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The vote suggested that a period of political warfare between G.O.P. factions would continue to shape lawmaking in the state.
J. David Goodman
Reporting from Austin, Texas
After months of bluster about a revolutionary new leadership coming to the Texas Legislature, the state’s Republican-dominated Statehouse on Tuesday selected a member of its old guard, Dustin Burrows, to be its next speaker, a surprising rebuke of the party’s aggressive hard-right faction.
On its face, the election by members of the Republican-dominated chamber might not appear consequential: the front-runners included Mr. Burrows, a conservative Republican, and David Cook, another conservative Republican. (There was also a Democrat, who was eliminated in the first round of voting.)
But the fight for speaker was unusually bitter, even if its antagonists were ideologically aligned and had become familiar sparring partners in the battle for control of Texas politics.
On one side were the old-line, business-oriented Texas Republicans, in the mold of former governors such as George W. Bush and Rick Perry, who wanted to keep the Texas House and its members as a third power center in Austin. On the other was a more radical faction backed by religiously conservative West Texas billionaires who had hoped to bring the Texas House in line with the more aggressively partisan Texas Senate, where they already hold sway.
And looming over it all was the continuing fallout from the Texas House’s impeachment in 2023 of the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, who survived serious accusations that he corruptly abused his office, then sought vengeance on his Republican accusers. Mr. Paxton backed Mr. Cook.
Nonetheless, Mr. Burrows prevailed on the second ballot, 85 to 55. A simple majority of 76 was needed to become speaker. Most Democrats sided with Mr. Burrows, helping to lift him to victory. (Ten Democrats did not vote.)
The result is likely to preserve much of the status quo in Austin, where the Texas House has acted as an occasional check on some of the most aggressively conservative proposals in the Texas Legislature.
“It looks like Texas — all of Texas,” Representative Mihaela Plesa, a Dallas-area Democrat, said in a speech, describing those who supported Mr. Burrows.
Mr. Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, Texas, will now lead lawmakers who will inherit a budget surplus of more than $20 billion through a biennial session that is almost certain to be marked by new rounds of internal Republican strife. Private school vouchers, border security, gambling, changes to the state’s bail laws and diversity measures in higher education are expected to be significant issues.
“I commit to you today: Every member will have a voice,” Mr. Burrows said in a speech after his election. “Every Texan will know their House is working for them.”
Legislators said the selection contest was the most contentious in years.
“This is something that has never happened in the history of Texas politics — to have this much chaos as the result of a speaker’s race,” said Representative Harold V. Dutton Jr., a Houston Democrat first elected to the Texas House in 1984.
The race was the culmination of more than a decade of simmering tensions and months of all-out political warfare between the Republican factions, which erupted after a bipartisan supermajority of the Texas House voted to impeach Mr. Paxton, only to see him acquitted in the Texas Senate.
The impeachment infuriated many Republican activists and lawmakers, particularly those strongly aligned with President-elect Donald J. Trump. Mr. Paxton and his supporters sought revenge during last year’s Republican primaries, hastening the retirement of some Republicans and aggressively campaigning to oust others.
The goal had been to finally wrest control of the Texas House away from Republicans who would cut deals with Democrats and to end the chamber’s longstanding practice of allowing members of the minority party to bring up bills and hold committee chairmanships. Hard-liners hoped those changes would deepen Republican control of the state.
And they appeared on their way to doing that, nearly defeating the incumbent speaker, Dade Phelan, in a primary and successfully pressuring him to step aside as speaker. In a vote of the Republican caucus, a majority backed Mr. Cook, the hard-right candidate who had challenged Mr. Phelan for the House gavel last year.
Mr. Burrows put himself forth as the traditionalist candidate. An ally of Mr. Phelan’s who helped enact the state’s abortion ban and has sought to limit the power of the state’s Democratic cities, Mr. Burrows argued that he was the more conservative choice.
Without a majority of Republicans, Mr. Burrows could only have won by cobbling together a coalition of old-guard Republicans — a minority of the party — and most Democratic lawmakers.
The Texas House has 150 members, 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats.
“American government works best when people talk, they negotiate,” Representative Gene Wu of Houston, the chairman of the Democratic caucus in the Texas House, said before the vote. “This idea that we have to shut out the other side completely is dangerous, it’s very dangerous.”
Mr. Burrows’s backers worried that under Mr. Cook, the Texas House would lose its independence and become little more than an arm of the hard right and the Texas Senate, which is led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, an arch conservative former talk radio host.
But in opposing the Republican caucus choice and relying on Democrats, Mr. Burrows and his Republican supporters came under furious attack.
“I’m glad they weren’t with Travis at the Alamo when he drew the line in the sand,” Mr. Patrick said in a social media post, referring to William B. Travis, the leader of Texas’ forces during the 1836 battle. “They would have crossed the line and walked out of the gate, leaving their fellow fighters behind.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, who had largely stayed out of his party’s internecine fights, said the candidate with majority Republican support should be speaker, aligning himself with Mr. Patrick and Mr. Paxton.
The attorney general, for his part, held several campaign-style events around Texas last week in support of Mr. Cook. A wealthy Amarillo, Texas, businessman, Alex Fairly, pledged $20 million for future Republican primaries to bolster a “true Republican majority” — a substantial amount even for Texas, where there are few campaign spending limits. (Mr. Fairly, whose daughter is a freshman member of the Texas House, later clarified his support would not be based on a member’s vote for speaker.)
At least one busload of activists supporting Mr. Cook arrived at the State Capitol on Tuesday, part of a morning of lobbying that include a brief solo concert by Ted Nugent, the conservative rocker, who played an instrumental guitar version of the national anthem on a nearby Austin street corner.
“I’m here for the speaker’s vote, but also Ted Nugent,” said Paul Gescheidle, 36, who drove in from Spring Branch, Texas, to support Mr. Cook.
And the official state party, which was also lined up in favor of Mr. Cook and against Mr. Burrows, has said that, under new rules, Republican lawmakers who did not support the majority Republican choice could be kept off the primary ballot by the party in a future election.
“This time around we said we’re going to have sanctions,” Abraham George, the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said in an interview. “If you want to be a Democrat, go be a Democrat. You’re not going to be on our ballot next time.”
That led one Republican representative, who supported Mr. Burrows, to lodge a formal complaint with the state ethics commission accusing Mr. George of making improper threats.
But the public pressure on behalf of Mr. Cook was not enough.
“We need to elect a speaker who will uphold our institutions,” Representative Charlie Geren, a Republican, said in a speech nominating Mr. Burrows that decried “these people who are trying to buy the House” and received ovations from other members.
Representative Carl Tepper, a Republican from Lubbock who backed Mr. Burrows, said he had been bracing for a tough public debate at the Capitol on Tuesday, the first day of the legislative session when many members bring their loved ones.
“I told my family, I’m not sure you want to be there for this,” Mr. Tepper said. “It’s going to be real ugly.”
Family members were ushered out before the vote. But in the end, the speeches were mostly respectful, lacking the kinds of internecine attacks among Republicans that are certain to come during the upcoming legislative session.
J. David Goodman is the Houston bureau chief for The Times, reporting on Texas and Oklahoma. More about J. David Goodman
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