Speaker Burrows has an opportunity to be a conservative leader, to unite the Republican members around him in passing priority legislation, and to deliver a Texas House the voters are proud of. I hope he takes it.
Dustin Burrows is the speaker of the Texas House. He was elected by a majority of the chamber with a coalition composed mostly of Democrats.
I’ve served with Speaker Burrows for his entire tenure in the legislature. He knows that if he decides to run the Texas House as it’s been run the last several sessions, that will only lead to further turmoil and division in our party.
I don’t think Burrows wants to cut up his Republican caucus members, and we all know that what’s best for Texas is a united Republican effort to advance conservative policy.
But if I’m going to be honest, the current tensions between Republicans are at an all-time high.
At this point in the session, the atmosphere is worse than in the previous regimes of Straus, Bonnen or Phelan. Ultimately though, as I talk to my Republican colleagues, some who are with Dustin Burrows and some who have deep distrust of his leadership, one thing remains the same: they all agree we need to pass a significant amount of conservative policy this session.
Grassroots Texans are justifiably frustrated with how Burrows won his election and with the current pace and tenor of the Texas House. And they are tired of being told by so many of their Republican lawmakers “this was the most conservative session ever” while mainstream GOP priorities were allowed to die.
But Burrows is in a position where he has an opportunity to deliver and silence his critics. President Donald Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, and a lot of Republicans had doubts about his ability to win and govern. He proved all of them wrong by winning and compiling a more conservative record than any Republican president in over a hundred years.
Burrows can do the same if he is willing to prioritize conservative legislation.
I’m not talking about passing only Governor Abbott’s priority legislation and a handful of single bills on cultural topics to give those Republicans currently loyal to Burrows enough “red meat” to try and survive a primary challenge. I’m talking about allowing the Republican majority to actually advance and vote on Republican bills and significantly outpace past sessions.
Of course, I believe this can be much more easily accomplished if we begin to be more legislatively active. Long weekends are unhelpful, but the speaker can easily put his critics on the pace of the calendar to shame if he prioritizes and passes a wide array of conservative policies in March, April, and May.
One of the things I hear from some lawmakers is that the grassroots will “never be satisfied.” I think it’s easy to think that if you’re constantly having to defend a regime that is still empowering Democrats and still allowing property tax increases with only a small bullet-point list of conservative accomplishments. But these same voters are very satisfied with President Donald Trump. They support Gov. Greg Abbott. They support Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate.
Our voters are not irrational or unreasonable—they’re smart enough to know the House has been the problem in the past, but they will support the Texas House if we deliver the conservative legislation we promised. We must fight the Democrats and enable Republican members to advance conservative policy.
To reiterate the first paragraph, Speaker Burrows does have an opportunity to be a conservative leader, to unite the Republican members around him in passing priority legislation, and to deliver a Texas House the voters are proud of. I hope he takes it.
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