Republican voters in southeast Texas will settle a bitter primary battle over their party’s future on Tuesday involving the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dad Phelan against conservative activist David Covey, who is supported by former President Donald Trump.
Phelan angered his party’s right flank after he oversaw impeachment proceedings against Texas’ attorney general Ken Paxton, who campaigned on Covey’s behalf. Phelan and Covey advanced to a runoff after neither candidate reached 50% in the first primary in March.
Phelan is the most notable of eight Texas Republican House of Representatives lawmakers who were forced into a runoff after nine of them lost their primaries two months ago. Many were also targeted to defeat Paxton or Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott over opposition to his school voucher program, exposing deep rifts within the party in the traditionally Republican stronghold.
Phelan, who was first elected in 2014 and became speaker in 2021, has perhaps the most politically precarious job in Texas: House speakers must be chosen by their districts and by 150 members of the House of Representatives. Texas. That means a Republican like Phelan will have to convince both Democratic colleagues and conservative primary voters in his own district to re-elect him every two years.
His delicate balancing act in the House was upset last year when he oversaw the impeachment of Paxton on corruption charges. The impeachment and subsequent trial in which he served alongside the prosecutor set off widespread infighting within the Texas Republican Party and placed a target on him. The state House impeached Paxton, but the Senate refused to convict and remove him from office.
Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, has vowed revenge on those who tried to oust him, campaigning against Phelan and dozens of other incumbent Republicans ahead of this year’s primaries, while Texas’ old guard — including former governor Rick Perry – has expressed his support. from Phelan.
About $7 million has been spent in the State House district in 2023 and 2024, with Phelan’s campaign spending as much as $3 million, while Covey’s campaign has spent just over half of that.
Outside groups have tried to close the gap on Covey’s behalf: the Club for Growth has spent $1.1 million supporting Covey, while the School Freedom Fund has spent more than $376,000 on Phelan, who oversaw the House defeat of Delegates from the school voucher program that Abbott promoted. .
Meanwhile, Trump has turned up the pressure, touting Covey’s candidacy at the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas this month and noting his support on social media.
“David is leading very substantially against your Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Trump said at the NRA meeting. “We need to get your speaker out so we can commit voter fraud.”
If Phelan loses on Tuesday, “it tells you that Trump and [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick and Paxton control the Republican Party in Texas,” said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University near Dallas.
While the Texas Legislature has historically prided itself on being capable of bipartisanship, Jillson said Trump’s influence has caused the legislature to reflect a shift in the party that has taken place nationally.
“It really reflects the broader civil war of the Republican Party,” he added. “Texas politics and the Texas Legislature are rapidly moving toward Congress.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
