One of the things I said at the Texas Constitutional Enforcement Legislative Agenda Workshop on November 9, 2024 was that there was going to be so much good happening in DC in 2025 that maintaining focus on what needs to be done in the Texas Legislature during the 89th Legislature was going to be difficult.
I spent my time this morning and into early afternoon focusing on the joyous celebration of “Liberation Day” in DC. But it is time to focus on the ball we can have influence over here in Texas, and not only do we have bills to get filed and research to do in the Texas Legislature, we have a big day or days later this week that will focus on much needed reforms of the Texas House when the housekeeping resolution and rules are debated and passed.
Although, I have posted on social media about the results in the speaker race on January 14, I have not updated those of you reading my emails on those results and my thoughts on the outcome. I do so at the bottom of this communication.
We Still Have a Shot at Reforming the Texas House!
I have said along the way that the RPT Legislative Priority of No Democrat Chairs is a smaller, more understandable piece of the larger list of reforms needed in the Texas House. The overall goal of reform is to increase the power of the voters via increasing each individual member’s power relative to the speaker. That by necessity decreases the power of the swamp which has historically controlled the speaker. The Contract With Texas laid out twelve points of reform, at least 6 of which I think can be implemented by rule, rather than the practice of the speaker.
Three of the points of the Contract With Texas include requiring that the majority party receive preference over the minority party can be implemented by rule:
- Ending the practice of awarding the minority party with chairmanships (aka the No Democrat Chairs RPT Legislative Priority).
- Requiring all committees have a majority from the majority party
- Selecting a Speaker Pro Tempore from the majority party
We should be urging Republican Texas House members to introduce amendments to the proposed rules package to implement all three, as well as amendments to:
- Allow audio/video recording of all House proceedings, including point of order debates
- Reform the Calendars Committee to increase transparency and accountability
- Prohibit distribution of political funds from the speaker
I would also like to see an amendment to allow a discharge of a bill from committee to be rapidly placed on the Calendar if a sufficient number of House members support such a move. It was pointed out that establishment Republican chairs blocked lots of conservative legislation and RPT priorities last session. A discharge rule can counter that.
A Rule Implementing the No Dem Chairs Priority Can Pass
The No Dem Chairs Legislative Priority Committee focused its efforts on helping pick a speaker committed to reform, including the No Dem Chairs reform, because the committee members figured that having a speaker committed to that priority was the most likely way to implement it.
Along the way, the RPT and grassroots realized that it was, in the words of RPT Chair Abraham George, “not too much to ask” to ask Republican members of the Texas House to support the rules of their own caucus (and RPT platform) designed to unite Republicans to pick a speaker instead allowing Democrats to pick the speaker as was done on January 14. In fact, the SREC and a large number of county GOP organizations around the state declared aligning with Democrats instead of Republicans to pick a speaker to be a betrayal and a censurable act.
Some county GOP organizations, like Bastrop County’s resolution, went further and declared that both voting with Dems AND voting against No Dem Chairs to both be censurable acts. I am fairly confident that the overwhelming body of the SREC sees it that way, too.
Interestingly, a number of Burrows team members have said they planned to vote for Burrows, but if given a chance, will vote for No Dem Chairs. Burrows, himself, has implied that he, unlike Phelan, will not engage in Phelan parliamentary tricky-tricks to squelch a vote, and will allow a vote this session on No Dem Chairs this week. Burrows members steaming about the pressure and condemnation they received for their speaker vote betrayal are eager to try to blunt the anger against them by casting a vote for No Dem Chairs. We will see whether there are enough Burrows betrayers who think that way who will be allowed to put the amendment over the top.
I will not go into the details of the tricky trick pulled by Charlie Geren and Dade Phelan last session to stop a vote on No Dem Chairs. I know that grassroots members are debating how to act so that the play run in the last war by the establishment is not successfully run again. If all else fails, I know there will be more than ten members who will challenge the ruling of the chair if the play is run again. And THAT vote will be used as a proxy when the RPT is considering what constitutes censurable acts.
Analysis of Bills and Drafting of Bills Ongoing While Likelihood of Conservative Success Debated
After the speaker vote, I had conversations with a number of grassroots House members and activists, trying to predict how this session will play out, given the results of the speaker race.
I have pointed out that when the grassroots stayed engaged last session, we delivered some impressive gains last session, even though we did not get everything we want. It is my impression that the grassroots are ready to engage even more in this session to see that the RPT priorities and other conservative legislation is accomplished. There are lots more Texas House members that will be working together to see that happen. And many are saying that because of the primary targets on members who voted for Burrows, both he and his team might bend over backwards a bit more to try to blunt the current anger of the grassroots.
When people tell Steve Deace that he cannot succeed in pursuing a policy goal, he gives a sports-based response to the challenge, “Let’s Find Out!” My philosophy of action in the political arena is to repeatedly ask for what I want. I intend to do so this session. I intend, just like the Trump team in DC, to push as hard and fast for the reforms that Texas needs to prepare for the future.
I intend to make this a “Let’s Find Out” session.
Hopefully, next week, I can start laying out the details of the bills that I and my Texas Constitutional Enforcement group will be working.
The Results of the Speaker Race and Grassroots Energy for the Next Primary
There are many analogies that can be made to the long war between the grassroots and the swamp for control of the Texas Legislature. You can think about the WWII island hopping campaigns of the South Pacific or the advance of the Allies in the WWII European Theater.
I am not sure about whether the speaker race is better comparable to Operation Market Garden or the Battle of the Bulge, but what I know is that this speaker race educated even less engaged Republican primary voters about what goes on at the Capitol and the betrayals of them. The race has energized the base and identified the targets for the next primary season, guaranteeing that the 2026 primary and the 90th Texas Legislature in 2027 are likely to produce ultimate victory for the voters and the grassroots. It may even deliver us more conservative gains this session than we would have otherwise gotten.
See below the best graphical representation of the second and final vote in the speaker race that I have seen. The significant changes from the first to the second speaker race is that former Speaker Tom Craddick and Sam Harless, who had voted for Cook on the first round, switched to vote with Burrows on the second round. Interestingly the Dem candidate for speaker, Representative Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos, voted in the second round where she had been eliminated, for Cook, not Burrows. Of the rest of those Dems voting for her in the first round, 10 voted Present Not Voting or were absent with 12 Dems moving from Ramos on the first round to Burrows on the second round, putting Burrows over the top.
It was very clear from the nominating and seconding speeches appealing to the Dems that the Burrows betrayers set up the situation whereby the Dems picked the speaker. One especially outrageous, arrogant move since the vote is that at least two Burrows team members (Jared Patterson and freshman Jeff Barry) have tried to blame delivering the vote to the Dems on Cook and the reformers, saying that the Cook team following the very caucus rules and party platform that Burrows designed and to produce Republican unity and broken by Burrows and his betrayers, were the cause of delivering the victory to the Dems!
I have never seen a more aroused and angry grassroots, who are yearning to start the 2026 primary season. I personally have received more communications than I did after the Paxton impeachment, urging me to take on Stan Gerdes in HD 17 again.
I think I am going to follow the lead of Dan Patrick who was recently interviewed about the session and asked about the next primary season, given the result in the speaker race. He said that he was going to put that aside for now, focusing on delivering the best legislation possible this session. The key to long term success is channeling passion into productive activity.
This is legislative season, now. Time to respectfully ask for what we want now with the deck that has been dealt, keeping the eyes open and embers stoked, ready for censure and primary fights later.