Rep. John Smithee
State Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, is the fifth person to enter the race for Texas House speaker.
Smithee, a 73-year-old attorney, is a long-serving Republican state representative from Amarillo. He is one of the most senior members of the House, serving in the Texas Legislature since 1985. He represents Texas House District 86, a solidly red area in the Texas Panhandle that includes Armstrong, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Hartley, Oldham, Parmer and Randall counties.
He declared his candidacy on Friday and will be racing against current Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and four other House candidates: Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress; Shelby Slawson, R-Stephenville; David Cook, R-Mansfield; and James Frank, R-Wichita Falls.
Smithee sits on the House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues and State Affairs committees.
Smithee gained popularity for vigorously opposing Attorney General’s Ken Paxton’s 2023 impeachment and delivering a 20 minute speech, criticizing the impeachment process as opaque, rushed and unfair to the accused. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised him for his speech at the close of the trial.
Out of the 85 House Republicans who voted, Smithee was one of 23 who opposed Paxton’s impeachment in the House.
As noted, Rep. Smithee joins Reps. Tom Oliverson, Shelby Slawson, David Cook, and James Frank in the ring. We are rapidly approaching the point where it would be simpler to list the non-Speaker candidates. Despite his opposition to the Paxton impeachment, I have always thought of Smithee as one of the old school institutionalist types, which if that was and still is accurate may mean he’d suck less than the other options; it would also probably mean he has no chance. But Speaker’s races are weird, so we’ll just have to wait and see who is better at building a coalition.
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