What does the Texas House speaker do and why are Republicans fighting?

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan presides over the opening day of a special session at the Texas Capitol on July 8, 2021. (Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune)

---

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan dropped his bid to lead the Legislature’s lower chamber next year ahead of a critical vote scheduled for this weekend.

Phelan was expected to defend his position against the far-right flank of his party, some of whom rallied behind state Rep. David Cook of Mansfield.

Republicans plan to meet in private this weekend to pick their nominee for one of the most powerful positions in state politics. Phelan was first elected to lead the House in 2021. During his two terms, he helped steer the state more to the right, helping pass one of the most restrictive abortion bans, expanding gun rights and cutting taxes.

Despite his conservative policy wins, the East Texas lawmaker has locked heads with some of the state’s other top Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the state Senate, and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Here’s what you need to know about the House speaker position and what might happen next.

What is the Texas Legislature?

The Texas Legislature is like the U.S. Congress, but just for the Lone Star State. The Legislature helps run the state government by writing laws and setting budget priorities. For example, lawmakers play a key role in how much money schools get. They also pass laws that can range from an abortion ban to whose car must pass a safety inspection.

[Speaker Dade Phelan abandons bid for third term amid bruising leadership battle]

And just like Congress, it has two chambers: the House and the Senate. The speaker runs the House and the lieutenant governor is president of the Senate.

How will the Texas Speaker of the House of Representatives be decided?

While the lieutenant governor is elected statewide, along with the governor and attorney general, the House speaker is selected by House members.

The official vote for House speaker occurs in January after the full House convenes for the new session. Any member can run. The winner needs 76 votes from the 150 members to secure the position.

But the party caucus with the most members usually has sway in selecting the leader before the House meets. That’s why the intraparty fight among Republicans over the last few years has become so important.

Many of the state’s most conservative Republicans have said openly that Phelan is too moderate and have voiced support for Cook. Until Friday, both candidates claimed to hold the necessary support to win the seat come January. However, Cook touted support from a majority of Republicans in the House, while Phelan’s path to victory would have included support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Self-imposed rules of the Texas House Republican Caucus require members to participate in the vote prior to January, as well as select the Republican nominee in the legislative session. This rule was established in 2017 after former speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, announced he would not run for reelection.

What does the Speaker of the House do?

The House speaker is the presiding officer during the legislative session for the House of Representatives. The speaker maintains order during floor debates, recognizes legislators wishing to speak and rules on procedural matters. The speaker also signs all bills and joint resolutions passed by the Legislature.

“The speaker's powers are significant because they control the flow of legislation," Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor at the University of Houston, said.

Put another way: A speaker has enough power to stop a legislative proposal from becoming law if they don’t like it. (This is also true of the lieutenant governor.)

Further powers are granted at the beginning of each regular session in the House Rules of Procedure, and could include making appointments to committees, designating chairs and vice chairs of committees and referring proposed legislation to said committees.

“In the last 20 years we’ve seen speakers execute very partisan strategies to get their will accomplished,” Rottinghaus said.

As partisanship has risen in Texas, the speaker’s job has become more difficult to do, he said.

Is the race for this position usually contentious?

“This is the most competitive and public, partisan speaker fight we've seen in history,” Rottinghaus said.

Historically, the position wasn’t particularly desirable among most lawmakers, Rottinhaus said. They would serve one term and leave office. That has changed as partisan politics took what was once a mostly administrative position and turned it into one of power, Rottinghaus said. Even then, however, contentious races were typically managed in-house and out of the public eye. The public bid to remove Phelan from his position is unique.

Phelan faced a heated race for his seat representing Beaumont in the primary election, clinching a win against challenger David Covey in the May runoff election as the underdog candidate. He has represented the area since 2015.

But Covey had the support of several major Republican leaders in Texas, as well as that of former President Donald Trump and actually garnered more votes than Phelan in the March primaries.

Why do some Republicans think Phelan isn’t conservative enough?

The most far-right Republicans don't trust him to be a guide for conservative legislation, Rottinghaus said.

Texas has passed some of its most conservative legislation in recent memory, including the abortion ban, permit-less carry and regulation of trans-care. But Phelan's support of Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment separated him from the state's far right. The issue was exacerbated when school choice vouchers failed and some Republicans said Phelan didn't do enough to help them pass.

Phelan has also been open about his support of allowing Democrats to lead committees and allowing their legislation to move forward, a long-honored tradition in the House. This goes directly against Republican goals to disempower the House’s Democratic minority by blocking them from committee leadership positions.

What happens next?

It’s a little murky, aside from the fact Republicans must nominate a leader. The caucus is still scheduled to meet this weekend. But Cook is not guaranteed the speakership as a different consensus candidate could emerge in Phelan’s absence.

“If that’s the case, and it’s not Phelan, there’s a very high risk that everything slows down legislatively,” Rottinghaus said. “The other candidate for speaker, any other candidate for speaker, will have a hard time with Republican unity. And Democrats seeing this dysfunction will drag their feet on everything.”

Disclosure: University of Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.