Republicans in the Texas House could feud for weeks over whom to choose as the next speaker. But two Longview-area Republican lawmakers say they’re supporting the more conservative candidate for the post, though some of their constituents believe otherwise.
District 7 Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview, and District 5 Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, are among a contingent of GOP lawmakers who’ve drawn the ire of some conservatives and the state’s Republican leader for supporting Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock to be the next House leader rather than Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.
Also joining Dean and Hefner are District 8 Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, and District 1 Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston.
The race to replace outgoing Speaker Dade Phelan, who opted not to run again because of mounting pressure in his own party, has been a bitter contest and fomented intraparty fighting. Cook is the clear favorite of the state GOP Donald Trump Jr. and slightly more than half of the House Republican Caucus. However, Dean and Hefner said the vote to endorse Cook for the speakership was illegitimate and a symptom of a “broken” caucus process.
The speaker’s position is vital to the House’s operations and wields significant power to determine what bills do — and don’t — become law. Some East Texas conservatives say the next speaker shouldn’t appoint Democrats to chair House committees, a practice Phelan was criticized for. But the picture is bigger: They say they want a speaker who’ll champion conservative policies in 2025.
“The eight legislative priorities that the Republican Party of Texas put out are not hard, and they’re not unreasonable,” said Scott Stebbins, former chair of the Republican Party of Marion County. “And yet it seems like, every year, our legislators just ignore us. So, it’s time to call ‘em out.”
Dean and Hefner, however, said they won’t be swayed from voting for the candidate they believe will best serve their districts — and they, too, want to usher in conservative policies.
“Burrows is one that fights for conservative policy, whether it be in front of the cameras or off the cameras,” Hefner said. “I respect Rep. Cook. I like him as a person. He’s simply not as conservative. His track record is not as conservative.”
Weeks of controversyPhelan, R-Beaumont, announced Dec. 6 that he wouldn’t seek to retain the speakership. Phelan fell out of political favor with the state’s top Republicans because of his vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was acquitted in the Senate on charges of corruption that some said lacked evidence. Conservatives also criticized Phelan by saying he didn’t do enough to pass Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher plan, the Texas Tribune reported.
Cook mounted a challenge to Phelan’s speakership before Phelan announced he would step down. After Phelan did, Burrows — whose top donor is Phelan — announced that he was vying for the seat.
Republicans, who hold the majority in the House with 88 of its 150 seats, conducted their caucus meeting Dec. 7 to vote to endorse a candidate to be the next speaker. The caucus bylaws, which Burrows previously helped write, state that all caucus members should support whomever the caucus endorses and vote for that representative when the full House convenes in January.
A candidate must win two-thirds of the votes cast to receive the endorsement and must win 76 of the 150 votes in the House to become speaker.
But the unity the party’s bylaws call for hasn’t been realized.
The caucus conducted three votes to endorse a speaker, but neither Burrows nor Cook attained the required two-thirds majority in the first two rounds.
At that point, Burrows’ supporters requested a short recess to discuss what to do next, Dean said. The chairman of the caucus, Rep. Tom Oliverson, agreed to allow a 10-15 minute recess to take place in the meeting room. However, Cook’s supporters objected, Dean said.
That’s when members supporting Burrows left the room. The caucus conducted a third round of voting without them, and Cook won by a vote of 48-14. The caucus then hosted a news conference announcing him as the winner.
“The far-right, the haters, the people that love this chaos claim the majority of the caucus supports David Cook, and that was not the case,” Dean said.
Shortly after Cook was declared the winner, Burrows claimed he had the 76 votes necessary to win the speakership when the House convenes Jan. 14, the Texas Tribune reported. He released a list with the names of 38 Republicans and 38 Democrats who would support him, giving him the necessary 76 votes.
However, some of the lawmakers on Burrows’ list later told the Tribune they were backing Cook or hadn’t yet endorsed a candidate.
With weeks to go, both candidates are seeking to grow their support among House members. While some Republicans have criticized Burrows for openly courting House Democrats to gain their votes, Dean and Hefner said Cook, too, is working to win Democrats’ support.
“If people don’t think that Burrows and Cook are both courting and talking to Democrats for support to get to 76, I don’t know what else to tell them,” Dean said.
Who is most conservative?Though Burrows and Cook are Republicans, Cook has garnered the support of the state’s official Republican Party, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Trump Jr.
Abbott, without mentioning Cook by name, also tweeted that House Republicans should support the caucus’ choice for speaker, which is Cook.
More than 100 county Republican Party chairs also have signed a letter declaring their support for Cook, the right-leaning Texas Scorecard news website reported.
Though both Burrows and Cook have voted in favor of hallmark conservative legislation, the appointment of House Democrats to committee chair positions remains a large factor in the speaker’s race.
Cook has vowed to keep Democrats from chairing House committees — roles that have significant power over whether legislation advances out of committees or not, NBC 5 DFW reported. Burrows, however, has said the decision should be left to House members when they enact the chamber’s rules.
Burrows’ supporters already are feeling the wrath of the state GOP. Party leaders could attempt to censure Republicans who back Burrows and use a party rule to keep them from running as Republicans during the 2026 primary, according to the Tribune.
Dean and Hefner told the News-Journal they believe Burrows is the more conservative choice for speaker. Hefner cited Burrows’ work to lower property taxes, pass constitutional weapons carrying and restrict abortion.
“I think we’ll have more monumental, successful policy wins for conservatism with him as speaker,” Hefner said.
Dean said Burrows, a Lubbock native, understands rural ways of life, while Cook is from Dallas. Dean said he’s concerned about how Dallas leaders want to take water from East Texas, something he fought while he was mayor of Longview (though he didn’t say Cook has been involved in any such efforts).
Burrows has served in the House since 2015, and Cook has served since 2021. Dean said Burrows “has a much broader base of experience when it comes to understanding the workings of the processes of the House.”
“I have not always agreed with Dustin Burrows, quite frankly, but one thing he’s always been with me is very straightforward and honest,” Dean said. “And when we’ve disagreed, we’ve respectfully agreed to disagree.”
While Dean and Hefner said Burrows is more conservative than Cook, some political rankings seem to indicate otherwise.
In December 2023, the Texas Tribune ranked Cook the 37th most conservative member of the House out of 84 members based on his voting record. Conversely, Burrows was ranked 73rd most conservative out of 84 members. The Tribune noted, however, that “every Republican is significantly more conservative than every Democrat.”
The same rankings rated Dean as the 36th most conservative — one notch above Cook — and Hefner as the 13th most conservative House member.
Grassroots America, an East Texas-based conservative policy group, has its own rankings for state lawmakers based on their voting records. The organization states that Burrows “almost always opposes Republicans more than Democrats” when voting, while Cook “opposes some Republicans more than Democrats.” Burrows joins Democrats on 43.31% of contested, partisan votes, while Cook does so on 18.96% of those votes.
Like the Texas Tribune rankings, Grassroots America ranks Hefner as more conservative than Burrows, Cook and Dean, saying Hefner “opposes Democrats, not Republicans.” The site ranks Dean as more conservative than Burrows and about as conservative as Cook, as Dean “opposes some Republicans more than Democrats.”
Hefner said the past two legislative sessions have been the most conservative in Texas history — proof that Democrats aren’t in control despite concerns about Democratic chair positions.
“Anybody with half a brain knows that we had the most conservative sessions we’ve ever had, and they still call us liberal and all these things,” he said.
East Texans speak outStebbins, the former Marion County GOP chair, criticized Burrows’ supporters for walking out of the caucus meeting and failing to follow its rules.
“They don’t want to follow the rules,” he said. “So, they run to the Democrats to try to work with them, to get liberal policy passed.”
Stebbins also criticized Burrows’ vote to impeach Paxton and his voting record based on Grassroots America’s website.
“I think it’s very important for Republicans to understand that there is a faction of Republicans there that are in the House that don’t actually believe in Republican policies, but they run as Republicans because that’s what gets them elected in their district,” he said.
Stebbins also said the next speaker should end the practice of having Democrats serve in committee chair positions to prevent them from stalling key conservative legislation.
“It’s very important that the speaker chooses Republicans to lead a Republican House,” he said. “The state of Texas has set a clear mandate as being overwhelmingly Republican.”
Lee Lester, the former chair of the Harrison County Republican Party, said he wants Cook to be the next speaker rather than Burrows — but “neither one of them are ideal for conservatives.” Nevertheless, he said House Republicans should follow the caucus rules and support Cook. When Burrows’ supporters left the caucus meeting, they behaved in a “childish” way, he said.
“Rules are rules,” he said. “If you don’t like the rules, then vote to change the rules, but not when it’s just convenient.”
Lester also said some Republicans want to keep Democratic chairs in power so Democrats can be blamed for stalling legislation that Republicans themselves don’t want to pass, even though it might be a GOP priority.
“The speaker will send it over to a Democratic chair so he can say, ‘Well, the Democrats blocked that. I didn’t,’” Lester said. “That’s the game they play.”
Jeff Kroyer, Pct. 13 chair of the Republican Party of Harrison County, said the issue of Democratic chairs is only one facet of the speaker’s race. However, he agreed that Republicans like Phelan have used Democratic chairs as an excuse to block GOP priority legislation they don’t support.
“The difference is whether they support conservative principles and the legislative priorities of the Republican Party,” Kroyer said.
While the Legislature has passed some good legislation, Kroyer said there’s more work to be done to protect unborn children, protect public school children from pornographic material in libraries and advance school choice.
Stebbins, Lester and Kroyer all cited the results of the state GOP’s 2022 ballot propositions, where more than 80% of Republicans said the Legislature should stop giving Democrats committee chair positions.
Gregg County Republican Party Chair William McWhorter did not state whether he or the county party have chosen to support Burrows or Cook. In a statement to the News-Journal, he said party members will make a decision before the House votes in January.
“This is an incredibly important race, one that will help shape conservative policy and the direction the House moves on these issues,” he said. “We have a mandate to response to the concerns and direction voters have given through our elections and our recent convention.”
During a meeting Thursday night, Smith County Republicans approved a resolution urging area representatives to support Cook.
Upshur County GOP Chairman Carl Byers and Upshur-based political action committee East Texans for Liberty Executive Director Stacy McMahan, both of whom are in Hefner’s House district, did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Broken’ caucus processWhile Cook did win more votes than Burrows during the caucus meeting, Dean and Hefner said the caucus has “delegitimized” itself by failing to enforce all of its rules equally.
Some conservatives are upset that Burrows’ supporters aren’t following caucus rules by not voting for Cook, but other caucus members have violated caucus rules and gotten away with it, Dean said. Under caucus rules, Republicans aren’t allowed to campaign against other caucus members, but some campaigned against Phelan during his reelection campaign for his House seat this year.
Hefner and Dean also noted that Oliverson, the caucus chairman, was challenging Phelan for speaker but refused to step down from his position, even though he was in charge of distributing campaign funds to members.
“Several members within the caucus had announced that, if the caucus nominee didn’t meet their certain criteria, they pledged to violate the caucus bylaws again,” Hefner said. “The caucus process was already delegitimized by many in the caucus leading up to the caucus.”
Dean and Hefner said they don’t believe caucus bylaws require them to vote for the endorsed speaker candidate. The bylaws read that the endorsed speaker candidate “shall be the person whom the members of the caucus should vote in favor of.” However, the bylaws do not read that they must — or “shall” — vote in favor of that person, Dean and Hefner said.
Not backing downDespite pushback, Dean and Hefner said they’re firmly in support of Burrows.
“I’ve got the usual haters from the extremely far right that, if I was supporting Donald J. Trump who was running for speaker the Texas House, they’d hate on me anyway,” Dean said. “I’m never going to be the candidate of choice for them, but I’m not going to be intimidated or threatened with all that stuff, because my job is to represent the people of House District 7, and I always on every issue do my best to educate myself, to communicate with my constituents and make the best decisions.”
Hefner said that, while he doesn’t have a problem with Cook, Cook is “not the conservative reformer that some are setting him out to be.”
“I do believe [Burrows] has the votes to be speaker,” Hefner said. “I believe he will be speaker, and I’m proud to support him. And you know, we’re getting beat up a lot, and that’s OK. I don’t mind. I believe I’m right. I’m supporting the right person, and the session will prove that out.”
Dean said a fair amount of time remains until Jan. 14, when the Legislature convenes to elect its speaker. Another candidate could step forward — or one of the two present candidates could step down. That’s what Dean said he hopes to see.
“If we want to preserve the institution of the House, someone needs to be a statesman and say … ‘I gave it my best shot. I can’t get to the threshold I need to get to, so I’m going to withdraw, and I’m going to ask all my supporters to support A or B,’” Dean said.