Patrick-Phelan feud roils Texas GOP
Some doubt they can restore a relationship
Just moments after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick used the words “dysfunction,” “negligence” and “stupidity” to describe Speaker Dade Phelan’s management of the Texas House, the Senate’s presiding officer denied there was acrimony between the top two Republican legislative leaders.
“I don’t dislike him personally,” Patrick told reporters about 90 minutes after the fourth special session ended with the two chambers unable to reach agreement on several education-related initiatives. “This is about the people affected. It’s not about Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan.”
But regardless of the state Senate president’s affection, or lack of thereof, for his House counterpart, Patrick went to great length to paint Phelan as unfit for high office and perhaps even unworthy to be called a Republican. And he urged Texans who plan to cast ballots in the GOP primary in three months to base their votes on whether GOP candidates for the state House would back Phelan for a third term as head of the chamber.
“If I’m a Republican primary voter, I’m asking every House member up for election, ‘Would you vote for Dade Phelan to be speaker again?’ ” Patrick said.
“If a member says, ‘Yes, I will,’ then I wouldn’t vote for that person.”
The remark capped a yearlong feud between the two GOP leaders who have clashed over whether indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton should have been removed from office, how to structure a record decrease in local property taxes and most recently whether the Legislature should have heeded Gov. Greg Abbott’s insistence that at least some tax money be made available to offset the cost of private school tuition.
The lieutenant governor’s term, his third, will last until after the 2026 gen
eral election. But the House speaker, who is chosen by the 150 members, can be ousted or retained at the beginning of every session. Patrick predicted continued House-Senate stalemate if Phelan is returned for a third two-year term.
Phelan’s press secretary, Kim Carmichael, in a statement dismissed Patrick’s criticism as political posturing.
“The House’s record and the facts speak for themselves,” Carmichael said. “The House is proud to have led on the issues of teacher pay and school safety by presenting more robust, permanent solutions, and it is unfortunate the Senate chose to kill those bills. The House remains focused on conducting business to the will of the people – not manipulating the legislative process for the sake of press conferences and cheap political talking points.”
Vanishing trust in House, Senate
Some Capitol insiders said they doubt Patrick and Phelan can ever restore a working relationship.
“Trust is the coin of the realm in legislative battles, and if the leaders don’t trust each other, it’s harder for them to accommodate for differences across the chambers,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor who keeps a watchful eye on the Legislature. “We have a situation now where there’s very little trust.”
Matt Mackowiak, a veteran Texas Republican foot soldier, said the GOP infighting ahead of the 2024 elections is not limited to the speaker and the lieutenant governor. But their high-profile fight does appear to be drawing the most attention.
“The relationship between House and Senate leaders appears irretrievably broken,” Mackowiak said. “And it’s clear that Patrick and Paxton want to use the primaries to defeat certain incumbents and to change House leadership next session.”
Paxton, who was impeached late in the 2023 regular session by the GOPdominated House and acquitted during a late summer trial in the Senate, has endorsed several primary opponents of the Republican House members who led the drive to remove him from office.
Infighting over vouchers
Abbott, too, has painted targets on the backs of at least five Republican House members who sided with the Democrats to drive a stake through the heart of his efforts to craft legislation for school choice, often called vouchers.
Patrick put the blame for the House killing the voucher plan squarely at the feet of the speaker, suggesting he was doing the outnumbered Democrats’ bidding in an effort to keep intact the coalition that lifted him to victory in his two races for speaker.
During the regular session and the special sessions that followed, Abbott and Patrick aggressively championed the voucher cause. Phelan did not openly advocate a plan, nor did he publicly oppose one. The Republican members who did oppose vouchers, many from rural parts of the state, said they were complying with the wishes of their constituents.
Patrick said Phelan should have put his own skin in the game as a signal to those hesitant Republicans.
“He wouldn’t even vote on school choice,” Patrick said, failing to note the House tradition that speakers rarely cast votes on bills.
GOP voters caught in the middle
Rottinghaus said that a Senate president such as Patrick making the speaker preference of House candidates a litmus test is also a departure from the norm in Texas politics.
“It was considered repugnant politically to campaign for or against ... members in the other chamber, but now it’s the norm,” he said. “That’s really different than it has been. The fighting has become much more public. And that means the voters are kind of in the middle. They have to decide which side they’re on.”
One Republican House member who is not seeking reelection next year is urging the GOP’s legislative leaders to cast aside their differences for the good of the state.
“Speaker Phelan and Lt. Gov Patrick,” state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Stop issuing statements to cast blame, point fingers, and make excuses for inaction. Instead, post a picture of the two of you sitting at a table together working it out. And don’t leave the table until the job is done.
“We don’t care who started the feud, or who really is at fault. We are simply sick of the bickering between you two being carried out in public. It’s embarrassing. Respectfully signed, every single Texan.”
The post was published well before Patrick’s news conference, but the lieutenant governor showed no indication that he would heed Schaefer’s advice. Instead, he repeated his call that Phelan give up the House gavel even before his current term is up.
“He needs to step up or step out,” Patrick said of the speaker.
“We don’t care who started the feud, or who really is at fault. We are simply sick of the bickering between you two being carried out in public. It’s embarrassing. Respectfully signed, every single Texan.”
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler