Rep. Matt Schaefer comments on Dade Phelan’s withdrawal from Texas House speakership

TYLER, Texas — Dade Phelan, incumbent speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, dropped his bid for a third term as House leader. 

On Saturday, House Republicans will meet in Austin to nominate a replacement for the coveted position. Joining them is East Texas Republican state representative Matt Schaefer (Dist. 6). He spoke to CBS19 in an exclusive interview, where he revealed his thoughts on Phelan’s decision to drop out of the race for speaker and the future of the house as he serves his last term as a state representative.

Amid several controversies concerning the current house speaker, including criticism over the handling of Ken Paxton’s impeachment and concerns from fellow Republicans about Phelan’s conservative values, Rep. Shaeffer says mem bers of the Republican party are ready to move on.

“Going forward, this allows a reform-minded speaker candidate to make some changes in the Texas House,” Shaeffer said. “And if you look at this group of freshmen that are coming in, they’re really focused on reforming the way the house runs and giving more power back to the individual members and not having power consolidated and centralized in the speaker’s office.”

In the 2025 legislative session, which begins next month, Schaefer hopes to see significant reforms in the House of Representatives under a new house speaker.

“I think the biggest issue is the process of how the house works itself,” Schaefer said. “That’s really what’s at stake here. The conservative legislative priorities that are out there — like border security and election integrity —  those things are going to be there regardless who is the speaker. But how much influence the more conservative members of the Texas House will have really depends upon these reforms that may or may not get implemented.”

Schaefer also voiced his concern on the amount of power the speaker seat holds.

“When you consolidate too much power in one person, in the speaker, that diminishes the influence of those members who are representing those millions of Texans,” Shaeffer said.

As for candidates, Schaefer said State Rep. David Cook, a Republican from Mansfield representing Dist. 96 is the man to beat, describing him as a reform-minded candidate. Republicans currently hold an 88-62 majority leading up to the 2025 legislative session — if a simple majority of 76 Republicans agree on a speaker candidate, House Democrats would be powerless to challenge them. 

Though Shaeffer is leaving the Texas House of Representatives, he said his work isn’t done yet. Pending future developments in statewide positions in 2025, Schaefer alluded to running for a Senate seat next year. 

“Many people think that some of the statewide positions will be coming open next year,” Schaefer said. “Perhaps Ken Paxton will not run for attorney general. He might run against John Cornyn, or might go do something else. It’s quite possible someone like Senator Brian Hughes might decide to run for higher office; if he did that, that would be an open seat here for East Texas. And if that’s the case, I will strongly consider running for state senate.”

CBS19 is available live and on-demand on your favorite TV streaming device, anytime from anywhere in the U.S.

The free CBS19+ app for Roku,Amazon Fire TV,Apple TV and smart TV devices features a 24/7 stream with the latest from CBS19.

In addition to the live stream, watch the latest from CBS19 on-demand, along with additional programming from our partners at TEGNA (like Verify, “Murder at My Door” and “In the News”) and Locked On Sports, plus special collections from CBS19 like Under the Lights, Hooked on East Texas and CBS19 Originals.

Add the free CBS19 channel by searching for CBS19 East Texas News in the Roku Channel Store on your device, or add the CBS19+ Roku channel using this link.

Search for the free CBS19+ app in the Amazon App Store directly on your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, or add the CBS19+ Fire TV app using this link.

Learn more about the free CBS19+ app in the Apple TV App Store and download directly from your Apple TV device.

The CBS19+ app is also now available directly on “smart” or “connected” televisions made by Samsung, LG and Philips, as well as televisions with Android TV. Search for CBS19 East Texas News in your television’s app store to add CBS19+.

The CBS19+ 24/7 stream can be viewed on any desktop or mobile web browser anytime on the Watch page here on cbs19.tv.