After an unprecedented two rounds of voting, Rep. Dustin Burrows was elected as the next Speaker of the Texas House on the first day of the 89th session of the Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 14.
The West Texas Republican won 88 votes to 55 for opponent Rep. David Cook, a Tarrant County Republican, on the second round. Nine members, all Democrats, registered present not voting, effectively declining to endorse either speaker candidate.
Rep. Ana-MarÃa RodrÃguez Ramos, a Richardson Democrat, was eliminated in the first round after garnering only 23 votes, all Democrats.
RodrÃguez Ramos, while never predicted to win in the Republican-dominated chamber, was, nevertheless, ballsy enough to run anyway.
The race to wield the gavel of the lower chamber came down to the three candidates after former Speaker Dade Phelan stepped aside. Phelan was accused of being insufficiently conservative by a cross between the always angry grassroots and their wealthy donors who fuel outrage. Among his sins were pushing for impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and not doing enough to pass a bill funding school vouchers, which would have doled out taxpayer dollars for kids to go to private schools and is a priority of Gov. Greg Abbott.
(That bill was killed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, all of whom were concerned about hurting public schools.)
While Phelan narrowly survived a May runoff with a candidate backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and President-elect Donald Trump, that victory wasn’t enough to quell a rebellion among members of his caucus. Multiple members of his leadership team, whose loyalty remained questionable, announced their campaigns against the Beaumont Republican.
Cook became the caucus’ candidate, seizing on the right-wing outrage while maintaining a somewhat serious, policy-focused reform campaign. (Cook’s real intentions are believed to be gearing up for a run for Sen. Brian Birdwell’s seat and seeking Lt. Gov. Patrick’s backing in that effort.)
The loudest part of his and fellow antagonists’ campaign however, was the new right-wing cause célèbre of the longstanding practice of appointing Democratic committee chairs.
Burrows, an ally of Phelan, emerged as the consensus candidate for members of both parties, and convinced enough to secure the gavel. Democrats presumably negotiated to retain a handful of chairmanships.
Burrows and Cook, like the rest of their party, are no friends of LGBTQ rights. Whether Democrats are happy to maintain committee chairmanships of a chamber that has passed legislation banning transgender youth from using gender-affirming hormones, playing sports aligning with their gender identity and proposing general hostility to everything other than embryos and guns remains to be seen.
— James Michael Russell