Dustin Burrows says he has votes to be Texas House speaker

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In a stunning turn of events, state Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock announced Saturday evening that he had the necessary votes to become the next speaker of the Texas House.

“The speaker’s race is over,” he said in a news conference that lasted less than two minutes. “I have secured enough to be speaker of the House for the next session.”

Burrows released a list of 76 supporters — 38 Republicans and 38 Democrats. However, at least one member told the Tribune they should not be on the list, debasing Burrows’ claim to the necessary votes to be elected speaker.

That came just minutes after Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, Burrows’ main rival for the speaker’s gavel, had been declared the endorsed candidate by the House GOP Caucus by a vote of 48-14 after a contingent of Burrows’ supporters dramatically left the meeting after the two rivals had stalemated in the first two rounds.

All 88 GOP caucus members are tied by the group’s rules to vote for the endorsed candidate, which would help Cook surpass the 76-vote threshold in January to be elected speaker. But Burrows made his announcement surrounded by dozens of fellow Republican supporters indicating that those lawmakers were willing to go against the rules to back Burrows.

After the caucus meeting, Cook thanked the 62 members who remained “committed to the process” and stayed until the caucus chose a candidate. Additionally, he committed to unifying the caucus by working with those who walked.

“This is still a race,” Cook told reporters. “That was something obviously we were hoping for today. We were hopeful that the 88 Republicans in the Texas House Republican Caucus would come together and make a decision, to a unified decision, that unifies all Texas House Republicans so that the Texas House can move forward. So, no, it’s not over.”

Later, asked by the Tribune for his plan if Burrows puts out a list of 76 supporters, Cook said he would continue working with members to earn the majority.

After Burrows published a list of 76 bipartisan supporters, Cook published a list of 56 Republican supporters.

After the caucus meeting, Cook said the race was not over and he wanted to work with the 26 lawmakers who left to win over their support. Cook also said he was willing to talk to Democrats to earn their support.

The dueling claims of victory are a sign that the intraparty Republican war could continue into the next legislative session. On Saturday night, the Texas GOP put out a statement urging House Republicans to unite behind Cook and calling on other speaker candidates to drop out of the race.

House GOP Caucus Chairman Tom Oliverson, who withdrew his bid for speaker to support Cook, said he expected the group’s members to abide by its rules and vote for Cook. He said he agreed that the race was over but that it was Cook who was victorious.

“[Burrows] knows how that process works because he helped write that process” as former caucus chair, Oliverson said. “What has happened outside of the caucus meeting is very much what Joe Straus used to do and that is the reason why the rules were put in place.”

The speaker is elected by winning a simple majority — 76 of the chamber’s 150 members. But given Saturday’s contentious proceedings, Burrows’ supporters appear dug in to defy the caucus’ rules. That group must now rely on building a coalition with Democrats to put their own candidate in the speaker’s seat. Such a move would meet stark opposition from GOP activists who pressured the incumbent speaker, Dade Phelan, into leaving the race by emphasizing his bipartisan work with Democrats. Cook’s supporters, who call themselves “reformers,” say any new speaker candidate must commit to ending the appointment of Democratic chairs, among other conservative priorities.

Burrows launched an eleventh-hour bid for the speaker’s gavel late Thursday night after Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who is a Burrows ally, told lawmakers he would withdraw from the race.

Saturday’s vote was conducted by secure secret ballot, according to caucus rules.

At the endorsement meeting, candidates are allowed to have other members make nominating speeches for them. Reps. Matt Shaheen of Plano and James Frank of Wichita Falls spoke on behalf of Cook. Burrows gave his own nomination speech.

Neither candidate reached the required two-thirds threshold of support to win the endorsement in the first two rounds of voting. The threshold dropped to three-fifths in the third round, per caucus rules.

Burrows’ camp then requested a break to discuss their strategy before the third round. They said they were denied and abruptly left the meeting, throwing the proceedings into a scramble. However, Cook’s side said Burrows’ group left before the caucus had finished deciding whether to pause the action.

The caucus took a break until 3:45 p.m. before conducting the third round. When the remaining members reconvened, they voted to endorse Cook and then held a celebratory news conference.

Meanwhile, House Democrats had also been meeting throughout the day trying to line up support for Burrows who had made overtures to them. But the House Democratic Caucus could not get full agreement on backing Burrows. Instead, it released a statement saying its members were free to vote for anyone for speaker, except for Cook. Gene Wu, the Houston Democrat who this week was elected chair of the caucus, posted on social media that Burrows had not agreed to appoint Democrats as committee chairs.

Some Democrats remain staunchly opposed to Burrows.

On Thursday, Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos — a Richardson Democrat who chairs the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus and is running a long-shot bid for speaker herself — blasted Burrows on social media for “attacking local control” with his “anti-worker, billionaire-backed” bill last year.

Ramos said it was unfortunate to see Democrats supporting Burrows who had “targeted Texas families and communities.”

“Supporting a speaker who is not backed by his own party’s majority and and who seeks to appeal to Democrats by defending indefensible policies- policies that have allowed children to be slaughtered in schools, women to die without access to healthcare and public schools to close – repeats 25 years of submission to a leadership that has completely failed Texas families,” Ramos told The Texas Tribune.