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

Table Of Content

• Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan bucks his own party by appointing Democratic committee chairs
• Totality Begins in Eagle Pass
• Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan says he has a path to victory in primary runoff battle
• House Speaker Dade Phelan took a risk on Paxton’s impeachment. It may end his career.
• Featured Local Savings

The bill required local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and allowed police to inquire about the immigration status of people they lawfully detained. Opponents called it a "show-me-your-papers" law that invited racial profiling and would make immigrant groups fearful of police. One such issue that came across his desk was a proposal that sought to bar cities from enacting rules on how businesses schedule their employees’ shifts. The idea had broad support among the business community and Republicans in both chambers after multiple cities had passed regulations requiring employers in their cities to offer paid sick leave.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan bucks his own party by appointing Democratic committee chairs

(Though many are headed to general elections that they’re likely to win.) The Republican chairman told me he’s certain that the contract’s supporters won’t have a large enough caucus to change the rules next session, but that just stirring a fight over the contract might benefit them politically. “I think they want to lose so they can march, fund-raise, and have something going into another primary cycle to make money off of,” he said. Some voters see Covey’s background as a party chairman as a sign he’s just like Phelan, a glad-handing politician willing to betray their values should they send him to Austin. Instead, they’re backing Alicia Davis, the third candidate in the race who has centered her campaign on eliminating property taxes. Also gone is Amarillo state Sen. Kel Seliger, a business-oriented Republican who had an independent streak and would sometimes tank legislation supported by Patrick.

Totality Begins in Eagle Pass

That dynamic, in a chamber where the parties are relatively closely balanced, encourages candidates for the position to seek support from members of both parties. But even if the proposed rule had been in effect in 2021 or 2023, Phelan would still have been the Speaker. In 2021, the body voted for the Beaumont representative by a margin of 143–2, with 4 members not casting ballots. (Slaton and fellow Republican Jeff Cason, of Bedford, voted in opposition.) Last year Republicans held a closed-door caucus ballot before the vote of the full chamber, and Phelan won 80–6, according to the chairman I spoke with. Phelan later won approval from the 150-member body 145–3 over representative Tony Tinderholt, a right-winger from Arlington who now has signed the Contract With Texas.

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

This is going to be an especially tough conversation, but this body has proven capable of handling tough conversations in the past. Last May, the lives of 21 Texans - teachers and children - were stolen when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. We owe it to the memory of those children and teachers to make sensible, meaningful change. To make this down payment even more critical - over a thousand people move to Texas every single day. Our constituents also want roads that can move them in a timely manner from their home to their job, to their child's school, or their place of worship.

When the measure reached Phelan’s committee, he inserted the protections back in. The decision created an impasse with Senate leadership, and the bill — which had begun the session seeming certain to pass — eventually died. When Dade Phelan rolled out a list this month of Texas House members backing his bid to become the next speaker, the chamber’s wide and oftentimes complicated ideological spectrum was on full display. Phelan was a prominent lieutenant of current House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, whose handling of the 2019 legislative session was popular before scandal brought him down. We can all agree that our border towns have been bearing the brunt of Washington's failed immigration policies - some going as far as declaring themselves to be in a state of disaster. Every Texas budget I have ever voted for has poured hundreds of millions, now billions, of dollars into the gap between federal policies and the realities on the ground.

Former Texas House speaker says GOP megadonor Tim Dunn told him only Christians should hold leadership positions

Speaker Phelan and almost sixty members of the House Republican caucus called for lawmakers to disavow the group and return the millions they've donated. The House insurgents are supported and politically financed by Defend Texas Liberty PAC, led by one of the former anti-Speaker insurgents, Jonathan Stickland. Bius told me he hopes the contract will ensure that the next Speaker can’t, like Phelan and Speakers before him, “build an empire.” As for the prospect that the Contract With Texas could make the House less effective at passing commonsense legislation, Bius seemed to harbor no concerns. Mark Davis, a conservative talk radio host, said the deep rift between Phelan and Patrick was the natural result of the House’s role as a backstop against some of the conservative legislation that has sailed through the Senate. Phelan said he knew nothing, Patrick recalled, characterizing the speaker as untruthful or unaware of what his House leaders were doing. The Patrick-Phelan relationship took a further turn after the House voted overwhelmingly, with Phelan’s support, to impeach Paxton in May.

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Patrick’s legislative goals also became the Senate’s top priority, a situation that was hammered home after Seliger voted against two of Patrick’s priorities, badmouthed fellow Republicans and made a crude comment about a Patrick adviser. Seliger said informal rules also were established, such as one requiring Democrats to gain support from a significant number of Republicans before getting a floor vote. Bill Ratliff, a Republican who served as lieutenant governor for a little over two years after then-Gov. George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, said he got along “famously” with then-Speaker Pete Laney, a Democrat. “It’s about the policy that the people want us to pass that the House continues to kill,” Patrick told WFAA before the March primary. In any case, the Legislature eventually passed SB 4, along with another bill that imposes stiffer penalties for people convicted of smuggling immigrants or operating a stash house.

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He accused Phelan of cowing to Democrats’ interests on issues like punishing voter fraud and bail reform. Phelan was first elected in 2014, when he trounced his Democratic opponent by 48 points. His family is among the most distinguished in Beaumont and its prominence, like the city’s, traces back to the oil field.

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Phelan doesn’t view the race as a yardstick to measure whether he or the attorney general is more influential in the state party. He sees his path to victory as reminding voters why he’s the best candidate to bring this often overlooked region the resources it needs to prosper in the future. The backlash has created an opening for two primary challengers — one of whom, David Covey, is well-funded — and placed Phelan in the most precarious position of his political career.

That has not stopped David Covey — the GOP activist and energy consultant who pushed Phelan into a May runoff for his House seat — from also condemning the speaker for not casting a vote on SB 4. Two of Covey’s most prominent backers, former President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have echoed the same attack. But the earlier proposal has resurfaced in the speaker’s own GOP primary as his critics blame him for its demise in their broader effort to paint the Beaumont Republican as soft on the border and overly deferential to Democrats.

"While David Covey and Dade Phelan are headed to a runoff, it's clear that our fight against the liberal forces in Austin must continue unabated." Since the end of the 88th legislative session, Phelan has frequently drawn the ire of the state's Republican apparatus. The party said the censure comes as Phelan violated Rule 44 of its bylaws, which allows the party to censure elected officials who violate the party's principles and priorities three or more times over a two-year period. Towards the end of the week, Speaker Phelan limited questions Tinderholt could bring to the floor, arguing he consistently breaks House rules. This week, some responded to Speaker Phelan's call, including Representative Jared Patterson, R - Frisco. He told NBC 5 he donated the $2,500 he's received from the group to a pro-Israel charity, saying he wants to wash his campaign from the "stain of this organization. He challenged his colleagues to do the same.

The race has become a referendum on the influence of the most conservative faction of the party, which aims to make Phelan the first speaker to lose a primary in 52 years. "Dade Phelan has dodged every debate and public forum since the beginning of this race because he cannot defend his embarrassing record on border security,” Covey said in a statement Thursday. Phelan said he would shepherd bills through the chamber that have the support of a majority of members while also ensuring that lawmakers from the minority party would have a meaningful voice. Covey’s campaign has been heavily funded by Defend Texas Liberty, the political group mainly bankrolled by Midland oilman Tim Dunn, a Paxton ally and conservative activist.

Phelan upheld the point of order based on the recommendation of the House parliamentarian, though critics argued the ruling was flawed and said Phelan should have taken the rare step of overruling the parliamentarian, who acts as a sort of referee for legislative disputes. “If the governor felt we could be doing more, we would be in a special session getting it done right now,” said Jetton, who was defeated in his primary by insurance adjuster Matt Morgan, a staunch Phelan critic. Many of Phelan’s Republican allies have faced similar attacks even after voting for the entire slate of border legislation that made it through the Legislature last year. That strategy likely contributed to the record number of House Republicans ousted in last month’s GOP primary, a trend Phelan and several other incumbents are trying to forestall in the May runoffs. The proposal Phelan teased, known as House Bill 20, sought to create a team of police and deputized citizens to patrol the southern border.

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His wife, Kim, is a solo practitioner attorney and together they have four sons, Ford, Mack, Hank and Luke. He and his family reside together in Southeast Texas, where Speaker Phelan was born and raised. He received his bachelor’s degree in government and business from The University of Texas at Austin. The Texas House selected him to lead the chamber in 2021 and again this year, both times with near-unanimous votes.

Though he blasted Phelan’s support for Democratic committee chairs, he was unable to name a conservative priority that has failed in the chamber as a result. He acknowledged that the House passed border security bills last year, but said it was too little, too late. He also blasted Phelan’s decision to appoint a small number of Democrats to chair House committees, an issue that has motivated Republican primary voters this cycle. By November, several county Republican parties, including Orange and Jasper in his district, had censured the speaker over his perceived failure to adhere to conservative orthodoxy by being accommodating to Democrats, tepid on border security and supporting the impeachment.

Defend Texas Liberty PAC is Attorney General Ken Paxton's largest donor by far, and they vocally pressured state senators to acquit him because of his conservative efforts. Before the trial, the group gave Lt. Governor Dan Patrick as presiding judge a $1 million donation and a $2 million loan. Both Paxton and Patrick have now called on Phelan to resign, believing Phelan is taking advantage of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations.