The race for speaker of the Texas House continues to get stupider as one candidate has dubbed himself “speaker-elect” (which is not a real thing) and national Republicans weighed in this week.
To catch you up, there’s been a scramble for the top state House post after the current speaker, state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, announced last week he was bowing out of the race.
House Republicans met on Saturday to endorse a new Speaker. The top vote-getter among the caucus was state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield. But he didn’t have 76 votes, which is the grand total one needs in the 150-member House to win the Speaker’s race.
Enter state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, an ally of Phelan, who claimed that he had a winning coalition — and released as proof a list of 76 supportive lawmakers, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
So … game over? Not really. Burrows’ proclamation almost immediately started to backfire, as several members requested their names be removed. This led to questions of whether Burrows was engaging in the time-honored political practice of “making shit up.”
And others on the right apparently disliked that Burrows is backed by some Democrats. Famous failson Donald Trump Jr. weighed in on Monday, criticizing Republicans who support Burrows.
“It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now,” Trump Jr. wrote on X. 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, @DavidCookTexas! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!”
Oh and right-wing filmmaker and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza jumped in, too, because why not. D’Souza called Burrows “a disgrace,” adding on X: “He’s the Liz Cheney of Texas, a nominal Republican who is so crazed for power that he will ally with Democrats giving them de facto control of the Texas House. Any Republican who goes along with this treachery should be exposed and primaried.”
Cook’s bid has gotten endorsements from high-profile Texas Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who blasted Burrows on social media as “cutting deals with Democrats.”
But an undaunted Burrows continued calling himself “speaker-elect” and even posted a campaign flyer with a picture of himself and Gov. Greg Abbott, which seemed to imply an endorsement.
Abbott, though, shot that down Tuesday, writing “that text with my picture was issued without my authorization or even knowing about it.” Ouch!
Abbott added on X: “My focus is singular: work with both House & Senate leaders to pass the conservative agenda that I campaigned on & that voters expect.”
The actual vote on who’ll be the next Speaker will take place next month when the full House is in session.
