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Good morning,

Here is the Texas Minute for Monday, November 7, 2022.

– Brandon Waltens

Even though election day is tomorrow for the November general day, a different race has just begun for who will lead the Texas House of Representatives.

On Friday, State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington) filed to challenge [[link removed]] incumbent Speaker Dade Phelan.

Indeed, the Speaker of the House wields a great amount of power and influence over what legislation ultimately gets enacted and which gets thrown to the wayside.

But what exactly is the Speaker of the House? And how is the position filled? On paper, the speaker of the house is just an administrator tasked with keeping order in the lower chamber of the Texas Legislature. In reality, the speaker has an incredibly powerful position and sets the agenda for the state House.

Perhaps the greatest example of the speaker’s power is that they name committees and appoint committee chairs. They can also apply pressure by forcing votes in certain directions.

Similarly, a Republican speaker who doesn’t want a piece of conservative legislation to pass could refer a bill to a committee led by a Democrat, which would nearly guarantee its demise. (Remember: the speaker appoints the committee chairs.)

When voters go to the polls, they have the opportunity to elect the lieutenant governor, who serves as the president of the Texas Senate. In the Texas House, however, leadership is chosen by the members themselves—not directly by the voters. Additionally, unlike Washington DC, the speaker of the house must be a sitting member of the Texas House.

Choosing the speaker of the house is one of the first orders of business when a new legislature is sworn in, though campaigns for the position begin long before then. Despite Republicans holding a majority in the chamber, all recent speakers have used Democrat support to secure the position.

When the current Speaker Dade Phelan was elected in 2021, for example, only two members voted against him (State Reps. Jeff Cason and Bryan Slaton). When Dennis Bonnen was elected to the position in 2019, the vote was unanimous. When the Legislature reconvenes in January, Phelan won't be unchallenged. State Rep. Tony Tinderholt says he is running for the position after being concerned by a lack of movement on the Republican Party’s legislative priorities with Phelan at the helm.

An issue expected to be at the forefront of the campaign is the current practice of awarding chairmanships to Democrat members. Ending the practice of putting Democrats in leadership positions is a priority for the Texas GOP, one that over 80 percent of Republican voters agreed upon.

Phelan, however, has been supportive of the practice. And when a rule change was proposed to ban giving chairmanships [[link removed]] to the minority party last year, Tinderholt was one of only a handful of Republican members to vote for the measure.

The vote for speaker of the House is expected to take place when the state Legislature convenes on January 10, 2023.

🔒 Donate to Texas Scorecard 🔒 [[link removed]] Number of the Day

64 Days

Until the start of the Texas 88th Legislative Session.

[Source: Texas Legislative Calendar]

Today in History

On November 7, 1874, the Republican Party of the U.S. was first symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

Quote-Unquote

“If we are too weak to take charge of our own morality, we shall not be strong enough to take charge of our own liberty.”

– Calvin Coolidge​

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Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.

U.S. Senator [[link removed]]

John Cornyn (R)

(202) 224-2934

U.S. Senator [[link removed]]

Ted Cruz (R)

(202) 224-5922

Governor of Texas [[link removed]]

Greg Abbott (R)

(512) 463-2000

Lt. Governor [[link removed]]

Dan Patrick (R)

(512) 463-0001

State Board of Education [[link removed]], District

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U.S. House [[link removed]], District

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Texas Senate [[link removed]], District

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Texas House [[link removed]], District

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Speaker of the Texas House

Dade Phelan (R)

(512) 463-1000

We don’t include politicians’ email addresses, because email is generally an inefficient way to communicate with elected officials due to volume and spam. We recommend sending a postcard or letter to their mailing address, or calling their office.

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Produced by Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens, the Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is delivered weekday mornings (though we'll take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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