Table Of Content
- Pressure mounts on House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign as third special session looms
- Lawmakers to Focus on School Safety and Property Tax Relief as 88th Texas Legislature Begins Today
- By tradition, the minority party gets to chair some Texas House committees. Some in the GOP want to end that.
- Ducking or dodging? No political debate set for Phelan, Covey ahead of runoff
- Patrick’s campaign against Phelan breaks tradition
- WFAA would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.
He replaced one-term speaker Dennis Bonnen, who retired after becoming embroiled in a secret recording scandal in 2019 in which he bashed members of his own party. Texas House of Representatives members on Tuesday voted to elect state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, to a second term as speaker — the most powerful position in the lower chamber. The May 28 runoff promises to be a high-profile slugfest in this elbow of Texas that borders Louisiana.
Pressure mounts on House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign as third special session looms
Hancock, first elected to the Senate in 2013 after serving six years in the House, received a kidney transplant last summer after being diagnosed with a rare genetic kidney disease. Though he opposes raising the age to buy guns from 18 to 21, a demand of some Uvalde families, Phelan pledged to help craft legislation to make schools and children safer. Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies, including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news. BEAUMONT, Texas — If past is prologue, Dade Phelan’s return to the Texas House would be all but guaranteed.
Lawmakers to Focus on School Safety and Property Tax Relief as 88th Texas Legislature Begins Today
When members cast ballots, the only support for Tinderholt came from the two members who nominated him. All of the members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus appeared to back Phelan; the group has not yet released its roster for this session. Phelan also cited recent reporting by The Texas Tribune about an increase in rural hospitals no longer delivering babies and committed to reversing that trend. He said the record $32.7 billion budget surplus should allow lawmakers to make a “down payment on the future of Texas,” citing additional needs including roads, clean water, flood mitigation and high-speed internet.
By tradition, the minority party gets to chair some Texas House committees. Some in the GOP want to end that.
He replaced Republican Dennis Bonnen who did not run for reelection in 2020 following the release of a secretly recorded conversation in which he was heard seeking help to defeat members of his own party. Phelan advanced to a May 28 contest with Covey, an oil and gas consultant and party activist endorsed by Paxton and former President Donald Trump. Neither candidate could win a majority for outright victory in Tuesday’s race that included retired hairdresser Alicia Davis. Phelan’s list of priorities also did not include any of Abbott’s emergency items.
Even though this year’s percentage of Democratic chairs is smaller, it’s still significant — mostly because the Republican Party of Texas was pressuring Phelan into banning Democratic chairs outright. He crossed that Rubicon and that's his issue going forward with the Texas House." Those three have criticized Phelan for allowing the impeachment against Paxton to take place in the House. If Paxton will break an oath to his wife and God, why would he tell Trump — or you — the truth?
Patrick’s campaign against Phelan breaks tradition
The most recent Texas House speaker to be ousted in his own party's primary was Rayford Price, a conservative Democrat, in 1972. He was defeated by a progressive Democrat, Fred Head, who was a sitting House member who had moved into Price's district to challenge the speaker, according to "The House Will Come to Order," a history of the Texas House speakership published in 2010. On Tuesday, Patrick was on hand with Covey as news broke about the runoff election. Across the primary campaign season, Paxton was unabashed in attacking Phelan, often taking the stage at events across Texas to disparage the speaker's approval of the impeachment and painted him as weak on Republican priorities.
Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigns against House Speaker Dade Phelan in his own district
Paxton has also sought retribution against several House members who led the effort to remove him from office. And Gov. Greg Abbott has campaigned aggressively against a cadre of Republicans who voted against his coveted private school voucherlike program. Patrick, who served as judge in the impeachment trial before the Senate, kept quiet until senators voted largely along party lines to acquit Paxton. In front of senators, House impeachment managers and cameras, Patrick criticized the process as flawed, rushed and unfair to Paxton. Patrick also called for an audit on House spending and said laws should be changed to prevent hasty impeachments.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Wants Control Over Texas House, Too - Governing
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Wants Control Over Texas House, Too.
Posted: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 04:05:08 GMT [source]
He said Phelan’s adherence to that tradition means Republicans can pass only some conservative legislative priorities each session while ignoring others. Locally, he touted his record delivering funding for district priorities like Lamar University and flood control over his decade in office. Phelan is under fire for using former President Barack Obama’s White House general counsel, Hugh Brady, as the Texas House parliamentarian and for his political impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton. Phelan also failed to help Republican attempts to bring school choice up for a vote, legislation to protect Texans against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and a constitutional amendment that would protect Texas elections from illegal immigrant voters. Patrick’s frustration bubbled over at the end of a special session in December when a chief conservative policy goal — taxpayer-subsidized private school tuition — failed in the House.
WFAA would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.
Recently, Rep. Terry Wilson, one of Phelan’s committee chairs, waffled when asked at a January candidate forum if he’d reelect the speaker. Patricia Kemp, an Orange County Republican Party precinct chairwoman who voted to censure Phelan, acknowledged the speaker has done a lot for the district. But she believes Phelan cares more about power than following the Republican platform.
Join us at Texas’ breakout politics and policy event as we dig into the 2024 elections, state and national politics, the state of democracy, and so much more. Phelan had cruised to victory in previous contests, and no incumbent House speaker has lost a primary since Rayford Price in 1972, but this was the most difficult reelection he has faced. Polling by the University of Houston showed last month that Phelan was the most unpopular Republican leader in Texas. These members are among those in the Texas House asking for Phelan to be replaced regardless of the outcome of his run-off race against his opponent, David Covey. In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Paxton said he is "immensely proud" to have supported Covey in his bid to oust the speaker.
The practice, dating to the earliest days of the Texas Legislature, is designed to promote bipartisan cooperation while rewarding legislators with subject matter expertise. The Republican Party of Texas and conservative activists pressed to end the practice in recent years, but Phelan declined, naming Democrats to chair nine House committees last year. Since taking office in 2015, the three-term, 74-year-old lieutenant governor has remade the Senate in his image, allowing his conservative agenda to fly through with little resistance. As for the fact that speakers rarely cast votes, Covey argued that Phelan’s defense rings hollow because he voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton last year. Banning Democratic chairs was also one of the Republican Party of Texas’ legislative priorities for the 88th Texas Legislature.
Texas election: House speaker, challenger at odds over lack of debate - Austin American-Statesman
Texas election: House speaker, challenger at odds over lack of debate.
Posted: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:18:15 GMT [source]
The group comprises five current representatives and seven Republican nominees who beat incumbents in the recent March 5 primary. They claim the last several years under current Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s leadership have proven the need for a Republican speaker who represents the voters’ interests. Seliger was removed from leadership positions and relegated to a legislative backbencher as Patrick refused to allow floor votes on some of Seliger’s bills, even though he had enough support to pass them.
BEAUMONT — If past is prologue, Dade Phelan’s return to the Texas House would be all but guaranteed. Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and former President Donald Trump are accusing Phelan of being a “RINO,” even as Phelan has overseen the passage of some of the most conservative bills in recent history. He touted lawmakers’ restrained spending of state dollars and business-friendly policies as reasons for the budget surplus. Importantly, the surplus also stems from an influx of federal funds given to the state to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in sales tax revenue that comes from Texans having to spend more because of rising inflation in the country.
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