Rep. Dustin Burrows voted Texas House speaker in blow to insurgent GOP movement

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Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, was elected speaker of the Texas House on Tuesday, concluding a bitter and intense power struggle within the Republican Party that came down to an extraordinary floor vote to decide who would fill one of the most powerful positions in state government.

In his acceptance speech, Burrows focused on his desire to keep the House an independent institution, where lawmakers could feel free to disagree with one another without fear of repercussion.

“This is the people’s House,” said Burrows, who was joined by his wife Elisabeth and three sons for his swearing-in ceremony.

He promised to work with every member of the Legislature, leaving his door open even to those who opposed him.

“I commit to you today, every member will have a voice,” he said. “Every district will have a seat at the table.”

Burrows’ win marks a disappointing defeat for the insurgent wing of the party, which has spent years working to wrest control of the lower chamber away from establishment Republicans. That faction, which aims to push the House further to the right, ousted more than a dozen GOP members in last year’s primaries who were aligned with Burrows and his predecessor, Rep. Dade Phelan of Beaumont, riding a wave of conservative backlash over the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and failure to pass a private school voucher bill.

After the record turnover, hardline conservatives saw this year’s speaker race as perhaps their best chance ever to depose the current House leadership. They selected as their standard-bearer Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, who vowed to follow through on insurgent demands to strip power from Democrats — including barring them from chairing committees — and weaken the speaker’s means of controlling the chamber.

But while the insurgent crowd succeeded in forcing Phelan to give up the gavel, the elevation of his close ally signals a similar power structure will likely remain in place.

Burrows won the speaker’s race after two rounds of voting, edging out Cook by a vote of 85-55. During the first round, Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez-Ramos, a Richardson Democrat, received 23 votes from fellow Democratic members — enough to keep Burrows and Cook from reaching the majority threshold of 76.

In the ensuing runoff round, twelve Democrats who had voted for Rodríguez-Ramos switched to Burrows. He also netted two more GOP votes from members who defected from Cook. Nine members marked themselves present without voting for either option, and one member, Yvonne Davis of Dallas, was marked as absent.

Burrows’ winning coalition was made up of 49 Democrats and 36 Republicans, drawing instant backlash from hardline members and activists who vowed revenge in next year’s primaries.

“Today, the RINO (anti-MAGA) Establishment laughed in the faces of our Republican grassroots. They chose Democratic chairs and Lobbyist buddies over their voters,” Rep. Shelley Luther, a freshman Republican from Tom Bean who had vowed to oppose the Phelan-Burrows leadership team, wrote on social media. “I look forward to seeing if they’re still laughing after the next round of primaries. The fight starts today.”

Burrows’ support from Democrats will likely become major ammunition for his Republican critics aligned with the party’s right wing who warned that the new speaker should be chosen by a majority of GOP votes. On Tuesday, conservative activists sent buses full of Cook supporters to the Capitol to urge their lawmakers to support their preferred candidate.

Activists wearing red shirts that read “Ban Democrat Chairs” and “Betrayed by Dade” referencing Phelan filled the halls of the Capitol.

Paxton, a top state Republican leader who had traveled the state urging people to pressure their lawmakers to vote for Cook, criticized Burrows for winning the speaker’s gavel with Democratic support and for going against Cook who had been the House Republican Caucus’ endorsed nominee. He called on Burrows to prove his conservative bona fides and warned that he would keep fighting to “reform the Texas House.”

“It is now important that Speaker Burrows and his leadership team pass every conservative legislative priority in a timely manner to make our state more secure and more prosperous,” he said. “That is what Texas Republicans expect.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, an archconservative who presides over the Senate, was also critical of Burrows’ reliance on Democratic votes to win the speaker’s race. He said he expected Burrows to help the House pass legislation supported by social conservatives including: school vouchers, banning cities and counties from hiring lobbyists to advocate for them in Austin, bail reform, election integrity bills, putting the Ten Commandments in school classrooms, banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the state’s colleges and universities and banning people from countries that are adversaries of the United States from owning land in Texas.

“Each of these bills will be passed again by the Texas Senate,” Patrick said in a statement. “The voters will hold our new speaker accountable to keep his promise of being the most conservative speaker in Texas history.”

Burrows’ win is likely to further inflame tensions between some factions of the Texas GOP that have been at war with one another since Paxton’s impeachment and acquittal in 2023. The acrimony only worsened in the lead up to Tuesday’s vote, as Republican Party of Texas leaders vowed to censure lawmakers who supported Burrows, prompting one lawmaker to file an ethical complaint accusing party chair Abraham George of bribery.

Minutes after the votes were tallied — and as angry Cook supporters gathered on the Capitol steps, chanting “This is our House!” — George doubled down on his vows to punish Burrows-supporting Republicans. He said the party would soon vote on a censure resolutions that, if passed, would bar those lawmakers from appearing on a primary ballot for two years.

“This is not a time for us to pander to the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and moderates,” George said to the crowd.

“Morgan Meyer’s decision to side with Democrats in the Texas House speaker race is a slap in the face to Republican voters who trusted him to fight for their values,” said Barry Wernick, who ran against the University Park Republican last year.

Rep. Mitch Little of Lewisville, another one of Cook’s supporters, said the outcome of the speaker’s race was not consistent with the will of voters who swept a slate of new Republicans backing Cook into office.

“You have a significant minority of Republicans and a significant majority, almost unanimity, out of the Democrats supporting Dustin Burrows for speaker,” he said. “I think most Republican voters will have a hard time seeing how that's sustainable.”

Little said Burrows’ rise to the speaker’s dais portends more conflict between the two chambers of the Legislature, with the Senate being more in line with the right wing of the party.

“It’s going to be borderline chaotic,” he said. “You'll see a lot of conflict rubbing back and forth between the Senate and the House. I think you'll see the conservative Republicans fighting tooth and nail to advance their priorities.”

But not all of Cook’s initial supporters were so combative. Rep. Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican and the longest-serving member of the House, switched his vote to Burrows after the first round. He said he wanted to fulfill his commitment to vote for Cook, who the House Republican Caucus had endorsed as its nominee, in the first round. In the end, he said he wanted to get the chamber working together to move legislation forward quickly.

“I think Burrows will do a good job, as I think David would,” said Craddick, who held the speaker’s gavel from 2003 to 2009 as the first Republican speaker in Texas since Reconstruction. “It's time to end the animosity.”

After the race, Cook congratulated Burrows and said he planned to work with Burrows’ leadership team. He said he was proud of the race he ran and did not think he could have done more to try to win over the support of fellow lawmakers.

“We ran a good, honest race and I’m very proud of the support we were able to garner,” he said.

The House speaker position is a crucial legislative role. They appoint committee leaders and manage the flow of legislation through the chamber. Along with the governor and lieutenant governor, the speaker makes up a part of the “Big Three” state government leaders, who each have considerable sway in shaping and passing laws. If relationships among that group are good, legislative sessions can go fairly smoothly. But if the bonds are strained, major pieces of legislation can grind to a halt.

Last session, those relationships were strained and lawmakers had to return to Austin for a record four special sessions after disagreeing on legislation to cut property taxes, restrict immigration, boost teacher pay and enact a school voucher program.

Lawmakers are not expected to work as many overtime sessions this time. Gov. Greg Abbott, whose priority school voucher legislation was tanked last session, spent millions of his own campaign dollars in last year’s primaries to oust members of his own party who had not supported his signature bill. With Abbott now touting 79 “hardcore school choice proponents” in the House, voucher supporters are bullish that their success at the ballot box generated enough political will to get a voucher package across the finish line.

In remarks to the Senate on the Legislature’s opening day, Abbott quipped: “It’s great to join you in what I hope will be the only session we have this year.”

Burrows, a school voucher supporter, told the Tribune last month that he believes “the political winds have shifted, and the votes are there” for vouchers. He made clear he would not stand in the way of voucher legislation supported by “the will of the House.”

Later this week, Burrows will face his first real test when the House takes up its rules to govern the next legislative session. Burrows did not commit to banning Democratic chairs during his run for speaker, saying he would leave the matter for lawmakers to decide.

With Republicans holding a majority of 88 and intense pressure from conservative activists, it will be difficult for GOP lawmakers to vote against that in the rules. But doing away with the power-sharing practice could upset Burrows’ Democratic supporters and throw his coalition into revolt.