Inside the battle to be Texas State House Speaker

THE WOODLANDS, TX – When new members of the Texas House of Representatives are sworn in on Jan. 14, they will elect their next speaker. Dustin Burrows (R) and David Cook (R) are running, and local political observers say the race is the latest example of a factional divide that has existed in the chamber’s Republican caucus for decades.

Incumbent Dade Phelan (R), who was first elected speaker in 2021, announced in December that he would not run for a third term. Republicans will have an 88-62 majority at the start of the 2025 legislative session. Seventy-six votes are needed to win the speakership. According to The Council of State Governments’ Book of the States, Texas is among 48 states in which all members of the state House elect or confirm their speaker.

In an interview with KDFW-TV’s Steven Dial, Southern Methodist University professor Matthew Wilson described the conflict between Cook and Burrow’s supporters respectively as “the ongoing division among Republicans in the Texas House between a conservative faction and a more establishment moderate faction,” with the former group supporting Cook and the latter supporting Burrows. According to The Texas Tribune’s Jasper Scherer, while Burrows claims to have bipartisan support, Cook’s supporters “call themselves ‘reformers,’ say any new speaker candidate must commit to ending the appointment of Democratic chairs, among other conservative priorities.”

While Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2003, the caucus has been divided on multiple votes in recent years. In 2023, 60 House Republicans joined 61 Democrats, voting 121-23 to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). Later that year, 21 Republicans joined 63 Democrats, voting 84-63 to remove a provision for school vouchers from an education funding bill. Both Cook and Burrows voted to impeach Paxton and in support of the voucher proposal.

Both candidates have released lists of members who they said have committed to supporting them. Of the members from 2023 who will remain in 2025, a majority of those on Burrows' list voted to impeach Paxton, and a majority of those on Cook's list voted against impeaching Paxton. Although the majority of both candidates' supporters voted to keep the voucher proposal, all legislators who voted against the voucher proposal were on Burrows' list.

This year’s election is not the first time the speakership has been an area of conflict within the House Republican caucus. In 2018, local media and political supporters said support or opposition to then-speaker Joe Straus (R) was a key issue in the chamber’s Republican primaries. Straus was first elected speaker by a coalition of Democratic and Republican House members in 2009.

Although the election will take place on Jan. 14, House Republican Caucus bylaws require Republican members to meet in advance to agree on a nominee. At the meeting on Dec. 7, Cook won the nomination 48-14. Neither candidate won in the first two rounds of voting, and Cook won in the third round after the requirement to win was lowered from two-thirds support to three-fifths. Twenty-six Burrows supporters walked out before the third vote took place. Afterward, Cook said he had won the support of the Republican majority, while Burrows said he had enough Democratic support to win without the support of the full Republican caucus.

After the vote, the state’s Republican party passed a resolution calling members to vote for Cook and stating that the State Republican Executive Committee would consider voting for another speaker “a censurable act.” At the party’s 2024 convention, delegates amended Rule 44 of the party’s rulebook on censure. The new rule requires state and county chairs to reject primary applicants the party has censured within the past two years. This would mean that censured members would be unable to run for re-election as Republicans in 2026. According to The Texas Tribune’s Robert Downen, "Political experts expect lawsuits if the Texas GOP follows through with its censures, resulting in a high-stakes legal drama that could upend the relationship between political parties, candidates and voters."

According to the Tribune, the Idaho Republican Party passed a similar rule in 2024. Under the party’s current rules, members who are censured twice can lose party support and be prohibited from using Republican Party identifiers on campaign information and advertising for five years.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), and state party chairman Abraham George have all endorsed Cook. The House Democratic Caucus passed a resolution calling its members not to vote for Cook but did not offer direct support to Burrows.