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House Speaker Dade Phelan defeated former Orange County Republican Party chair David Covey in the GOP primary runoff for House District 21, a three-county district along the state’s border with Louisiana. Phelan racked up 12,813 to Covey’s 12,447, a margin of 50.7%-49.3%.
“This campaign’s been going on for like a year and a half now, and this may be the most expensive race in Texas legislative history,” Phelan told 12News at his watch party in Beaumont. “I mean, put that in perspective, and what they’re spending here in Southeast Texas to unelect me. They did not succeed.”
Covey thanked his own supporters at his watch party in Orange but did not speak to the press.
Phelan’s win marks a comeback for the incumbent. He came in a narrow second to Covey in the first round of the primary in March. His primary victory also came despite efforts by three Republican heavyweights on behalf of his opponent. Former President Donald Trump, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton all endorsed David Covey.
“He beat back an effort by two statewide elected officials and a former president and a likely nominee for president this year,” said Austin-based political consultant Bill Miller. “So, there were a lot of people wanting to kind of bring him down, and the fact that he won against that opposition is a real credit to him and to the effort that people made on his behalf.”
One of the main reasons Phelan drew so much opposition was because of the sense among other Republican leaders, and many Republican voters, that Phelan hadn’t done enough to support Governor Greg Abbott’s school voucher proposals when they reached the House during the regular and special sessions last year. Phelan’s win, “makes the governor’s school choice plan at least a little less likely to pass than it would be had Covey won the election,” said James Nelson, associate professor of political science at Lamar University. “Because of course, that was one of Covey’s key issues.”
Still, Phelan’s victory may not hold up the passage of school vouchers for long. Governor Abbott stayed neutral in the Phelan-Covey contest, but he poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of Republican challengers to other incumbent GOP lawmakers who opposed school vouchers last year. Most of those voucher opponents either declined to run again, lost in the first round of primary voting in March, or went down to defeat last night.
“The Texas Legislature now has enough votes to pass school choice,” Abbott said in a statement he released late Tuesday evening. “While we did not win every race we fought in, the overall message from this year’s primaries is clear: Texans want school choice. Opponents of school choice can no longer ignore the will of the people.”
County Commissioner Cary Erickson represents central Jefferson County. He’s convinced the main reason Phelan didn’t win the first round is because his supporters didn’t think he needed their votes. “I think people were complacent,” Erickson said. “They got used to seeing Dade Phelan’s name. They’ve known him for 10 years. They haven’t had to go out and vote for him because he’d been unopposed.”
While Covey drew endorsements from former president Donald Trump, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, Phelan benefitted from the endorsement of former governor Rick Perry. And while Covey drew support from several wealthy donors from both outside the district and outside Texas, Phelan substantially outraised him.
Since the Democrats did not field a candidate in the bright red district, Tuesday’s result means that Phelan will be going back to Austin in 2025. That’s good news for Golden Triangle residents who put a premium on Phelan’s delivery of bringing state aid home to the district.
“His biggest accomplishments he’s often bragged about on the campaign trail are getting aid for the ports in the area from the state of Texas, also getting the first mental and behavioral health hospital built in the area since the 1960s, as well as reducing the tuition charged by our local community colleges,” Nelson said. “He’s likely to face another primary challenge, so he’s going to want, going forward, to be able to brag about similar accomplishments, because that’s what helped him out this time.”
But while Phelan has cleared the last hurdle to a sixth term as HD 21’s state representative, that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed another term as speaker of the Texas House. He’s likely to face a more conservative Republican caucus next session.
At least one GOP rival has already declared he’ll challenge Phelan for the speaker’s gavel, State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress. Bill Miller expects others to enter the fight as well. “He’s going from one contested race right into another. That’s the way they should see it, and that’s the way it’s really going to happen,” Miller said. “We’ll probably see at least a couple other people throw their hats in the ring.”