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Regardless, Phelan said he has no regrets about impeaching Paxton, and he said that tolerating corruption may harm the long-term prospects of Republicans in Texas. He views Republican Sen. Drew Springer’s revelation last week that he was reconsidering his vote to acquit Paxton as vindication that the House was right. Those local groups who censured him, Phelan said, are “insider baseball party people” who will conjure any excuse to defend Paxton.
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Phelan called on Patrick to donate the money to charity, and Patrick responded by demanding Phelan resign. The speaker told the Tribune he would have preferred a modest voucher bill to pass, but the political damage is done. Once an ally, Abbott appears indifferent to Phelan’s political survival — he has remained silent on this race — and is campaigning against anti-voucher Republican House incumbents, forcing Phelan to spend time and money protecting his members.
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He earned the support of every Democrat in the House, including Toni Rose of Dallas, who praised Phelan for supporting her bill in 2021 to expand Medicaid coverage for new mothers. Tracy King, a Uvalde Democrat, commended Phelan for meeting last week with families of victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting this past May. We can’t wait to welcome you to downtown Austin Sept. 5-7 for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival!
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The seat Phelan won covers an area of the state that stretches along the Gulf Coast and snakes up against the Texas-Louisiana border, and it has been devastated by hurricanes and floods in recent years. In 2019, he was one of the main architects behind a number of disaster relief- and flood mitigation-related bills that stretched beyond partisan lines and directed $1.7 billion toward flood control projects and repairs across the state. While still a relatively new member of the Legislature, his experience in Texas government and politics is broad. While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Phelan cut his teeth at the Capitol by working as an aide to Democratic state Rep. Mark Stiles. After graduating with a degree in government and business in 1998, Phelan moved to Washington, D.C., to work for U.S. Rep. Dick Armey, then the Republican House majority leader who represented Texas’ 26th Congressional District.
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The executive committee of the Texas Republican Party voted 58-2 for a resolution calling on Phelan to resign. In a December University of Texas Politics Project poll, more conservative voters said they disapproved of Phelan’s job performance than approved. The Speaker’s spending was surpassed by that of other statewide leaders and his far-right detractors.
Speaker Phelan aims to defend House coalition against outside PAC, political rivals
Houston-area Rep. Tom Oliverson challenges Dade Phelan for Texas House Speaker - NBC DFW
Houston-area Rep. Tom Oliverson challenges Dade Phelan for Texas House Speaker.
Posted: Thu, 21 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Even with a vibrant economy, a single parent who can work, afford childcare, healthcare, transportation and housing, is indeed rare. Tax-free diapers, wipes and other childcare supplies would be a great start, and so would ensuring health coverage for new moms that lasts - not sixty days, not six months but a full year. As I look out upon this distinguished gathering, I see 149 people - ordinary Texans - who are eager to get to work on extraordinary things. I am grateful to the majority of you who have honored me with your vote, but I am proud to represent all of you as Speaker of the 88th Legislature. Three female judges targeted by Paxton on the Court of Criminal Appeals also lost. They were part of an 8-1 majority that stripped Paxton of the power to prosecute voter fraud without permission from local prosecutors.
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Governor Greg Abbott spent nearly $4 million on ads for his favored Republicans in House races. Dunn and his allies spent more than $3 million this year boosting 28 Texas House candidates. Their efforts helped eleven GOP candidates win their primaries outright; eight others supported by Dunn and his political machine head to runoffs in May. When asked why the Speaker should not be able to spend while various billionaires do, Harrison said the comparison was “apples to oranges.” He said Phelan only doles out cash “to his favorite members,” but he did not explain how that’s different from what Dunn does. If Phelan is defeated in the May 28 runoff against relative newcomer David Covey, Patrick would be rid of a rival he’s described as a failed Republican who ignores policies favored by conservatives. Patrick also would be a key step closer to changing the makeup of the House, which has not been welcoming to his priorities on border security, tax cuts, election fraud, school choice and other issues.
Aarón Torres, who has been reporting on this issue for The Dallas Morning News, said the rift between Phelan and other top Republican leaders was clear as early as January. But the rival Republican faction, which had become known among members as “Team Texas,” was not giving up. Later that evening, the group’s preferred candidate, state Rep. Trent Ashby of Lufkin, announced he was ending his bid and getting behind state Rep. Geanie Morrison of Victoria, who was gunning to be the Legislature’s first female speaker. Members, though we may face many challenges this session, there will be even more opportunities.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan bucks his own party by appointing Democratic committee chairs
Phelan, a Beaumont Republican in his second term as leader of the House, also threw his support behind bills authored by two Republicans to crack down on how companies collect and monetize private data and to protect children from what he deemed “addictive algorithms” by digital companies. Phelan said the list of four bills is a “starting point” for the House of Representatives and that more bills with his support will be announced soon. The leader of the state House also threw his support behind bills to crack down on how companies handle private data and to protect children from “addictive algorithms” by digital companies. Mike Hillin, an electrician in Jasper County, said he supports Davis because of her dedication to represent the interest of working Texans, noting she has helped homeowners protest their tax assessments, free of charge. Her lack of high-dollar donations, Hillin said, sets her apart as the real grassroots choice. Covey fashions himself as the true grassroots candidate in the race, an unapologetic activist rather than an equivocating politician.
“The expiration date on Dade Phelan’s speakership is plainly written on the bottle,” Patrick said after Covey received 46% of the vote in the March primary to Phelan’s 43%. Lawmakers also agreed to spend more than $6 billion over the next two years to pay for an array of border security functions, most of which goes toward apprehending and jailing migrants under Operation Lone Star and building a wall along parts of the Texas-Mexico border. The speaker hires parliamentarians to draft decisions on points of order “so that they comport with precedent” and follow the House rules approved by members at the start of every session, said Andrew Cates, an Austin attorney and expert in parliamentary procedure at the Legislature. “Phelan felt strongly enough to push a rushed impeachment process, but he couldn’t find the will to vote for SB 4, which serves to protect Texas families from the chaos taking place at our southern border,” Covey said.
A similar bill which Phelan also backed passed the House last session but was reduced back to six months by the Senate. Covey denies that he is simply a pawn of the attorney general and far-right interests, though he announced his candidacy in June, when local Republican parties began censuring Phelan in the wake of the House’s impeachment vote in May. Paxton, who vowed revenge on the lawmakers who tried to oust him, campaigned for Covey at a rally in Beaumont in January. Meanwhile, Phelan’s speakership is becoming a liability for his Republican allies on the campaign trail who are being quizzed during debates over whether they’d support him as the chamber leader, should he win.
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