A House Divided: How the Texas House Speaker Is Failing Us!
Out of 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives, 86 are Republican and 64 are Democrat.
Although logic would dictate that with a Republican majority in the House, the legislative outcome would favor important conservative issues such as the rights of the unborn, strong border security, traditional family values, election integrity, and lower taxes such is not the case. What accounts for the recent countless failures some 20 years later to produce substantial conservative action in the House? Most often failure to support the demands of conservative voters is the result of “RINO’s” – politicians who are eager to accommodate bipartisan politics at the expense of their own party values. However, establishment politicians are not the only source behind the compromising “swamp-water quagmire.” Actually, the weakest link in the House stems from one of the more prominent positions of influence, the Speaker who acts as the presiding officer, specifically Representative Dade Phelan of District 21.
Phelan operates under the assumption that if you do not empower Democrats to endorse progressive views, it is not possible to have a successful Texas House. This is one of the most prevalent ideologies in local, state, and federal political institutions. Phelan and other moderates have aggressively indoctrinated Texas House representatives with the belief that bipartisan compromise is a virtue in government to the point that most freshman representatives are pressured to conform in order to maintain a “middle of the road” status quo. Phelan who began routinely appointing Democrats to committee leadership positions is called an enemy of “far-right” conservatism even by liberal journalists.
Because conservative Texan voters have raised their voices to challenge a divided House under the compromising influence of a moderate speaker, the Republican Party of Texas officially censured Phelan for lack of fidelity to party principles. The full censure resolution includes some of the following statements:
Speaker Phelan in his promotion of the resolution to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton violated Texas Government Code 665.081 which states that articles of impeachment may not be served to support removal of a state officer.
Speaker Phelan appointed nine Democratic chairs to House Committees in violation of RPT Legislative Priority #5.
On May 9, 2023, Speaker Phelan allowed H.B. 20 in support of Border Security to die on the floor.
Speaker Phelan refused to support Parental Rights and Educational Freedom.
During the Texas Primaries with runoffs looming in May 2024, Phelan faces a conservative challenger, David Covey in HD 21 who has a strong stance on major conservative issues like border security, parental rights in education, traditional family values, election integrity, elimination of property taxes, protecting the rights of the unborn, and calls for a ban on Democrat chairs in the Texas House. Covey is not a career establishment politician as his background is in the oil and gas industry. He serves as a volunteer board member for a women’s shelter ministry in his hometown. He also carries endorsements from well-known conservatives: Ken Paxton, Sid Miller, and Donald Trump. Texas voters must turn out to the polls for this important runoff election. Early voting for the Texas Primaries runoff is May 20 – 24 and Election Day is on May 28th. We must turn out to the polls so that the outcome will swing the Texas House back on course for defending conservative party values.