Republicans in Texas are fighting about who should be the next speaker of the Texas House. Both legislators assert that they have the votes.
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Both Rep. David Cook and Rep. Dustin Burrows claim they have enough votes to become the next speaker of the Texas House.
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Cook is from Mansfield and has support from some conservative Republicans like Donald Trump Jr.
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Burrows is from Lubbock. He’s an ally of former speaker Dade Phelan and is backed by some North Texans like Jeff Leach and Jared Patterson.
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Both Rep. David Cook and Rep. Dustin Burrows claim they have enough votes to become the next speaker of the Texas House.
-
Cook is from Mansfield and has support from some conservative Republicans like Donald Trump Jr.
-
Burrows is from Lubbock. He’s an ally of former speaker Dade Phelan and is backed by some North Texans like Jeff Leach and Jared Patterson.
DallasRepublicans in Texas are fighting about who should be the next speaker of the Texas House. Both legislators assert that they have the votes.
Mansfield State Representative David Cook is one of those legislators.
In a straw vote on Saturday, he received the majority of Republican votes. However, that came after some Republicans left.
Cook and Lubbock’s Dustin Burrows now each claim to be the next speakers.
Texas House Speaker race: Cook nominated by Republicans; Burrows says he has enough votes
Both Dustin Burrows and David Cook are vying to be the Speaker of the Texas House.
When current Speaker Dade Phelan withdrew from the campaign on Friday, the backlash began. Then Burrows, an ally of Phelan, made the decision to run.
However, following a few secret votes on Saturday, Burrows and Cook were unable to secure the necessary number of votes to win the nomination.
After a group of Burrows supporters left, he said in a press conference that he had the backing of both Democrats and Republicans.
The issue is that some of the persons on his list of supporters withdrew their support after it was made public.
According to Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at SMU, the winner will demonstrate how conservative the legislation will be in 2025.
“I think definitely the question is whether the House is going to operate more or less the way the Senate does and whether it’s going to have a decidedly conservative flavor to it, as we’ve seen in the Texas Senate. If Cook wins, I think the Democratic Party’s chairmanships in the House would likely come to an end. And you will see an easier path for conservative legislation to the governor’s desk. If Burrows prevails, I think that once again, the House is going to be, in some ways, a check on or a roadblock to what the Senate wants to see done,” he said.
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A number of North Texas Republicans like Jeff Leach from Plano and Jared Patterson from Frisco back Burrows.
There is also outside pressure from people like Donald Trump Jr. to vote for Cook.
The official House vote is next month.
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FOX 4’s Steven Dial reviewed past news coverage and talked to SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson to gather information for this story.
FOX 4’s Steven Dial reviewed past news coverage and talked to SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson to gather information for this story.
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