AUSTIN, Texas — On the eve of the Texas House of Representatives’ election of Dustin Burrows to the House Speakership, leaders within the Texas Republican Party were pressuring lawmakers to select someone else entirely. They toyed with the idea of supporting election challengers to do so.
“Win or lose, we are going to have a great session, because when Governor Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and all of our statewides go out and say ‘we are going to have a conservative session,’ and the Texas House goes ‘no, we’re not going to do that,’ we’re going to have crazy primaries in 2026,” Texas GOP Chair Abraham George said in a party event in Leander in January. “And I would rather not spend any money against Republicans, but if that’s what it takes to get our House in order, that’s what we’re willing to do.”
Days later, after Burrows was selected, George deferred to the State Republican Executive Committee, the governing body of the Texas GOP, on how to proceed, given that Burrows had been elected by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats. Of the 85 votes for his speakership, 36 were Republicans and 49 were Democrats; the GOP’s pick, David Cook, had the support of 52 Republicans.
Since then, though the GOP has pressured Burrows to pass several conservative priorities, Burrows ultimately delivered most of them. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who openly voiced his opposition to Burrows’ candidacy, ultimately said his relationship with the Speaker was better this session than ever before.
“It was a very successful session for the Republican Party,” Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward’s University, said. “They put aside their differences that they had trying to elect a Speaker, and the Governor pretty much got every single thing he wanted, the same with the Lieutenant Governor.”
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The question remains of whether or not the Texas GOP will involve itself in selecting primary challengers for incumbent Republicans who supported Burrows. CBS Austin reached out to Chairman George via text message on Monday for a statement on the matter and did not hear back.
Though certainly out of the ordinary, such a method is not unprecedented: it’s well-documented that Governor Greg Abbott took such a route in the 2024 Republican primaries to replace incumbent Republicans with ones of his own liking that would support school vouchers. That method ultimately prevailed, delivering passage of Senate Bill 2, a bill creating an Education Savings Account initiative.
Still, Burrows’ conservative policy stance, his support of school vouchers, and his collaboration with the Senate and the Governor’s Office this session make the idea of primary challengers a difficult one to swallow for the Republican Party.
“The output of the session was really pretty conservative, and it gave the members of the Republican caucus, whether they were expecting it or not, a lot of good things to talk about when they go back home and when they run in Republican primaries next year,” James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said. “Dustin Burrows took care of the Republican members, whether they liked him or not, whether they wanted him to be Speaker or not. He delivered for them in political terms, in a way that’s going to make it very graceless for people to complain too much.”
In a Republican stronghold like Texas, much of the political fight is determined by the primaries, which take place on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Those elections will determine which candidate will take the Republican nomination on the November ticket, which are often all-but-assured Republican seats.
