After all the drama of a hotly contested Texas State House Speaker race, it turns out that Democrats supplied the backbone needed to save the integrity of the House and preserve a functional bicameral legislature.
Most House Republicans had lined up to surrender the independence of the Texas House to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and MAGA billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks who were backing junior State Representative David Cook (HD96-Mansfield). Cook brought little influence of his own to the race but was counting on Patrick and deep-pocket MAGA intimidation to break the will of enough Republicans to get him the gavel.
The MAGA plan failed. While Cook’s opponent Representative Dustin Burrows (HD83-Lubbock) couldn’t convince a majority of his fellow Republicans to support him, he got enough Democratic support to get past the 76-vote threshold needed to become Speaker.
Of course, no Democrat is counting on Dustin Burrows to bring enlightenment or even common sense to the extreme Republican agenda in the State House. Burrows is pro private school voucher, he voted to impose extreme forced birth laws that threaten the lives of Texas women, and he backed vote suppression laws that violate Texans’ fundamental voting rights and undermine fair elections.
But a critical group of House Democrats calculated that dealing with a Speaker they differ with on policy and political grounds is better than being dictated to by a puppet Speaker taking marching orders from a dictatorial Lt. Governor doing the bidding of Christo-fascist billionaires.
Matt Angle is Director of the Lone Star Project. Prior to founding the Lone Star Project, Angle spent over 20 years as a congressional staff member observing and participating in a number of leadership races.
