It's been just over a week since I reported to you the results of the Texas House Republican Caucus choice of David Cook for speaker, the boycott by the Dustin Burrows team, and the fake news announcement from Burrows saying he had the votes and "the speaker race is over."

I was hoping to coast through to Christmas and New Years focused on the season and the home front, but a torrent of activity has happened in the last seven days that needs reporting. I have to admit that this is the most fascinating speaker race in my lifetime, if not Texas history. The stakes are high, the permutations of outcomes numerous, and the drama, unprecedented.

The Burrows betrayer team has taken hit after hit this week, bleeding supporters, and losing every PR battle.

This picture is the most comprehensive picture I have seen of the Republican members at the Dustin Burrows press conference on December 7.

Here are the numerous events from the last week:

Burrows losing support

I don't have the exact running count, but it has been reported that 8 of the 38 Republicans that Burrows put on his initial support list have said they support the GOP caucus nominee, David Cook. And one of the 38 Democrats on the Burrows list, Bexar County's Josey Garcia, has announced that she should not be on it.

Here are the Republicans that Burrows put on the list that have said they should not be on it now:

Don McLaughlin HD 80 - this former Uvalde mayor who just flipped his district red was one of the original signers of the Contract With Texas and had pledged to No Dem Chairs and to Cook. McLaughlin immediately went public, denying being on the list. His inclusion by Burrows was the most outrageous.

Pat Dyson HD 14 - Brazos County freshman who had campaigned for border security, school choice, and eliminating property tax. Had pledged to Cook before the caucus and immediately went public, denying Burrows support.

Sam Harless HD 126 - Harris County - one of only 2 incumbent Republicans on the fake news Burrows list that voted against Paxton impeachment. Harless had not pledged to Cook before caucus, was one of the 26 who boycotted the third vote in caucus. But, he did not appear with Burrows at his announcement press conference, and just after noon on Tue, Dec 10, the day after a Harris County GOP resolution supporting Cook, Harless posted on X that he supports the "caucus nominee, State Rep. David Cook." This is bigger news than most because Phelan had named Harless chair of a select committee during the 88th.

Charles Cunningham HD 127 Harris County - had pledged to Cook before the caucus and likely voted for him in caucus, Cunningham was pictured standing with Burrows when he announced on Dec 7, though, while also being put on Burrows list, creating doubt and confusion. In the runup to the Monday evening Harris County GOP CEC meeting, Cunningham communicated to enough people privately that he backed Cook and not Burrows, that the GOP considers him to still be on the Cook team. Cunningham was the other incumbent on the Burrows list that voted against Paxton impeachment.

Mano DeAyala HD 133 Harris County - Did not commit to Cook before caucus and voted for Burrows in caucus, but had committed publicly before caucus to honor the caucus choice. In the runup to the Harris County GOP CEC vote Monday night, he assured enough people privately that he is considered by the GOP to be on the Cook team.

Gary Gates HD 28 Fort Bend County - Militantly committed to neither candidate until the last, Gates had vociferously not committed to Cook before Caucus. He almost certainly did not vote for him in caucus, but did not join the boycott or the Burrows presser. The media reported that he denied being on the Burrows list. Given the evidence, Gates will make his decision at the last minute based on who he thinks will win.

There are two others, who were listed in the Burrows list that are in question because they stayed in caucus for all votes, not voting there for Cook, but allowed Cook to put their name on his support list because they theoretically will honor the caucus rules and pick:  freshman Jeff Barry HD 29 of Brazoria County and Janie Lopez HD 37 Cameron County.

The Whole Conservative Ecosystem Rains Down Fire on Burrows

Donald Trump, Jr posted Monday morning Dec 9 on X:

It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now. There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee, David Cook! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick posted Sat evening, Dec 7:

Congratulations to David Cook who was selected as the Texas GOP Caucus nominee. Cook and his supporters did this the right way. His vote count continues to climb.

Ken Paxton and Sid Miller have posted multiple times on X in support of the caucus process and David Cook.

Greg Abbott's support for Cook came later and deserves it's own independent comments below.

Six Texas Congressmen have issued statements supporting David Cook and the caucus results: Ronnie Jackson, Keith Self, Michael Cloud, Brandon Gill, Wesley Hunt, and Tony Gonzales. 

Talk show hosts Michael Berry, Chris Salcedo, Robert Pratt, Sara Gonzales, and Kambree rained devastating scorn on Burrows and his betrayers. Pratt called the Burrows team supporting Democrat chairs, BurrowCrats.

The few members of the Burrows team that try to spin for Burrows on X that allow comments on their X posts are being hammered by a large volume of negative comments, urging them to vote for Cook.

Along the way, I heard some swamp supporters blame all the opposition to Burrows on principled conservative donor Tim Dunn. To that, True Texas Project head Julie McCarty said on X:

Let me get this straight...

100 County GOP Chairs want to follow the pre-determined rules and elect Cook for Speaker.

So does a coalition of US Congressmen from Texas. So does the Trump administration. So does the state GOP Convention. So do the majority of Republican State Reps.

So do the Governor, Atty Gen, and Lt Gov. So do all the grassroots orgs around. And yet somehow this is an effort led by one boogeyman who has bought everyone off?

Who knew Tim Dunn had THAT much power, money, and influence!!!

Repeated Burrows Blunders Boomerang

Burrows has committed a number of blunders that have created a PR disaster for him and his supporters all week:

• Boycott and Betrayal of Texas House Republican Caucus
• Fake news press conference saying "the speaker race is over" claiming he had the votes of "76 or more" votes. He then released a list with only 76 which immediately was proven to be incorrect and eroding.
• Announced big-buck fund raiser from lobby for "Speaker-Elect" Burrows! Phelan appointed Chair J.M. Lozano who was an early announced reformer opposing Phelan and now Burrows, sent a letter to AG Paxton asking if Texas law against impersonating a public official had been violated. The mockery online was devastating. Matt Rinaldi, for instance, changed his X profile to identify as speaker elect, too, claiming he had as much right to the term as Burrows. Burrows re-issued a new invitation to the swamp, removing the ridiculous title.
• Misleading text from new PAC with image of Greg Abbott and Burrows, falsely implying Abbott support for Burrows - this caused Greg Abbott to issue a statement on X denying his approval for use of the image.
• J.M. Lozano resurrected the story of how Burrows and Bonnen secretly betrayed fellow Republicans in 2019, reminding Republicans that he cannot be trusted. Burrows is indeed leading his team to walk the political plank that will end many a career if they keep on the same path. This led me to repost my article from 2019 commenting on the corruption of the Bonnen/Burrows offer to Michael Sullivan.
• Burrows Admits to Texas Tribune that he Will Appoint Dem Chairs - In a direct question on that, he replied:

This is what I've told every member, regardless of their party affiliation, and this is the traditionalist view of the Texas House, which is in respectfulness of the institution, which is what I am trying to take it back to.

By the way, I am told that the staff of Rep. Stan Gerdes, who participated in the caucus boycott and is on the Burrows team, is telling callers that Burrows is not for Dem Chairs, something that the Texas Tribune interview clearly refutes.

Greg Abbott Endorses the Caucus Pick, and by Implication David Cook

As people started digging into who was behind the new PAC behind the deceptive text with a picture of Abbott with Burrows, they discovered that it was created by Mitch Carney, who had recently served on the Abbott campaign and is the son of a key Abbott advisor, Dave Carney.

Not long after this news came out and after Abbott had denied knowledge of the deceptive use of the picture with Burrows, he issued this statement on X:

Let me be clear:

I worked this entire year to elect conservative candidates who will pass conservative laws, including school choice.

To achieve that goal we need a Texas House Speaker chosen by a majority of Republicans in accordance with the Republican Caucus Rules.

Given that around 22 of the people on the BurrowCrat side were endorsed by Abbott, that is big news.

Being the look-on-the-bright-side kind of guy I am,I praised the governor for being the peacemaker that will produce unity, harmony, and productive conservative results, claiming it was leadership at just the right time.

I was told by some that the reps that should be listening to the governor are not taking him seriously because they think he was forced into the tepid statement by the Carney link, and that they don't think he will back up his statement with any negative consequences if the betrayers ignore him.

I believe that if the governor follows up the X post with enough phone calls containing sufficient resolve in the message, he can, indeed, create peace within the GOP by moving the 18 or so needed of his 22 endorsed holdouts over to Cook and unity.

The RPT Taking Action and Deploying Funds for Unity

After the December 7 SREC resolution declaring a vote for a secret ballot or against the caucus choice of Cook on January 14 to be a censurable act, the state party has taken a number of steps to urge the Burrows supporters to unify back into the Republican fold.

The state party is running this network TV ad against the Burrows hypocrisy in Lubbock. Multiple commentators on social media mention that Burrows, as past caucus president, wrote the very caucus rule for picking the speaker that he is breaking.

The swamp is showing that it knows that the key to making impotent any threats against those who join the Dems is to count on the Republican primary voters who screen out political news to remain ignorant about what is going on in the speaker race. They know that they can spend big bucks to distort the truth and the record of those they support. As a preemptive move, at least two PACs backed by usual swamp suspects are sending texts to GOP primary voters in the BurrowCrat reps to give them cover and maybe a few positive calls to their offices to give them courage to withstand the fire.

The RPT understands this, too, so it is funding texts into BurrowCrat districts around the state, too.

The GOP chairs in the largest counties of Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Bexar are sending clear messages with their CECs to the reps in their counties, urging them to unite with the party. Bo French of Tarrant County has put out a statewide letter urging party unity, signed by at least 113 chairs and growing. Only the Lubbock County GOP has issued a statement for the Burrows speakership. Bo French said on X that David Luther, a staunch swamp supporter, Waller County GOP chair, and president of the Texas Republican County Chairs organization has been calling county chairs urging them not to sign the Tarrant County letter.

I know that many resolutions at the county level are in the works. Here is the Harris County resolution that can be used as a template.

Plans for showing the RPT banner for speaker on January 14 are well along the way by the RPT No Dem Chairs Legislative Priorities Committee. To sign up and pay to ride a bus to the Capitol on Tuesday, January 14, go to bandemocratchairsinfo.com. Also found at that website are links to purchase Ban Democrat Chairs T-shirts and find out contact info and status of which reps need urging to move to the Cook team.

RPT Chair Abraham George is reaching out to Burrows holdouts, giving them an opportunity to unite with the rest of the Republican world and move to Cook before he sends direct mail into the district in support of Cook. (On a personal note, I am very pleased with my support of Abraham at the State Convention.)

By the way, to those few Republican county chairs and precinct chairs who are unwilling to use the new Rule 44 to make the wrong speaker vote a censurable act, I said this on X this week:

You don't keep tyranny at bay by not confronting it. You don't have rule of law without enforcing the law. You don't get party unity organized behind a common liberty purpose without disciplining those betraying the party.

Given Democrat and Republican Disunity, the Swamp is Desperately Floating Numerous Tricks to Win

This speaker race is unprecedented in Texas history. It is not just that the grassroots and reform has gained the ascendancy in the Texas Republican delegation, thereby creating the GOP split between the swamp side and the grassroots. Even more interestingly, the Democrat delegation is divided, too.

Every Uniparty speaker from Straus, to Bonnen, to Phelan has relied on a unified Democrat delegation to deliver the win. But Burrows only currently has 37 of the 62 Democrats on his side at the moment. There is a far left Dem candidate, Ana-Maria Ramos of Dallas, running for speaker. If as Burrows gets the Dems to do what he wants and unify behind him, while keeping even only 14 of his current 29 supporters, he can win. But, apprantly, that is looking less and less likely.

First, some on the Uniparty side started urging a do-over of the Caucus vote, not realizing that that ship has sailed. The universal response by the grassroots to the mushy middle who just want us all to get along is that we CAN get along, if only enough BurrowCrats will unite with the entire Republican world in Texas.

Even more interestingly, three names are being floated as a replacement for Burrows who replaced Phelan. Why? Not because the Uniparty thinks that it can switch any of the current Cook supporters who honor their caucus, their party, and their voters away from Cook. The thinking is that a more liberal Republican might get enough extra Dem votes to put the Uniparty over the top.

The names that have been floated are Todd Hunter, who Mark Jones of Rice ranked last session as the 10th most liberal Republican, Ryan Guillen who just converted last session from being a Democrat and is ranked by Jones as the most liberal of the Rpublicans, and Greg Bonnen, the brother of former speaker Dennis Bonnen, who recently said that he thinks Republican House members are willing to "cut off their leg" to defend Dem chairmanships.

The permutations of how a speaker gets to 76 are almost infinite. The key to a grassroots victory is to peel enough of the Burrows team and those on the fence into the RPT fold, so that the Republicans can deliver the 76 votes for the win, or a combination of Democrats and Republicans will deny enough votes to Burrows on the first vote in a three way vote to knock out Burrows (or replacement) and produce a two-way race between Cook and a Dem.

That is why continued pressure from us on the holdouts is so important.

Toward liberty,

Tom Glass
832-472-4726
txce.org
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