We’ve known since months before the November election that when the Texas Legislature reconvenes in January, we are likely to see a messy fight among Republicans for control of the Texas House of Representatives.
Current House Speaker Dade Phelan was facing intense pressure from many of his fellow Republicans, including some of the most powerful in the state, over his willingness to appoint Democrats to head committees and for his handling of a surprise impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton last year.
Weeks before the gavel is set to fall, Phelan announced he would not be seeking a return as Speaker, and his decision has set into motion the House speaker fight much earlier than most expected.
Two frontrunners quickly emerged. One is Republican Dustin Burrows, who claims to have enough support from both fellow Republicans and some Democrats in the House to win the gavel. The other is David Cook, a Republican from Mansfield, who has the support of the Republican caucus.
James Barragán, who covers state politics for the Texas Tribune, said Cook has a long history in politics, even if he’s newer to the Legislature.
“He’s been there two terms, going into his third. But he’s not a foreigner to Texas politics. He got his start in the capital almost 30 years ago, where he mostly worked for late Sen. Chris Harris of North Texas as well, who became his political mentor,” Barragán said. “He also was mayor for more than ten years up there in Mansfield. So he knows Texas politics.
However, it was surprising when he announced that he would be running for speaker because he was sort of seen as an ally of previous speaker, Dade Phelan. He had been given big committee appointments. He’d been given a priority bill under Phelan. And so it was a little bit surprising that Cook would come out and challenge him for the speaker’s gavel.”
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Barragán said in many ways Cook’s politics are fairly moderate, but his supporters say it’s not his politics that make him the right man for the job.
“It’s about how he treats us as members of the Texas House and how he lets the process flow. He has obviously committed to not appointing Democratic chairs. He’s agreed to prioritize Republican legislative priorities, and he wants to have a better workflow in the chamber,” Barragán said.
“Now, of course, everybody who runs for speaker always says that, including the couple of last previous speakers. So, yeah, sometimes it’s easier said than done, but those are the promises that he’s made so far.”
Barragán said he sees this race coming down to how people feel the chamber will be run, not to friendships or alliances between lawmakers.
“In politics, they say if you want a friend, get a dog,” he said. “I don’t know that it comes down to friendships. I mean, that’s part of it. But part of it is also what is going to be most convenient for each one of those 150 members.
There’s obviously going to be a lot of pressure from their constituents. There’s also a lot of pressure from the Republican grassroots who are pushing for a new reform candidate that’s not aligned with Speaker Phelan. There’s a lot of Republicans from the hard right wing of the party who don’t want anybody who’s aligned with Phelan, as Dustin Burrows is.”
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Cook has more right-wing supporters within the Republican Party, but he also boasts fairly widespread support.
“He does have the majority of the GOP caucus support at this point. He won the caucus endorsement. And so he’s got a lot of Republicans behind him,” Barragán said. “It’s just a matter of whether he can get the rest of the Republicans to get behind him or form some type of coalition with Democrats to get that magic number, 76.”
