In my last summary communication, I gave the results of the speaker race on January 14. This is a report on the unprecedented, deceptive, outrageous rules smackdown of the grassroots and Republican Party of Texas (RPT) by the Uniparty speakership of Dustin Burrows, henceforward also known by Brett Rogers’ Team Burros, Robert Pratt’s BurrowCrats, or just the Betrayers. I have been posting the commentary and story of the Team Burros rules charade on a granular basis on X and my Texas Legislative Priorities Facebook group, but this is designed to give the big picture with a few details of the action. I also discuss the actions the grassroots need to take in this long war between the Austin swamp and the grassroots for control of our state government.
“Nuclear” War Launched on Conservatives in the Texas House
Before any amendments could be offered or debate had on the rules, Burros team leader Jared Patterson was recognized to use a motion cutting off amendment and debate that has only been used eight times in Texas House history. Because such a motion denies voices speaking for the voters and because it negates the very essence of representative democracy, it is called the “nuclear option.”
One of the eight times the motion has been used was in a special session in 2023. It was used after hours of offered amendments by Democrats with debate by a bill they opposed and were seeking to delay. When the motion to cut off debate was finally offered by frustrated Republicans, the Democrats melted down.
In the one comment allowed against the use of the motion, grassroots champion Mike Schofield gave the history, and declared that this will lead to more suppression of deliberation the rest of the session.
This was an aggressive smackdown on the traditions of the Texas House and the conservatives who are not part of the Uniparty coalition. One indicator of this as a raw power move was that 47 Republicans and 42 Democrats were given enough advance notice of the motion to be able to sign on to the motion which requires a minimum of 25 to be introduced. Yet the 34 Republican grassroots members who voted against the suppression were blindsided by the move. They had spent their morning scrambling to craft amendments to the package. I saw the grassroots members hustling to confer with each other that morning, but there was strangely very little visible action by the Uniparty. They knew what was coming.
I consider signing onto the motion to suppress fellow members and the vote for the suppression to be much more grievous offenses than voting for the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing rules described below.
The Rules Empower Democrats While Being Spun to Republicans Voters as Fulfillment of a Priority Designed to Reduce their Power
Team Burros released the rules to the Texas House early in the morning of Thursday, January 23, and by 3:30 pm, that package was brought up by surprise before the expected housekeeping resolution and adopted after a dictatorial motion to cut off amendments and debate before any opportunity for them was started.
The rules changed more this session than in any in memory and had a number of unprecedented aspects. First, two new committees (Intergovernmental Relations and Delivery of Government Efficiency) and six committees were eliminated and consolidated into others. Second, standing subcommittees under a number of standing committees were created. Then the games began.
By rule, the top level committees have to be chaired by Republicans and only Democrats can be vice chairs. But the rules do not specify the party of the subcommittee chairs who will usually control what bills are heard. And the rules require the top-level Republican committee chairs by stating that they shall “schedule the work of the committee and determine the order of consideration of measures and matters referred to the committee in direct consultation with the vice chair,” and “arrange to ensure that . . . measures are promptly scheduled for a public hearing under this rule.”
This rule has been spun by members of Team Burros to their districts as delivering on the RPT No Democrat Chair priority. But this is deceptive because subcommittee chairs are chairs, too. And Democrats have been given so much power over process that they had a press conference to celebrate their increased power. All but one Democrat voted for the rules. Twenty five grassroots Republicans voted against. Outrageously, the Republican betrayers have tried to spin that the grassroots members pushing the priorities the most and who voted against these rules, voted against the priority.
The Democrat Empowerment Act of 2025 Was Drafted by Dade Phelan’s Democrat Parliamentarian
Late Saturday afternoon, January 25, Tarrant County Chair Bo French broke on X his realization that the former Obama administration attorney, Travis County Democratic Party parliamentarian, and Dennis Bonnen/Dade Phelan parliamentarian, Hugh Brady drafted the Democrat Empowerment Act rules. Brady was exposed last session for advising Phelan to sustain points of order from Democrats against conservative legislation that his own law firm had been paid to craft.
Monday morning, from the back microphone, Steve Toth got Burrows to confirm that fact. Despite Brady being listed on the speaker’s website as being the current House parliamentarian at that moment, Burrows stated that the decision had not been made to appoint Brady as parliamentarian for this session. Shortly thereafter, Brady’s name was no longer on the website. We will see.
The news about Hugh Brady’s history and his involvement in the drafting of the rules have struck a discordant chord with many Texans. I have gotten above normal interest and reach on my rendition of the story with 20K reach on X and an amazing 8.7K reach on Facebook. Bo French got 231K reach on his X post breaking the story.
What Republicans Are the Heart of the Problem?
Thirty two Republicans participated in all of these Republican betraying actions – voting twice for Burrows for speaker, signing the motion to suppress their fellow conservatives, voting to suppress their fellow conservatives, and voting for the deceptive Democrat-empowering rules. Todd Hunter did not sign the closure petition or cast a vote on the motion. Dustin Burrows is not on the list because as speaker he normally does not vote. The names other than Burrows and Hunter in alphabetical order, are:
Distr |
Member |
29 |
Jeffrey Barry |
3 |
Cecil Bell |
4 |
Keith Bell |
24 |
Greg Bonnen |
54 |
Brad Buckley |
112 |
Angie Chen Button |
98 |
Giovanni Capriglione |
72 |
Drew Darby |
7 |
Jay Dean |
87 |
Caroline Fairly |
28 |
Gary Gates |
17 |
Stan Gerdes |
99 |
Charlie Geren |
8 |
Cody Harris |
5 |
Cole Hefner |
138 |
Lacey Hull |
88 |
Ken King |
85 |
Stan Kitzman |
71 |
Stan Lambert |
81 |
Brooks Landgraf |
67 |
Jeff Leach |
37 |
Janie Lopez |
97 |
John McQueeney |
16 |
Will Metcalf |
108 |
Morgan Meyer |
13 |
Angelia Orr |
106 |
Jared Patterson |
21 |
Dade Phelan |
84 |
Carl Tepper |
1 |
Gary VanDeaver |
34 |
Denise Villalobos |
20 |
Terry Wilson |
Of the 34, I consider the core team of Burrows to number 20, including Burrows himself, Dade Phelan, Charlie Geren, Todd Hunter, Greg Bonnen, Jeff Leach, Jared Patterson, Cody Harris, Carl Tepper, Cole Hefner, Will Metcalf, Jay Dean, Gio Capriglione, Morgan Meyer, Angie Button, Brooks Landgraf, Terry Wilson, Ken King, Lacey Hull, and Brad Buckley. An additional 10, Stan Gerdes, Stan Kitzman, Gary Gates, Gary VanDeaver, Keith Bell, Angelia Orr, Drew Darby, Stan Lambert, John McQueeney, and Jeff Barry are dug-in Uniparty members. I consider Janie Lopez, Denise Villalobos, and Caroline Fairly to be inexperienced members who chose poorly. Cecil Bell voted with Team Burros at the end in hopes of not being suppressed.
My Unexpected Anger
The unprecedented actions of the establishment Republicans in the speaker race and the establishment of an even stronger speaker dictatorship serving the swamp and Democrats has increased my usually slow burn disapproval into white hot anger. I could not resist posting on social media this vulgar, but most descriptive response to what has been done to us: “Don’t piss down my back, and tell me it is raining!” Fletcher in Outlaw Josey Wales.
I have always intellectually known that the swamp loves its precious power and despises the voters, the grassroots, and the RPT. But they usually try to hide that disdain by doing their dirty work in non-transparent ways. This cycle, the hatred of you and me and the desire to prove that they have power over us is open for anyone who has eyes to see. No more velvet gloves over iron fists. It is bare, iron knuckles, baby.
It was Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s raw, open contempt for conservatives that led me to start Boot Bonnen PAC in 2019. This time, it is not just the speaker engaging in the bashing of you and me. It is most of those on Team Burros. We have seen Cody Harris, the Third Coast Bank employee of Burrows, the Bonnens, and Phelan, use lawfare to file an outrageously frivolous criminal complaint against the RPT Chair representing us in this fight, Abraham George. We have seen Carl Tepper all over social media bashing conservatives so much that it drew Dan Patrick’s ire and response. We have seen Stan Gerdes forget that he is a public servant and presume that he is the boss of the county Republican Parties in his district that dared to petition him to vote with Republicans instead of Democrats for speaker. Multiple members all over the state have engaged in sneering disrespect for RPT leadership and the grassroots.
Also part of my anger, I think, flows from raised expectations of a real prospect of reform in the Texas House to decentralize power away from the speaker (and therefore the swamp and the Dems) and to return it to the members (and therefore the voters), only to see those high hopes dashed. It also flows from the juxtaposition with the wonderful new day in DC and with the clear mandate from Texans to fix the mess the Dems have made, not play nicey-nice with them.
I have and am struggling to keep my eye on the ball, and attempting to channel my righteous indignation into effective action toward our common goal of implementing conservative solutions and protection of liberty into law and policy.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Never retreat. Never surrender. Of course we will not stop fighting, because our posterity, our state, and the union depends on us winning against those who work to take everything we hold dear.
How Much Time Spent on This Legislative Session – And on What Actions?
The question we have to ask is given the raw hatred we get back when we ask for what we want, whether expending effort on trying to move forward with our conservative priorities wasted effort. One has to ask the question of whether relatively more time should be spent now on removing the betrayers from office in the 2026 primary, so that we actually get reform in 2027.
The indicators are that this session, the bills most likely to pass are not our priorities, but bills to further turbo-charge via subsidies economic growth that is higher than what it would organically happen. That turbo-charging, of-course, further worsens the increasing prices Texans pay and the decline in quality of life. Rather than playing offense for conservative legislation, which is what we wanted this session, we may need to focus more of our legislative action on defense.
But the grassroots have, through pressure, pushed through a number of conservative priorities against Uniparty control under Phelan. All hope is not lost. It remains to be seen whether the Betrayers will simply spin and lie about their 2025 “accomplishments” in 2026 as they have already done regarding Dem chairs, or whether they will feel motivated to actually deliver some substantive results on some of our priorities. I am comforted by this Milton Friedman wisdom: “The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”
Because of the rules allowing Democrats to have their bills heard, even though they are unlikely to pass the Senate if they pass the House, hearings for conservatives are unlikely this session to be pleasant experiences. Even if we don’t go join the zoo in the hearings, we can still deliver massive amounts of phone calls and emails to the right committee members at the right time when needed.
I hope to provide you with information as we go about when and who to communicate with.
How Much Time Spent Looking Forward to the 2026 Primaries?
Many in the grassroots are burning to start the 2026 primary now.
Rule 44 Censures with Teeth
One important way to do that is to work with your county Republican County Executive Committee consisting of the precinct chairs and county chair to pass Rule 44 censure with disciplinary action (including now, instruction to the proper chair to refuse to place censured members on the primary ballot.)
Rule 44 requires that the member being disciplined must have committed at least three censurable acts during a legislative term. Censurable acts must include either acting to violate the principles of the party or thwart the priorities of the party. I believe that 4 censurable acts have been committed by the 32 members listed above:
- Voting against the Republican Caucus speaker choice, violating personal accountability and responsibility
- Signing a motion cutting off meaningful representation of at least 7 million Texans violating the bedrock principles of our Constitutions and representative republic
- Voting for a motion cutting off meaningful representation of at least 7 million Texans
- Voting for a rules package that did not deliver on the intent of the No Democrat Chairs priority.
There are sure to be more censurable acts committed by most of Team Burros. I will do what I can to report on them as I see them. I am sure you will be watching, too.
Preparing for Primary Challenges
It is never too early for challengers to incumbents to start building their organization, reaching out to the community, and raising money. And it is never too early for the grassroots to be recruiting and vetting challengers to the betrayers. Brett Rogers has recently released a book called The Goal is to Win, which is written to help the grassroots organize to support grassroots candidates win. It can be ordered by clicking here.
The key to victory in the Republican primary is to capture the attention of the people who vote in those primaries, but normally do not pay attention to the Texas Legislature. One important action for every person who knows about what is going on is to educate the people around you about what has happened and the importance of correcting it to our future.
I plan to reign in and channel my righteous anger into effective action. I hope you, too, will pursue the effective path that best fits your talents and motivation. This speaker race and session may have been Operation Market Garden in World War II, as enacted in the movie A Bridge Too Far. But we have the momentum and a growing, motivated army. We just have to grind it out to ultimate victory for our posterity, the grassroots, and Texas.