In 2022, well over a million Texas Republican primary voters cast declared their preferences. They chose their representatives and they also indicated their preferences on 10 ballot propositions. One of those ballot propositions was this:

The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature should end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats.
81.24% of Republicans said that this practice has to stop. Over a million Republicans. That's one hell of a poll, and better than any sample a consultant could conjure up.

On Saturday, December 7, 2024, the 88 elected Republicans for the Texas House showed up and voted for who they wanted to be Speaker of the House. As my friend, Tom Glass sent in an email tonight, "On the third ballot, David Cook won 77% of those caucus members present and voting to become the Texas House Republican Caucus pick. The vote was 48 for Cook and 14 for Burrows."

In previous days, after Dade Phelan's withdrawal from the race, Dustin Burrows decided that he would circle with Democrats to push him to a majority. In January, when the House convenes for session, the vote will take place. If a majority of Democrats and Republicans conspire to elect someone else for speaker, then the Republican caucus winner, David Cook, will not be speaker. So Burrows announced after tonight's vote that he had enough votes to win in January.

Except that he didn't. Kind of like when a politician plants a yard sign in the yard of a person who never consented to support the politician, both Democrat and Republican members protested their placement on Burrows' list. He quickly went from asserting he had 38 Republicans to now only having 32 confirmed.

He lied. To make himself look more impressive than he is.

This isn't surprising. But effectively what we have are 32 elected Republicans ignoring the preference of over a million Texas Republicans.

It's a bit like Joni Ernst deciding that she can thwart President Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth. It's not going well for her.

There is already a strong movement to primary every Burrows supporter who ignores the Republican majority who voted for Cook. It hasn't even been half a day since these events took place. The grassroots are fed up with being ignored. They want smaller government, family-friendly policies, a solid economy, and common sense. The Democrat party is delivering none of that, which is why they lost.

They just elected House Rep. Gene Wu as their leader for the next two years.


That unattractiveness will get them nowhere. Texans are done with it, and the state moved solidly red in this past election.

So why partner with Democrats now? Because the establishment, which was never greatly Republican in the first place, is desperate to hold on to power. They want to make it seem inevitable that they run the show.

They're about to get the Joni Ernst treatment, and we're happy to deliver it to them. There are far more of of us than there are of them. 32 is a mighty small number, and Texas is a mighty big state.