House Democrats Vote Dustin Burrows as TX Speaker Allowing Democrats to Take Control

by Sonja Harris on February 6, 2025 at 9:09 AM

On January 14, 2025, the Texas House of Representatives voted to make Dustin Burrows Speaker for the 89^th legislative session. It is a stunning situation since Texas is considered a reliable conservative state. The Republican Caucus voted for David Cook. Burrows chose to run against him knowing he had the Democrats vote.

The Democrats are celebrating their “win.” Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston lawmaker leads the House Democratic Caucus. He took the approach of ridiculing the conservatives who did not go along with the rules change.

The Republicans are left to lick their wound. This will not set well with the Republican state delegation who voted to stop the practice of appointing Democrats as Committee Chairs. Texans did not vote to have ALL Democrat vice chairs to the committees.

In case you are interested as to which “Republicans” voted for Burrows here is the list: (Courtesy Donna Garner)

Jeff Barry (Pearland)

Cecil Bell (Magnolia)

Keith Bell (Forney)

Greg Bonnen (Friendswood)

Brad Buckley (Salado)

Dustin Burrows (Lubbock)

Angie Button (Garland)

Giovanni Capriglione (Southlake)

Tom Craddick (Midland)

Drew Darby (San Angelo)

Jay Dean (Longview)

Caroline Fairly (Amarillo)

Gary Gates (Richmond)

Stan Gerdes (Smithville)

Charlie Geren (Fort Worth)

Sam Harless (Spring)

Cody Harris (Palestine)

Cole Hefner (Mount Pleasant)

Lacey Hull (Houston)

Todd Hunter (Corpus Christi)

Ken King (Canadian)

Stan Kitzman (Brookshire)

Stan Lambert (Abilene)

Brooks Landgraf (Odessa)

Jeff Leach (Allen)

Janie Lopez (San Benito)

John McQueeney (Fort Worth)

Will Metcalf (Montgomery)

Morgan Meyer (Dallas)

Angelia Orr (Itasca)

Jared Patterson (Frisco)

Dade Phelan (Beaumont)

Carl Tepper (Lubbock)

Gary Van Deaver (New Boston)

Denise Villalobos (Corpus Christi)

Terry Wilson (Georgetown}

To add insult to injury, the House Reps voted for HR 4 on January 23, a risky and dangerous decision by weak Republicans.

Attorney General Ken Paxton post on X:

“Last week, a small group of Republicans in the Texas House cut a deal to elect our new speaker with a majority of radical liberal Democrats. Yesterday, many of those same politicians forced the House to adopt new rules that will give more power to Democrats and enable them to kill conservative priorities. I am grateful for the conservative members who opposed this scheme and fought for our values. Immediately after the rules vote, the Speaker’s key supporters—those same liberal Democrats—held a press conference to claim victory for the power that Dustin Burrows gave them.”

In a recent email, Abraham George, Texas Republican Party Chairman, wrote:

“A House Vote last Thursday has determined that Democrats will now have more power than ever before with the passage of a new house rules package. This will require Democrats to be Vice Chairs across all committees, something not required previously, among other nods to Democrats. It almost goes without saying that House Resolution 4 was, indeed, voted for by all but one Democrat member. There is no doubt who this House Resolution favors.”

Do not be fooled by the Texas House Reps that declared, “I voted to ban Democrat Committee Chairmen.” What they aren’t telling you is that 61 Republicans voted for the committees to all have Democrat vice chairs and power to rule against the Republican Committee Chairs. Democrats voted 55 in favor to change the rules. The vote to change the rules was approved by 116-23. Sad that there are only a handful of conservative Republicans in the House. Would you say it’s time for a revolution?

Rep David Cook also voted for the “new” house rules begging the question, “Why?” There are also some Texas reps that campaigned and even block walked for Dustin Burrows and are quietly toying with you. Get to really know your Texas Rep.

Texas House Rep D62 Shelly Luther posted on X: "I’ve heard a lot of lawmakers mention there are Democrat Vice Chairs in the Texas Senate. The truth is the rules package rammed through by House Leadership gives Democrats a lot more power. Here’s a handy comparison":