As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives continue to squabble over who should be the next speaker, Democrats are making appeals to holdouts refusing to back Jim Jordan, the current GOP nominee for the position.
Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would love to peel off enough Republicans to get the nod himself, but that’s not likely to happen, as any Republican who supports him would almost certainly get kicked out of office during the next election. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility, though, especially if a handful of Republicans elected from Democrat-leaning districts were inclined to switch parties and promised influential committee posts.
What is a real possibility, though, is the nomination of a bipartisan “consensus” candidate who would be willing to work with Democrats to pass their legislative priorities and stifle conservative agenda items. In fact, there have been calls in recent days to expand interim Speaker Patrick McHenry’s (R-North Carolina) powers to push through spending bills and an aid package to Israel.
McHenry was selected by McCarthy to be the speaker pro tempore, and he has been the acting speaker since McCarthy’s ouster over two weeks ago. Democrats have indicated McHenry is one of the Republicans “respected on our side of the aisle.”
If Republicans in the U.S. House are thinking about taking the consensus candidate route, they should look at Texas to see how well that works.
Texas is the largest Republican-led state in the country—a Democrat has not won a statewide election since 1990, and Republicans have held a state government trifecta since 2003—but it’s not the bastion of conservatism it has the reputation for.
Spending is out of control, E-Verify isn’t required for private employers, there’s nothing on the books prohibiting businesses from requiring their employees to get a vaccine, efforts to provide genuine school choice have been repeatedly stymied, and legislators only recently banned gender transition surgeries for children.
One of the main reasons for these legislative failures is that since 2009, with the exception of a two-year period between 2019 and 2021, a handful of Republicans have colluded with Democrats to choose the speaker of the Texas House, who in turn gives these members powerful committee chairmanships and works with them to quash conservative priorities. In fact, nine committees in the chamber are currently chaired by Democrats, making Texas one of the only states—if not the only one—in the country where members of the minority party are allowed to lead legislative committees. Unsurprisingly, bills favored by conservatives are dead on arrival if they’re assigned to one of these Democrat-led committees.
Joe Straus was the speaker from 2009 to 2019, and he chose not to run for reelection when the Texas House GOP Caucus signaled it would change its rules to require its members to select a candidate for speaker without interference from Democrats. Prior to leaving office, he was officially censured by the Republican Party of Texas for his record of consistently thwarting conservative initiatives.
Dennis Bonnen succeeded Straus as speaker by garnering the support of most Republican House members shortly after the 2018 election, but his tenure was cut short after prominent conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan revealed Bonnen had offered his organization media credentials in exchange for attacking his political opponents.
Dade Phelan came next, securing the speakership after actively courting Democrats, many of whom supported his bid on account of his opposition to legislation that threatened the LGBTQ agenda. Phelan shot down several attempts to ban gender transition surgeries for minors in 2021 before public pressure forced him to acquiesce to this moral imperative earlier this year.
Most notably, Phelan orchestrated the flawed impeachment of Ken Paxton, the state’s Trump-endorsed attorney general, for bogus corruption charges that were dismissed by the Texas Senate last month. Paxton has routinely battled the Biden administration in court over the president’s policies on immigration, free speech, vaccine mandates, and “gender identity,” and he fended off the Bush machine’s efforts to remove him from office in last year’s primary elections.
Following Paxton’s acquittal, calls for Phelan to resign came from several conservative lawmakers, the Texas Republican Party, and Donald Trump. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, who presided over Paxton’s trial in the state senate, has said Phelan is “undeserving of his leadership position.”
Last week, Phelan prohibited a conservative lawmaker from asking him questions about a motion to vacate the chair by citing a 2010 congressional precedent established by—get this—former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
You can’t ask for much more irony than that.
Texas history is clear. When it comes to picking a speaker, bipartisan “consensus” is a disaster.
Republicans in the U.S. House should take notice. Don’t be like Texas.
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