Watch: Texas House voting on new speaker, setting the stage for 2025 legislative session

In her statement switching her support for speaker to Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, Rep.-elect Caroline Fairly said that if Rep. John Smithee, joins her and the rest of the delegation from the Texas Panhandle, having a speaker from Lubbock “will give the Panhandle a level of influence we have never experienced before.”

Both Fairly and Smithee represent parts of Amarillo, which is north of Lubbock. But Smithee, a former speaker candidate himself, said he is still committed to supporting Rep. David Cook of Mansfield.

— Renzo Downey

Renzo Downey is the lead writer of our premier politics newsletter, The Blast, which delivers exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state. Subscribe today.

With barely an hour to go until the Legislature gavels in, a pair of Republicans switched their support to different speaker candidates in the day’s first sign of moving votes.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican who is backed by most of the chamber’s establishment GOP wing, picked up the support of incoming Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo. Fairly had previously backed Burrows’ rival for the speakership, Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, who is supported by the House’s rightmost faction.

Minutes after Fairly announced she had switched her allegiance, Cook reported that he had gained the support of Rep. Ryan Guillen. The Rio Grande City Republican had previously been in Burrows’ camp.

The vote switches effectively canceled each other out, leaving the candidates’ public vote tallies in the same position. Burrows previously said he had enough votes to secure the gavel, but a handful of lawmakers on his pledge list have said they were not committed to supporting him, leaving him short of the 76-vote majority threshold.

Cook, the House Republican Caucus’ endorsed candidate, remains just shy of 60 public supporters, all but one of them Republicans.

Fairly is the daughter of Amarillo businessman and GOP megadonor Alex Fairly, who announced in December he would spend $20 million to establish a new political group aimed at pushing the Legislature further to the right.

But while Alex Fairly at first suggested his group would support Cook — writing that members “should be strongly opposed to a minority band of Republicans teaming up with Democrats to cut a joint governing agreement” — he has since softened his tone, releasing a statement last week vowing that his group “will not use its funds to ‘primary’ any Member based on their vote in the Speaker election.”

— Jasper Scherer

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The next speaker of the Texas House will have to earn 76 votes in order to win the election, according to rules proposed Monday afternoon.

Historically, the rules for the speaker election have only required the winner to get a “majority of the votes cast.” That meant that if some members didn’t vote, someone could be elected speaker based on the number of people who did vote. However, this year’s proposal, House Resolution 1, would explicitly require that the winner get at least 76 votes, equivalent to a majority of all 150 members, regardless of how many members actually vote. Without the new language, members abstaining from the vote could allow someone to win a majority with fewer than 76 votes.

With such a hotly divided Republican caucus, Republicans say that will ensure a majority of members will elect the speaker.

Neither Rep. Dustin Burrows nor Rep. David Cook publicly have the support necessary to win 76 votes. If Republicans remain deadlocked, one side would have to court enough Democrats to hit the threshold.

Additionally, the proposal calls for a runoff between the top two vote-getters if no one hits 76 votes. The proposal also requires members’ votes to be recorded publicly. Both provisions have existed for decades. However, because someone must win at least 76 votes, this year’s measure calls for the head-to-head runoff to continue indefinitely, until someone hits that threshold.

— Renzo Downey

Renzo Downey is the lead writer of our premier politics newsletter, The Blast, which delivers exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state. Subscribe today.

Democrats aren’t expected to abstain from the speaker vote en masse, but with margins as tight as they are between the leading Republican candidates, it only takes a few Democrats to force a deadlock. Democratic Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos is also running, however, a majority of Democrats are already backing Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows.

Both Republican factions appear to be united in the rule requiring the winner to get at least 76 votes. Republican Reps. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi and Cody Vasut of Angleton filed HR 1, which lays out the rules for the speaker vote. Hunter has filed the rules for the speaker’s election for years and is backing Burrows. Vasut is supporting Cook.

Top Democrats are also happy with the rules, saying they wanted the 76-vote threshold.

That being said, members could still vote to change the proposed language when the House convenes.

— Renzo Downey

Renzo Downey is the lead writer of our premier politics newsletter, The Blast, which delivers exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state. Subscribe today.

A fiery Republican civil war culminates Tuesday with the vote to select a new House speaker — a decision that will have a dramatic impact on the direction of this year’s lawmaking and potentially the future of the Legislature.

Rep. David Cook of Mansfield represents the right wing of the party — Republicans who say current House leaders are too willing to compromise with and elevate Democrats. Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock represents the establishment wing of the party. He’s definitely conservative but is emblematic of a group that has worked with Democrats in the past and who believes in protecting the independence of the House against outside forces.

The acrimony between the two factions was stoked during a contentious 2023 legislative session when members were largely divided over whether they supported the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott‘s priority legislation to create a school voucher-like program, allowing public dollars to be used toward private schools.

Those votes paved the way for a brutal Republican primary with Paxton and Abbott waging war against sitting members over their disloyalty. And in recent months the venomous proxy war has played out ahead of the speaker race, with Paxton’s allies taking aim at Rep. Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who abandoned seeking another term leading the House amid fierce criticism over Paxton’s impeachment and the failure of vouchers in 2023.

— James Barragán

The debate over a school voucher program is expected to take center stage for much of this year’s regular session. Two years ago, Gov. Greg Abbott and conservative lawmakers failed to create such a program, which would allow parents to use public funds to subsidize private school tuition and other education-related expenses. But Abbott claims that he now has enough support in the Texas House to get voucher legislation passed.

Abbott has said he is committed to hiking public school funding and teacher pay as well, painting it as a false choice to suggest that “you can’t have both school choice and robust public schools.” Voucher critics, however, argue that such programs would funnel money away from public schools, further choking a system that is already facing widespread budget shortfalls from inflation and five years without a significant boost in state funding.

— Jasper Scherer

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Monday that lawmakers will have $194.6 billion in general revenue to fund state operations for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. That estimate reflects a 1.1% drop from the amount of funds available during the previous two-year budget period, when lawmakers were flush with a “once-in-a-lifetime” cash balance, Hegar said.

The estimated funds also includes $23.8 billion expected to be leftover from the 2024-25 biennium.

Hegar said lawmakers should make thoughtful financial decisions that focus on improving Texans’ lives.

“Despite positive economic numbers, many of our residents continue to feel the higher cost of groceries, housing and other necessities. And the lingering impacts of persistently rising prices mean many are struggling to ensure a bright future for their children,” Hegar said in a Monday statement accompanying the budget estimate.

— Pooja Salhotra