Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder is calling on members of his party in the state House to drop their support of Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows, who won the gavel with mostly Democratic support last legislative session over an insurgent candidate favored by the hard-right.
In a nod to the wave of conservative policies Burrows subsequently green-lit, Scudder authored a resolution “condemning the Shameful Leadership of Speaker Dustin Burrows and Declaring No Future Democratic Support for His Speakership.” The measure was submitted in March to the Dallas County Democratic Party, Scudder’s home base, and is set to be considered by the broader state party at its convention next month.
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Burrows’ leadership, the proposal reads, “caused profound harm to millions of Texans across this vast state” and “stands in direct opposition to the Democratic values that define our party across Texas.”
“The Democratic members whose votes gave him the gavel must now acknowledge the consequences of that decision and must be held to account,” the resolution continues. “No Democratic vote should be cast for Dustin Burrows for Speaker of the Texas House in the next speaker election.”
Burrows won the speakership last year after a bitter power struggle within the Texas GOP, whose hardline faction had sought to shift the chamber further to the right and elevate a rival speaker candidate who vowed to strip all power from the House’s minority party. Most Democrats went for Burrows, who promised to protect the chamber’s independence and the minority party’s voice.
He then presided over perhaps the most conservative legislative session in modern Texas history, overseeing the passage of long-sought GOP priorities that had previously died in the House, including a school voucher program championed by Gov. Greg Abbott and a “bathroom bill” aimed at transgender people initially pushed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
In the resolution, Scudder faults Burrows for having “betrayed the very coalition that elevated him to power, weakened the independence of the Texas House and surrendered the authority of the speakership to the political agenda of” Abbott and Patrick. He also said Burrows “quickly discarded the bipartisan governing traditions that helped place him in power” when the GOP majority voted to ban Democrats from chairing committees.
The resolution does not mention repercussions for Democratic lawmakers who violate it. But the push could reverberate politically, by sharpening a question that has loomed since the Legislature gaveled out last summer: whether Burrows will still need Democratic votes to retain the speakership next session. Some of his initial skeptics on the right had come around by the time lawmakers departed Austin, raising the prospect that the Lubbock Republican had earned enough trust throughout the GOP caucus to win the gavel without Democrats.
Republicans currently hold an 88 to 62 majority in the Texas House, though potential gains by Democrats in November could eat into that margin and complicate the speaker election. Forty-nine Democrats joined a minority of Republicans to elevate Burrows last year; Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez-Ramos, D-Richardson, ran a protest campaign and won just 23 votes, all from her fellow Democrats.
Democrats have failed to cut into the GOP’s majority in the lower chamber since 2018, when they flipped a dozen seats on the coattails of Beto O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Sen. Ted Cruz and voters’ discontent with the Trump administration. Some Republicans have sounded the alarm about a possible repeat this November amid a parallel political climate.
In the resolution, Scudder cites a litany of Republican bills approved by the Legislature last year, including anti-abortion measures, the new congressional map redrawn to net the GOP up to five new seats, and a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs — including LGBTQ+ student clubs — in public K-12 schools.
Scudder is up for reelection next month to decide if he will lead the party into the critical fall midterms. He was elected interim chair by the party’s governing board after a 2024 election that proved disastrous for Texas Democrats. He faces three challengers to his position, including Monique Alcala, who served as executive director of the party from August 2023 until Scudder’s election, and Marco Orrantia, a former TDP staffer of the past decade.
Scudder did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Burrows.
The proposal, which has so far been adopted by the Bexar, Calhoun, Collin, Denton, and Rockwall county parties, reflects the simmering Democratic discontent over Burrows’ leadership, at least among the nexus of activists who make up the state party.
At the Texas Tribune Festival in November, House Democrats said they were keeping their options open for speaker in 2027 after backing Burrows under the belief that he was the lesser of two evils and would maintain the House’s tradition of bipartisanship and independence from the Senate. There is little upside for Democrats to declare their plans for the speaker vote this far out, given the potential for the midterms to scramble things — and the reality that they will have the most leverage by voting as a unified bloc.
House Republicans, meanwhile, have said their caucus has never been more united after successfully passing major conservative legislation and further marginalizing Democrats in the chamber. Beyond the ban on Democratic committee chairs, the chamber’s GOP majority approved stiffer penalties for lawmakers who participate in walkouts after Democrats fled the state to stall passage of the new congressional lines.
“While we may have some issues that we’ve got to squabble about, and we will, I believe we’re united. I don’t see that ending anytime soon,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said at the Texas Tribune Festival last fall.
Burrows, too, has projected confidence that Republicans will maintain their dominance in the House, despite the political headwinds that led Patrick last month to warn that Democrats could seize control of the lower chamber.
“We have to unite as Republicans,” Burrows said, alluding to the acrimonious primaries playing out at the time. “By the way, just be real clear: I’ve seen the numbers. We’re not going to lose the Texas House.”