Chris Russo – President, Texans for Strong Borders
This morning, Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) announced that he is dropping out of the race for Speaker in the upcoming 89th Legislature.
We at Texans for Strong Borders have been among Phelan’s strongest critics for his role in defeating key border security bills in the Texas House by giving Democrat opponents of this legislation what is essentially a parliamentary veto and stalling other bills through the committee process.
The most blatant example of this was HB 20, the Border Protection Unit Act which would have created a state-level Border Protection Unit with statutory authority to repel illegal border crossings and return apprehended illegal aliens into Mexico under an Article I, Section 10 invasion declaration by the Governor.
This bill was named as a legislative priority by Phelan himself at the beginning of the session, but as opposition from open borders advocates mounted, it was evident that the bill was in trouble. On the floor, Democrats raised several Points of Order (parliamentary challenges asserting the bill violated Texas House rules for consideration), the third of which was ultimately sustained by Phelan under the direction of House Parliamentarian and former Obama Administration lawyer Hugh Brady. This rendered the bill essentially dead, since it could not be amended in committee in time for reconsideration and passage on the House floor.
What ultimately sunk Phelan, however, was the botched impeachment of Texas Attorney General and border security champion Ken Paxton, who was acquitted of all charges by the Texas Senate last September. The fallout was a record number of incumbent GOP State Representatives losing to primary challengers who vowed to change the status quo in the Texas House.
This September, Republican State Representatives who oppose Phelan rallied their support around David Cook (R-Mansfield) who voiced his support for many of the Texas House reform proposals outlined in the Contract with Texas. By yesterday afternoon, Cook had gained the public support of 48 of the 88 Republicans elected to the Texas House, a majority of the caucus. Under caucus rules, Republican members are pledged to support the candidate who wins a majority of a secret ballot vote taking place before the session begins. This year, the vote will be held tomorrow (Saturday, December 7th).
Sensing that his candidacy was untenable, Phelan dropped out and his lieutenants quickly rallied around Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), a powerful member of the Phelan camp and Chairman of the Committee on Calendars. Knowing he only controlled a small portion of his own caucus, Burrows moved immediately on Thursday night to solicit the support of Texas House Democrats in hopes of gaining a majority of the body with their support, presumably by offering plentiful concessions (including defeating GOP priority legislation). This move echoes the Joe Straus coup of 2009, where he and 11 other Republicans made a deal with Democrats to oust Republican Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick.
With Cook controlling a majority of the Texas House GOP caucus, however, Burrows still faces a difficult battle in winning the speakership. In the aftermath of a bloodbath in the March GOP primary and a November election in which President-elect Donald Trump won the State of Texas by 15 points, a majority-Democrat coalition electing the Speaker of the Texas House would almost surely be political suicide for Republicans who participate.
Instead, Burrows will have the tall task of convincing members of the Cook Coalition that he already has the necessary votes with the support of the Democrats, who have not yet committed to supporting his candidacy, and that they should defect in order to remain in the good graces of House leadership. The political calculus here is that if Burrows manages to win a majority of the secret ballot vote tomorrow, it will be harder to pin his ascension to the speakership on a backroom deal leaving Democrats with substantial power in the body as the minority party.
Texans should not be fooled by these games. The Contract with Texas is a reasonable and necessary reform package that would prevent policy disasters like those in the 88th Texas Legislature. Burrows himself bears responsibility for the failures on border security, as his Committee on Calendars placed all key border security bills on the calendar during the last week in which new House bills could be considered, setting up the Democrat parliamentary attacks for success.
David Cook is the only candidate for Speaker who has voiced support for the majority of the proposals in the Contract with Texas, and therefore the only candidate who we believe is qualified for the position. Under his leadership, priority border security and enforcement legislation will be considered first, not left to wither until the end of the session. And Democrats will not be given substantial power to hold bills hostage in committee or stage dilatory parliamentary challenges to run out the clock on key legislation.
All eyes will be upon Austin tomorrow, where a secret ballot vote may determine whether the Texas House moves into a new era of leadership or maintains the status quo, where key border security legislation will be left to wither on the vine, in defiance of the will of the people of the State of Texas.