Texas House speaker survives challenge from Trump-backed candidate
The Republican speaker of the Texas House narrowly survived a primary challenge Tuesday from a candidate backed by former president Donald Trump and his in-state allies.
The speaker, Dade Phelan, was leading challenger David Covey by 366 votes when the Associated Press projected a Phelan victory. Covey is a former county party chair in the southeast Texas district.
“Tonight, I am immensely grateful to the voters of Southeast Texas, who have spoken loud and clear: in Southeast Texas, we set our own course—our community is not for sale, and our values are not up for auction,” Phelan said on X.
Covey conceded the race in a statement that accused Phelan of relying on Democrats to win.
Trump’s incursion into state-level politics was driven more by revenge than major policy differences.
Phelan has presided over a series of legislatives sessions since 2021 that have moved Texas even further to the right politically.
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But last year, Phelan upset Trump and his in-state allies when he oversaw the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on abuse-of-office charges. The state Senate acquitted Paxton, a Trump ally, after a trial months later — but Phelan remained in the crosshairs of Trump and his allies.
“If Trump doesn’t stick his nose into Texas politics, this is a done deal,” said Joe Evans, chair of the Jefferson County GOP. “That brought a lot of credibility and name ID to Mr. Covey, and a lot of people love Donald Trump. It is what it is.”
Trump’s campaigning against Phelan had been largely limited to social media posts.
“He’s bad, bad, bad for the Republican Party and democracy,” Trump said in a video posted Saturday on his Truth Social platform. “We need him beaten and beaten badly.”
The runoff had high stakes for the direction of the increasingly fractious GOP in Texas. Phelan’s supporters say he has been able to deliver long-sought conservative victories — like banning almost all abortions in Texas — while working to grow the party for the future.
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“This election is a decision about having power right now or remaining the party in power for the long haul,” said Jamie McWright, president of the Associated Republicans of Texas, which supports Phelan.
The runoff represented the climax of a Texas GOP civil war that long predates Paxton’s impeachment. In Texas, the House is known as more deliberative and bipartisan than the Senate, whose powerful presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is a close Trump ally and has endorsed Covey and donated at least $100,000 to his campaign.
“As lieutenant governor, I do not want to run the House, but I want a conservative Republican to be speaker who will run the House,” Patrick said Thursday at the Texas GOP convention in San Antonio.
Even Trump’s closing message was about more than Paxton’s impeachment. At Patrick’s urging, Trump previously took aim at Phelan over the House’s failure to advance legislation to allow more election audits in Texas after Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat.
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“[Phelan]’s really been bad at election theft and election interference,” Trump said in the Saturday video.
Phelan, who gently criticized Trump’s grasp on the GOP after the 2022 election, has said he is voting for Trump in November and shrugged off his involvement in the race. Phelan has pointed to a November 2023 interview where Trump said he was not personally familiar with Phelan.
“Any issue his camp may have with me is not personal,” Phelan said at a January campaign event. “This is coming solely from Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton, who do have a problem with me, because I’m going to do what’s best for the state of Texas … not what’s best for their own personal interests.”
Another top Texas Republican, Gov. Greg Abbott, has also been targeting fellow Republicans in the primary runoffs, working to unseat House members who thwarted his school voucher agenda last year. Most of the lawmakers he targeted lost outright in the March primary, and four more were in in runoffs Tuesday.
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Abbott declined to campaign for Phelan, who took a hands-off approach to the voucher proposal.
While Trump made multiple social media posts about the runoff, he did not visit the district to campaign for Covey, including during a trip to nearby Houston last week for a fundraiser.
The race saw $7.8 million in ad spending, including $4.8 million during the runoff, according to AdImpact.
Covey had the financial firepower of the far-right political network funded by Midland oil mogul Tim Dunn, who has spent the past decade seeking to push the House GOP majority to the right.
Phelan’s benefactors included a new group funded by Miriam Adelson, the widow of the late casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Their gaming empire, Las Vegas Sands, has been working since 2021 to legalize casinos in Texas, and Phelan has been supportive of legislation to let voters decide the issue.
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