SB: On social media, but apparently not in person, Lt. Gov. Patrick vents about Speaker Phelan while Abbott largely avoids the Texas Capitol
Okay, it’s probably time to clear the air about something that’s kind of important. As bill filing deadline approaches, the relationships between Texas’ top GOP leaders seems almost as nonexistent as ever. Gov. Greg Abbott , still not at the Texas Capitol very much, continues his school voucher roadshow in Bryan-College Station and Tyler this week while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vented about Speaker Dade Phelan on Twitter and Phelan unveiled more House priorities via a news release. Usually, when someone in a leadership position resorts to Twitter for their critique, it’s safe to say there’s almost no working relationship even if one previously existed. It appears that Abbott, Patrick, and Phelan didn’t even start the session by having weekly leadership breakfasts. Then-Speaker Dennis Bonnen in 2019, taking a swipe at his predecessor Speaker Joe Straus , said he was proud of the fact that the Big 3 had enjoyed a weekly breakfast meeting throughout the entire session. Straus had grown tired of the meetings as they became less productive during his last term in office. An old joke around here is that the first couple months of session are a time for relationships to be built so that they can later be burned to the ground. Now among top leadership, it seems there wouldn’t be much to set ablaze.
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Okay, it’s probably time to clear the air about something that’s kind of important.
As bill filing deadline approaches, the relationships between Texas’ top GOP leaders seems almost as nonexistent as ever.
Gov. Greg Abbott , still not at the Texas Capitol very much, continues his school voucher roadshow in Bryan-College Station and Tyler this week while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vented about Speaker Dade Phelan on Twitter and Phelan unveiled more House priorities via a news release.
Usually, when someone in a leadership position resorts to Twitter for their critique, it’s safe to say there’s almost no working relationship even if one previously existed.
It appears that Abbott, Patrick, and Phelan didn’t even start the session by having weekly leadership breakfasts. Then-Speaker Dennis Bonnen in 2019, taking a swipe at his predecessor Speaker Joe Straus , said he was proud of the fact that the Big 3 had enjoyed a weekly breakfast meeting throughout the entire session. Straus had grown tired of the meetings as they became less productive during his last term in office.
An old joke around here is that the first couple months of session are a time for relationships to be built so that they can later be burned to the ground. Now among top leadership, it seems there wouldn’t be much to set ablaze.
But it should be said that following the covid restrictions of 2021, rank and file members are now engaged in the kind of socializing that leads to a better environment for collaboration.
It was on Monday that Patrick fumed on social media about Phelan. It just wasn’t enough for Patrick to try to refute Phelan in their dueling presentations at the Texas Public Policy Foundation ’s “summit” last week. No, Patrick always needs the last word.
“Speaker Phelan said if a bill is good enough for the House, TPPF & (Donald) Trump , it should be good enough for the Senate,” Patrick began his tirade on Monday. “At CPAC , Trump supported school choice, ending gender modification, and stopping boys from playing girls' sports. “ Patrick said that’s “3 of my priority bills SB8 , SB14 & SB15 , so they should be good enough for the House.”
“Empowering Parental Rights – including School Choice, we will pass legislation to give parents more power to choose where their child attends school,” Patrick said. “Ending Child Gender Modification – we must end child gender modification in Texas and protect our children,” Patrick angrily typed, Trump style. And “Protecting Women’s College Sports – men should not be able to take away opportunities from women in sports,” Patrick pecked out on his phone. “We must ban this practice in public universities as we did in K-12.”
What Patrick may have missed about Phelan’s one-liner at the TPPF event is that Texas House leadership has little reason to be concerned with what Donald John Trump has to say about any legislation proposed during this session. You could be forgiven for forgetting that Trump, likely at the behest of Patrick who has often boasted of his close relationship with the 45 th president, has called Phelan a “RINO” who deserves a primary challenge. Trump lobbed his attacks at the speaker during Texas-OU weekend in 2021, so who had any time for that?
Trump was reacting to demands from Patrick, Ag Commissioner Sid Miller , former Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West , and others that the debate be reopened about the sweeping elections bill because it reduced voter fraud from felony to a misdemeanor. That was the policy preference of the bipartisan coalition of criminal justice reformers in the House. This year, Patrick has prioritized boosting it back up to a felony.
After nearly 8 months of Republican infighting over the shape of the elections bill – a struggle augmented by two Democratic quorum breaks – Phelan believed their work product signed into law by Abbott was sufficient.
But Trump, who had probably never even heard of Phelan, said he was "tired of Phelan's weak RINO (Republican in name only) leadership in the State House." "Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan is another Mitch McConnell ,” Trump said. “He is not fighting for the people of Texas. Speaker Phelan should immediately move the Forensic Audit bill, SB 47 by Senator (Paul) Bettencourt that passed out of the State Senate this week, to the floor," Trump demanded, pushing for another Patrick priority that year.
Trump’s demand also came with this threat: "If this doesn't pass soon, we look forward to seeing him in the Texas primary. It will get done one way, or the other!" Trump said. Despite the bluster, the bill wasn't even referred in the House.
And in Phelan’s district, the filing deadline to run against the speaker in the primary came and went without a single name on the ballot against him.