Attorney General Ken Paxton will be trying to give a game-changing boost to a Republican lawmaker who voted to impeach him when he teams up with state GOP Chair Abraham George on Monday for the first stop on a statewide tour that designed to derail State Rep. Dustin Burrows' bid for speaker in the Texas House.
Paxton and George were slated to appear together at noon today at the Tarrant County GOP headquarters in Fort Worth where they planned to decry Burrows' push to assemble a bipartisan coalition of colleagues between now and the leadership election on opening day of the regular session next week.
"Let’s talk about The Texas Speaker race," Paxton said in a post on X this morning. " It’s time for The Texas House to stop cutting deals with The Democrats TODAY! Texans deserve to know the truth."
Paxton declined to mention that State Rep. David Cook would be the chief beneficiary of his intervention in the House leadership fight as a Mansfield Republican who claimed the GOP caucus endorsement for speaker a month ago when he defeated Burrows by six votes at a private meeting in Austin.
Cook was one of 60 House Republicans who supported Paxton's impeachment on the final weekend of the regular session in 2023. Fifteen of the Republicans who are pledged to Cook in the competition for speaker voted to effectively kill the three-time elected attorney general's political career in the impeachment saga that culminated with Paxton's acquittal on corruption charges in the Texas Senate.
"Incumbents who made similar ill-fated decisions two years ago, including wrongfully attempt to impeach me, are not returning this legislative session," Paxton said. "Take this as a warning. If you're making deals with Democrats to block a Republican majority-elected speaker, expect a primary challenge. Texans deserve leadership that reflects their values. There is still time for these incumbents to make the right decision."
Paxton plans to make stops in Tyler on Monday afternoon before appearing in Leander and The Woodlands in an attempt to pressure eight targeted representatives into bolting from Burrows' camp so they can vote in the speaker's race for a candidate who's backed by a majority of the House's 88 Republicans.
Paxton said he and the state party boss will focus on State Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth and Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake along with incoming House Republican John McQueeney of Fort Worth at the first stop today. The anti-Burrows duo will be shifting sights to State Reps. Jay Dean of Longview, Cody Harris of Palestine and Cole Hefner of Mount Pleasant at an appearance at the Holiday Inn in Tyler tonight.
The AG expects to call out State Reps. Terry Wilson of Georgetown and Will Metcalf of Conroe during stops on Tuesday at the Kecseg Training Room in Leander and the Woodlands Bible Church in The Woodlands respectively.
Cook would still be short by a dozen votes if he and George managed to scare the eight aforementioned Republicans from backing Burrows for speaker in the vote on the floor eight days from now. But Cook - possibly unbeknownst to Paxton - has been trying to make deals with Democrats behind the scenes for support that he knows he can't win without barring an exodus from Burrows' corner before the election.
more to come ...
