fifths vote (39 votes) to pass the 64-member State Republican Executive Committee. The final censure vote was 55 in favor and four opposed with four members absent. NBC 5 tried all week to talk to the Defend Texas Liberty PAC leaders, including going to their Tarrant County office to get their side of the story. Limiting “the Speaker to two terms to reduce their power over individual members.” The support for limiting how many sessions a Speaker can serve would mark a fairly radical departure, as many Speakers have served for a decade. Critics say it would also weaken the House relative to the Senate, whose elected leader, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, is not term-limited. The Republican committee chairman with whom I spoke expressed concern that moves like this would give more power to wealthy far-right power brokers such as Dunn, who supports Patrick.

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Editorial: If House Speaker Dade Phelan loses, it could send the lower chamber into chaos - San Antonio Express-News

Editorial: If House Speaker Dade Phelan loses, it could send the lower chamber into chaos.

Posted: Tue, 12 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Phelan has slammed the attacks as “absurd” and “misleading” attempts to deflect from his oversight of other far-reaching border laws and a record $6.5 billion spending spree to pay for Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which includes building a state border wall. A few weeks ago, GOP activists flooded the House gallery to signal they didn’t want Phelan to move forward with his tradition of appointing members of the minority party to important leadership roles. According to the Texas Tribune, the party ran radio ads in Phelan's House district, claiming he was "teaming up with Democrats to kill our Republican priorities." Also this week, Democrats are making abortion rights a political issue this November nationally and here in Texas. The race becomes more intense after the November election and House members will vote on a new Speaker when they're sworn-in in January.

Texans need truth. Help us report it.

The feud between the House and Senate leaders has gotten so bad that Phelan said he and Patrick have not spoken since before the impeachment trial began in August. Meanwhile, Patrick cut an anti-Phelan video ad accusing the speaker of not being a true Trump supporter. Phelan’s relationship with Patrick took another hit after the Tribune reported that the leader of a political action committee, Defend Texas Liberty, that had recently donated $3 million to the lieutenant governor met with prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Donald Trump endorses challenger to Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan

Members say Phelan has earned their trust — a crucial element in a 150-member chamber that’s mainly fueled by personal relationships — and they point to stories of him going out of his way to help with bills or with the sometimes dizzying ways of the Legislature to prove it. We showed it is possible to improve public safety while defending the rights of the accused and offering second chances when deserved. We lead the nation in decreasing incarceration rates, reducing recidivism, and facilitating reentry. We have proven you can be tough on violent criminals while also making the criminal justice system work better for nonviolent offenders. We can work all day on these issues, but if rogue District Attorneys will not uphold the law, what progress are we really making?

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan Censured by State Republican Party - The Texan

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan Censured by State Republican Party.

Posted: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Time and time again, we have seen the Legislature provide some form of property tax relief, but to make it lasting, we must do something about runaway appraisals. Paxton-endorsed challengers in more than 30 House races and his candidates had ousted at least five House members and forced at least five more into runoffs. Southlake Republican Giovanni Capriglione also got a nod of confidence from Phelan on his push to crack down on how companies collect, and in many cases, monetize people’s personal data. The issue has been a pet project of Capriglione’s for years but this session the bill — House Bill 4 — received a low bill number, indicating the strong support of House leadership. Phelan’s support for extending Medicaid eligibility to new mothers to a year is not a surprise.

Phelan countered with accusations that Covey, who has never before served as an elected government official and is simply a pawn of Paxton and other far-right interests. Phelan’s base of support included many local Republican leaders in his three-county district as well as former Gov. Rick Perry, who appeared with the speaker on the campaign trail in Beaumont, Vidor and Jasper ahead of election day. All three of these issues are widely supported by Republican voters in the state, according to the March 5 primary results. Almost 92% of GOP voters agree the state should ensure that Texans are free from vaccine mandates, 80% support school choice, and 96% said that the Texas Constitution should be amended to require proof of citizenship before being able to register to vote.

The knowledge of that loomed over the race to replace Bonnen, which had been relatively quiet heading into the homestretch before Election Day. In some ways, the Texas House that convenes in January will look a lot like the one that gaveled out two years ago under Bonnen’s tutelage. It will still have 83 Republicans and 67 Democrats, with a Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick-led Senate across the building and Gov. Greg Abbott in the governor’s office.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan says he has a path to victory in primary runoff battle

Per House tradition, he went on to appoint 9 Democrats as committee chairs out of the 39 total committees. As presiding officer of the Texas Senate, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick appointed one Democratic chair out of 17 committees. Only soliciting “support for Speakership from Republican members.” In the Texas House, the Speaker is elected by all members and needs majority support—76 votes—to win.

With that backdrop, the newly formed “Equity Caucus,” a group of Democratic lawmakers who formed the coalition to advocate for women’s equity in House leadership and pledged to vote for a speaker candidate as a bloc, met with both Phelan and Morrison. By Wednesday afternoon, and with Republicans confident their majority in the House would remain nearly the same, Phelan announced at a Capitol news conference that the speaker’s race was over. He claimed he had backing from a “supermajority of the Republican caucus” and a “broad coalition of support” from Democrats. After Ritter announced he would retire from the Legislature, Phelan ran for House District 21 in 2014. Phelan easily bested the other Republican candidate in the primary and then cruised in the general election.

And he appointed fewer Democratic chairs in 2023 than he did two years earlier. For a lot of House members, that scandal shattered the goodwill and trust Bonnen had fostered in the chamber after spearheading a session that by all accounts was revered among members for its success on bread-and-butter issues, such as property tax and school finance reforms. Phelan fought back in blunt and often personal terms against Paxton, with campaign ads reminding voters of the corruption and abuse of office allegations that gave rise to the impeachment trial. The Senate, which is led by Patrick and is seen as more aligned with far-right social conservatives, has over the past decade clashed with the House, which has grown more socially conservative in recent years but is still seen as more aligned with the more business-oriented wing of the GOP. In this legislative session, Phelan is also throwing his support behind an effort by Austin Democrat Donna Howard to exempt essential baby items like baby wipes and diapers, as well as feminine hygiene products, from state sales tax. That is part of a new Republican push for affordability for women and children in the state following the U.S.

Beyond campaigning against Phelan, Patrick has campaigned against numerous incumbent Republicans, with mixed success. It has been a longstanding tradition that the leaders of the Texas Senate and House do not interfere with the elections of the other chamber. Bill Miller, a veteran Austin lobbyist, said Patrick is seizing an opportunity against a speaker weakened by an unsuccessful attempt to remove Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from office. The bill, which allowed deputized everyday citizens to serve with licensed peace officers on the unit, was seen by some immigration hawks as a bold and needed approach to counter the surge of migrant crossings. Democrats and immigration advocates said it would spur racial profiling and endanger migrants and legal residents. HB 20 has since been overshadowed by Senate Bill 4, which lets any law enforcement officer arrest someone suspected of illegally crossing the border, a boundary-testing immigration law that has been put on hold amid legal challenges.