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Dade Phelan has ended his bid to remain in charge of the Texas House, but the speaker’s race is far from over.
Heading into a crucial GOP caucus meeting on Saturday, two Republicans have emerged as the top candidates vying to succeed him — and both are taking vastly different paths in their pursuit of the gavel.
State Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, who has been running for months, is touting support from a majority of House Republicans, making him the favorite to secure the caucus’ endorsement. Meanwhile, state Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock — a top Phelan ally who filed late Thursday night as Phelan exited the race — is trying to lock up support from a mix of Democratic and Republican members who have thus far kept their powder dry.
Both speaker hopefuls face serious challenges in assembling the coalition of 76 members that will be needed to win control of the 150-member House. The core of Cook’s support comes from the chamber’s rightmost faction, which is set on removing any vestiges of power granted to Democrats in the GOP-controlled chamber — thus forcing Cook to reach majority support without relying on any Democrats. He has identified 47 Republicans backers so far, along with two unnamed supporters, amounting to a little more than half the caucus.
Cook’s supporters hope that if he wins the caucus nomination on Saturday, enough GOP holdouts will come over to his side based on a caucus rule that requires all Republicans to support the group’s nominee when the House officially picks the speaker in January. Phelan’s exit from the race on Friday morning, however, has so far yielded no additional public supporters for Cook.
Meanwhile, Burrows will occupy a similar space that Phelan had in the leadership race, likely picking up the current speaker’s most loyal supporters. It is unclear how many Republican members are on board with his bid — as he has yet to release a list of supporters — though he appears to have emerged as the pick of the chamber’s mainstream and more moderate GOP wings. Those uncommitted Republicans, totaling about 40 members, include Phelan’s leadership team and members who survived right-wing primary challenges backed by some of Cook’s biggest boosters. Burrows is a key member of Phelan’s inner circle, serving as chair of the powerful Calendars Committee, which controls which bills reach the floor for a vote and which remain bottled up.
Burrows is trying to thread a difficult needle by assembling support from a blend of those Republicans and enough of the House’s 62 Democrats, who are trying to extract promises from Burrows as they look to capitalize on their leverage. Among the major flashpoints is whether Democrats will continue to hold a small number of committee chairmanships they were granted under Phelan and other previous GOP speakers; Cook and his supporters have made it a top priority to end this tradition.
Already, Burrows was facing resistance from some House Democrats who framed his candidacy as a nonstarter, citing his role as the lead author of a sweeping GOP law passed last year that aims to rein in the power of local governments, particularly in Texas’ bluer urban areas.
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State Rep. Ana-María Ramos — a Richardson Democrat who chairs the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus and is running for speaker herself — blasted Burrows on social media for “attacking local control” with his “anti-worker, billionaire-backed” bill.
State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat who has served in the House since 1973 and holds sway within the caucus, came out forcefully against Burrows in a meeting of House Democrats on Thursday evening, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Thompson declined to comment Friday morning.
Also complicating Burrows’ path are the wide-ranging priorities and motivations of the 40 or so Republicans who remain publicly uncommitted to either candidate. One of those members voiced support for the idea of letting Democrats continue to chair some committees and expressed openness to backing Burrows — as long as he vows to “spread the power out” and move away from the insular, top-down leadership style that some members saw as a hallmark of Phelan’s tenure.
“I don’t like throwing the D’s under the bus, but I also don’t like Burrows trying to keep the exact same power structure,” said the uncommitted House Republican, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the speaker’s race.
Phelan’s camp appeared committed to preventing Cook from reaching the gavel. In a statement announcing his withdrawal from the speaker’s race, the Beaumont Republican thanked GOP members who had stood by him “in the face of immense intimidation from outsiders wishing to influence our chamber.” He added that while “the battle for my speakership is over, the war for the integrity of this chamber wages on — and we will win.”
Meanwhile, Cook’s supporters launched a full-court press on Friday aimed at getting freshman holdouts on board with Cook and casting Burrows as a “Phelan 2.0” who would be equally unpalatable to GOP primary voters.
“Burrows was [Phelan’s] righthand man, and would seek to appease the Austin cronies who have obstructed and needlessly slowed GOP priorities for more than a decade,” hardline conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan wrote on social media. With Cook, Sullivan added, “you may not get everything you want… but he aligned himself with the [House] Republican reformers when he didn’t have to.”
Notably, Sullivan precipitated the downfall of Phelan’s predecessor, Dennis Bonnen, when he secretly recorded a 2019 meeting with Bonnen, the then-speaker, and Burrows. During the meeting Burrows offered up a list of 10 fellow Republicans who Sullivan’s political network could oppose in the upcoming primaries. Bonnen announced his resignation shortly after the recording came to light, and Burrows stepped down as chair of the House GOP Caucus.
