As is always the case, the field has narrowed.
Rep. David Cook
In the most concerted attack to date on Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan from within the GOP House ranks, 48 representatives and nominees for House districts selected Rep. David Cook as their favored House speaker Friday. The group includes four who dropped their bids for speaker in order to consolidate support around a single candidate.
Cook, a two-term Mansfield Republican who announced his bid for Speaker earlier this month, became the self-described “reform-minded” group’s consensus pick after multiple rounds of voting. When he announced his candidacy, Cook committed to appointing only Republicans to chair House committees, considered a crucial pledge to far-right GOP leaders who feel Phelan has ceded too much power to Democrats by continuing the chamber’s long-standing tradition of naming members of both parties to lead the legislative panels.
“This vote highlights the growing momentum for change within the Texas House, as members rally behind a shared vision of a decentralized leadership model that empowers all members,” Cook said in a statement.
Fellow speaker challengers James Frank, Tom Oliverson, Shelby Slawson and John Smithee issued a joint statement supporting Cook following the closed-door meeting at the County Line BBQ in Austin.
“We have suspended our campaigns for speaker and urge all of our Republican colleagues to join us in voting for Representative Cook as the Republican nominee for speaker when the caucus meets in December,” they wrote.
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Friday’s meeting among Phelan critics was an informal vote to consolidate support into one challenger. After House members are elected or reelected in November, the Texas House Republican Caucus, chaired by Oliverson, will meet in December to formally endorse their desired candidate for speaker.
“Not only are their actions disappointing and unacceptable, they are futile, as I proudly have the clear majority votes needed to be the Speaker today, and will have the clear majority support needed to become Speaker again come January,” Phelan said in a statement Friday morning.
It will take a simple majority of the entire House, 76 votes, to be elected House speaker at the start of the legislative session in January. But the rules of the House Republican caucus instruct GOP members to vote for the group’s endorsed candidate.
To garner that endorsement, one must have support from at least three-fifths of members. Right now, there are 86 members, putting that threshold at 52. It won’t be known until after the November elections how many House members will be Republicans next year.
Friday’s vote suggests that Cook could be in reach of hitting the necessary threshold. In addition to the 48 people who supported Cook Friday, The Texan reported that he has support from six others.
However, the group includes around 20 candidates who are running for House seats but do not currently serve in the chamber. Two, Steve Kinard and former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, are running in races for competitive seats currently held by Democrats.
See here for the previous update. You never know how a Speaker’s race will play out until it’s time to vote. There’s still likely to be some drama in this before all is said and done. The single biggest spanner that we can throw into the works is increasing the number of Dems in the chamber, which if nothing else should put a bit of a squeeze on the Republicans and get them to start blaming each other for their electoral losses. That has to actually happen, of course, so stay engaged and do what you can to get some of our top contenders elected. The Fort Worth Report has more.