Trump’s authority challenged in fierce battle in deeply conservative Texas

Texas Republicans are continuing to fight one another as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Attorney General Ken Paxton look to move the party further to the right.

Republican Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan has a deep political history of advocating and passing GOP-led bills, but his impeachment of Paxton (on accusations of bribery, dereliction of duty, and disregard of official duty) has angered the attorney general’s allies, including former President Donald Trump. Now Phelan is facing a primary challenger ahead of a runoff election on May 28.

Republican voters are set to decide whether Phelan, who has been speaker since 2021 and in the Texas House since 2015, or challenger David Covey will better suit them. It’s set to be the most expensive race in Texas legislative history, with $6.9 million spent so far on the candidates, per advertising analytics firm AdImpact.

Covey, who has received a critical endorsement from Trump, is a 34-year-old energy consultant and former congressional aide who has not previously sought elected office, according to Semafor.

“The establishment leaders told me I didn’t have a chance,” he said, “but the voters kept saying, ‘No, we actually want a conservative.’”

Phelan himself is quite conservative. In his time as speaker, he has passed legislation that effectively banned abortion in the state, let Texas police arrest illegal immigrants, and allowed Texans to carry guns without permits. His impeachment into Paxton, a Trump ally, however, sealed the deal for Trump.

“Texans are tired of Phelan’s weak RINO leadership in the State House,” Trump said.

“I have voted for President Trump twice, and I plan on voting for him a third time,” Phelan said in response. “Trump himself has stated he does not know me, nor does he know my record of fighting for southeast Texans. Unfortunately, my opponents have sought this endorsement in yet another attempt to get retribution against me for holding public officials accountable and defending the Texas House against outside interests.”

The election is going to be one test of many on how far a Trump endorsement can take a candidate in the face of an incumbent. Phelan has easily won his district for about a decade leading up to this battle.

Covey has received nearly half a million dollars from a new political action committee supported by oil billionaire Tim Dunn as well as close to a million dollars from the Club for Growth, an economic conservative organization. Phelan said PACs and wealthy donors backing Covey are lying about his position as a Republican.

“You wanna talk about the Second Amendment? You wanna talk about pro-life issues? You wanna talk about border security? You wanna talk about election integrity?” Phelan asked a crowd at a rally this week. “No one’s done more than Dade Phelan has. No one! Zero!”

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Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry came to Phelan’s defense at the rally. He asked voters in southeast Texas to think about why they would want to eject “the only speaker you’ve ever had.”

“If this was the most conservative session in Texas history, why are we going through this process to get rid of one of the three legs of that most conservative session?” Perry asked. “Something else is going on here.”