Burrows Summer Tour May Be More
About Re-Election Bid than GOP Unity
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
July 23, 2026
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows embarked this week on a 14-city swing that's designed to give as many as 40 fellow Republican representatives a boost for fall fights with Democrats for the sake of protecting the party's majority in the Capitol's west wing while testing out a provocative new battle cry.
One Party One Mission.
"From now until Election Day, I’m hitting the road across Texas to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Republicans who will carry this state forward," Burrows said on X. "The primary fights are behind us. What’s ahead is bigger than any one race: it’s about keeping Texas the state we’ve built it to be. That only happens if we show up united and support our nominees from the top of the ticket to the bottom."
But a closer look at the Burrows road trip itinerary could give some the impression that the chief unwritten reason for the pilgrimage is for the purpose of shoring up is own support for a re-election bid for the gavel in 2027 when Democrats who he rode to victory in his first race for the post are threatening to back someone else in January. No House speaker here has won the job in two dozen years of GOP rule without substantial support from the Democrats. But Burrows might have to rely exclusively on Republicans to keep the position as a consequence of the actions he's taken that have alienated the Democrats who he couldn't have won without in 2025.
The lion's share of Republican House members and candidates in open races in areas where Burrows plans to travel are running in districts that are out of the Democrats' reach barring a blue wave that makes the 2018 version look more like the tide in a swimming pool.
Less than a handful of House candidates are doing battle with Democrats in races that appear to be truly competitive in locations where the speaker has scheduled fundraising events in the final week of July and August. The incumbents facing serious challenges from Democrats in the places where Burrows is going are GOP State Reps. Janie Lopez of San Benito, Caroline Harris Davila of Round Rock and Mano DeAyala of Houston.
Two other House Republicans - State Reps. Jeff Leach of Allen and Keresa Richardson of McKinney - are seeking new terms in a pair of Collin County districts that the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has targeted along with 10 other Texas seats. But President Donald Trump won by 15 points on average in the Richardson and Leach districts in the northern outskirts of the Dallas area. So they appear to be relatively safe on paper in the absence of a tidal event of a record magnitude that it would take to put the GOP House majority in jeopardy.
Burrows kicked off the excursion on Monday in Allen. But he will back on August 26 for a "regional member event" for candidates in Collin and Denton counties where 10 House districts that Republicans are attempting to defend are based.
The speaker's tour will wrap up on August 27 in Bexar County where two of the most competitive general election battles for the Legislature's lower chamber are under way in districts with a pair of San Antonio Republicans - State Rep. Marc LaHood and open contest contender Jorge Borrego - are facing Democrats Zack Dunn and Kristian Carranza respectively. House District 121 where LaHood is seeking re-election for the first time is currently listed as a toss up on the Capitol Inside rankings for the midterm election in November.
But House District 118 where Borrego is the GOP nominee is ranked as leans Democrat at this point in a swath of the Alamo City where Colin Allred beat U.S. Senator Ted Cruz by 3 percentage points in 2024. Cruz defeated Allred by one-third of one percentage point two years ago in HD 118.
Cruz won by less than 3 points in House District 52 and House District 133 as well where Harris Davila and DeAyala are doing battle with Democrats in races that are both rated as toss up here. Burrows has Williamson County where HD 52 is located on the schedule for August 18. GOP State Rep. Terry Wilson of Georgetown is based in Williamson County as well. Harris Davila said in a post on X on Wednesday that Governor Greg Abbott will serve as the co-host for a fundraising reception on her behalf that day.
At least half of the incumbent House Republicans who live in locations on the speaker's One Party One Mission sojourn opposed Burrows in the leadership election at the start of the regular session in 2025. Burrows, as an example, has a "member event" set on Monday in Sherman in Grayson County where GOP State Rep. Shelley Luther of Tom Bean is a resident. Luther was one of 52 Republicans who voted for David Cook in the speaker's election last year.
LaHood, DeAyala, Harris Davila and numerous other GOP representatives on the Burrows summer tour stops backed Cook over Burrows in the leadership fight that he won with 85 votes. Cook, who's running for the Texas Senate this year, had 55 votes for speaker last year.
Republicans are favored to various degrees in all of the other races for House seats the GOP controls. Trump scored 79 percent of the 2024 vote in Luther's district. Trump claimed more than 75 percent of the vote in four of five House districts in the next three stops on the Burrows schedule with "member events" in Sherman, The Woodlands and Beaumont. Trump received 63 percent of the vote in House District 15 where Brad Bailey of The Woodlands is the GOP nominee in an open contest. But Trump surpassed 75 percent two years ago in two other House districts in Montgomery County where HD 15 is based. Trump garnered 79 percent of the vote in House District 21 where Beaumont's Ray Callas is the Republican on the ballot in an open race for a seat former Speaker Dade Phelan is giving up. Trump won by double digits in all but five House districts in areas where the speaker will be heading in the coming days or weeks.
Burrows wasn't always interested in uniting fellow Republicans. Republican Dennis Bonnen was the speaker in 2019 when he and Burrows were implicated in a secret targeting scheme aimed at eliminating GOP colleagues who'd defied them in the primary election the following year. Bonnen dropped a bid for re-election in the midst of a scandal that the plotting with Burrows ignited.
Burrows has a chance to become the first speaker in modern Texas history elected to the post without some level of support from the opposing party's members. That may be the only way he can win again barring a reconciliation with Democrats he alienated after they'd lifted him to victory in his first leadership bid. | 
