AUSTIN — As results started rolling in on Election Day and dashing the Texas Democrats' hopes of flipping the Texas House, Rep. Dade Phelan, a three-term Republican from Beaumont, started working the phones to lock in his bid to become the next leader of the chamber.
The next morning, Phelan announced at a Capitol press conference that he had enough votes to become the next speaker of the House. He put out a list of 83 lawmakers from both parties that included most of his rivals for the speaker’s gavel, as well as a coalition of a majority of the Republican Caucus and prominent Black and Latino Democrats.
By Thursday, his final GOP rival, Rep. Geanie Morrison of Victoria, folded her campaign and left Phelan a clear path to becoming speaker.
Within three days, the 45-year-old Phelan had maneuvered his way into one of the most powerful jobs in Texas. Now, Phelan, the presumptive speaker of the House, faces a long slog as the Legislature takes on the state’s myriad challenges in his first session in charge.
With COVID-19 still ravaging the state’s economy and public health, lawmakers will face a revenue shortfall that could be as high as $20 billion or more. The Legislature is also on the hook for billions of dollars of promises to Texas schools made in last session’s marquee school finance bill.
Lawmakers will also have to grapple with how to kick start the state’s economy and fill the need for affordable health care that the pandemic has laid bare.
Inside the chamber, Phelan will have to manage competing interests not just from Democrats, but from within his own party. Some GOP incumbents are still smarting from being targeted by current Speaker Dennis Bonnen in primary elections, and the right wing of the party has warned that Phelan is not conservative enough for them to support.
Phelan declined to comment for this article but his supporters are undeterred. With the same 83-67 bipartisan split for the GOP as two years ago, lawmakers are confident that the chamber can find common ground on big issues and mitigate the battles over controversial social issues.
“Dade Phelan is smart, he is a statesman and he’s gonna be a trustworthy steward of our chamber,” said Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who was re-elected to a fifth term this month. “If I wasn’t fully confident in not only his ability but his vision as speaker to make sure the voices of Texas people are heard, I wouldn’t have supported him.”
From staffer to top leader
Phelan, a member of a prominent Beaumont family that runs a fourth generation commercial real estate development company, arrived at the Texas House in 1994 as a young staffer for Democratic State Rep. Mark Stiles, while still in school at the University of Texas.
After graduating with a degree in government and business, Phelan spent time as a legislative staffer in Washington where he worked for Rep. Dick Armey, one of the architects of the “Republican Revolution” that swept the GOP into the majority in both chambers of Congress. He then returned to Austin to work for State Sen. Tommy Williams, a legislative veteran who is now running Phelan’s transition into the speaker’s office.
Phelan’s colleagues say his experience as a staffer gives him an appreciation for the hard work of all those involved in the legislative process. They also say his family life — he has a wife, Kim, who is a working attorney, as well as four young boys — keeps him grounded in the realities of working families.
First elected to the House in 2014, Phelan is a nuts-and-bolts lawmaker who passed bills on flood mitigation and disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey devastated his hometown in 2017. He has also passed legislation to lower business regulations, like a bill to let out-of-state gulf shrimp unloaders sell their products in Texas.
That seemingly small bill amounted to 7 million pounds of additional Gulf shrimp in the state and $100 million in economic activity for local communities, his office estimated.
“He is a policy wonk. You don’t often see that in a representative,” said Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat from Edinburg who pledged to support Phelan. “[He] gets into the weeds on a lot of the issues that affect most Texans. That in and of itself will ensure his success.”
Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall, said he backed Phelan because he was a fair leader on the House State Affairs Committee and because he proved he could shore up a majority of the Republican caucus.
“I voted against some of Dade’s bills because of something I had to do personally for my district. He never ruled with an iron fist, he understood it,” said Holland, who served under Phelan in the state affairs committee last session. “He knows each person has a unique district and that that person has to represent their district.”
Republican dissent
Though Phelan has claimed enough support to wield the speaker’s gavel next session, all 150 members of the House must still cast their votes on the second Tuesday of January when the Legislature convenes.
The House operates under a tradition of bipartisanship that has been decried by staunch conservatives for years. Former Speaker Joe Straus was frequently derided as a “Republican in Name Only” for working with Democrats, and Bonnen was also criticized for overseeing a “loser session,” despite passing priority GOP bills.
That divide continues. Phelan has received backlash from the party’s right wing, which has for years pushed an effort to pick a speaker candidate from within the Republican caucus to ensure strong conservative bona fides.
Among Phelan’s critics is state party chairman Allen West, a former Florida congressman, who criticized Phelan’s move to reach across the aisle for Democratic support in his bid for speaker.
“Texas does not need a Republican political traitor,” West wrote in an email to supporters, adding that the party would not support him.
Texas Values, a staunchly conservative advocacy organization that primarily targets abortion and LGBT rights legislation, also opposes Phelan.
“Rep. Phelan used his power last session to advance the LGBT agenda and we have not forgotten,” Jonathan Saenz, president of the group said in a statement.
Last session, as business and tourism groups were on guard for another “bathroom bill” of the sort that was narrowly defeated in 2017, Phelan used his role as head of one of the House’s three most powerful committees to side with business and make sure a Senate-passed bill trying to pre-empt city sick-leave ordinances didn’t willfully or inadvertently erase municipal protections for LGBT residents against discrimination.
LGBT advocates lauded Phelan’s move and his comments in a Texas Tribune interview that “bashing on the gay community” was “completely unacceptable.”
But Phelan still garnered support from some of the most socially conservative members of the House, including the Texas House Freedom Caucus, whose members have filed some of the most restrictive legislation against abortion and LGBT rights.
Holland said he disagrees with those questioning Phelan’s conservative credentials.
“I am a conservative member,” he said. “But I also understand that we have to work together. The way that the House is set up, there are Republicans and Democrats alike that both have chairmanships and make up the committees. We are not like D.C.”
Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life which opposes abortion, said his group was not among those criticizing Phelan, a Catholic, as too soft on conservative issues.
“We’re not part of that conversation,” Pojman said. “We think he’ll be very pro-life.”
Dyana Limon-Mercado, executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said her group will approach next session with caution.
“We understand the make-up of the legislative body we’re working with,” she said. “Our priority has been to protect health care access as best we can.”
Some of the state’s top GOP leaders have also come to Phelan’s defense. Gov. Greg Abbott congratulated Phelan, calling him a “strong conservative,” and Bonnen, the current speaker, defended Phelan in a radio interview.
Bonnen, who made Phelan a chairman last session, did not seek re-election this year after a secret recording from a conservative activist revealed he was targeting fellow Republicans in primary elections.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who would be Phelan’s counterpart in the Senate, has not publicly commented. Among the state’s top officials, Patrick is the most aligned with the activists criticizing Phelan and his Senate has often been at odds with the House’s bipartisan approach.
“The reality is you gotta have someone with the moxie to stand up to the Senate and the lieutenant governor,” Canales said. “There’s no question in my mind [Phelan] has that capacity. He’s not somebody with a weak personality and not someone who’s gonna get pushed around.”
Back-to-basics session
Lawmakers in both parties say the focus of the session will be on balancing the budget, dealing with COVID-19, health care, funding public schools and redistricting.
“I don’t think this is a session for a lot of distractions,” Holland said. “We need to focus on blocking and tackling.”
Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, said his party hopes to avoid “divisive partisan” issues. He said Phelan is “professional and serious about the issues” that face Texas and has always been willing to talk with him about political differences.
“I’m confident he’s going to be someone who wants to involve every member of the House in dealing with the serious challenges we face and we want to work with him to make next session as successful as possible,” he said.
Still, Democrats know that they will be on defense on local control and social issues that an emboldened Republican majority will pursue with more vigor.
Like his predecessor, Phelan will have to navigate those landmines which could potentially blow up a legislative session that is crucial to the state’s recovery.
Leach said it will be up to lawmakers to decide how much bipartisan work they can get done. He said Republicans will work to deliver “bold conservative common-sense victories for Texans.”
“But it’s up to every member how they want to treat other members. How unifying or divisive they want to be,” he said. “We’ll have our debates and our disagreements and do so in front of the people of Texas but I think we’ll come together and get the work done. I know that’s what Dade Phelan is committed to.”
