As speaker, Phelan oversaw passage of numerous conservative priorities, but he gave up the gavel under pressure from the far right over the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who oversaw a spate of conservative legislation and led the failed impeachment against a fellow Republican that revealed deeper divisions within the GOP, announced Thursday he will not seek reelection to the Legislature.
Phelan made the announcement in a social media post that included a video of Chuck Norris wishing Phelan “good luck in the next chapter of your life.” The former speaker said the video would be his final political ad for the state House.
“May God Bless the House and may God Bless the Great State of Texas,” Phelan wrote in the post.
Phelan, a real estate developer, was first elected to the state House in 2014. He served as speaker of the lower chamber from 2021 until 2025, when he gave up the gavel and was succeeded by one of his top lieutenants, Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock.
Though he narrowly survived a bruising primary challenge in 2024, Phelan dropped his bid for another term leading the House later that year, as he remained under siege from the right due to the lower chamber’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and its failure to pass a private school voucher program.
In his two terms as speaker, Phelan oversaw passage of a litany of conservative priorities, including allowing permitless carry of handguns, restricting transgender rights, testing the boundaries of Texas’ role in immigration enforcement and banning nearly all abortions statewide.
In a longer statement, Phelan said Thursday he decided to retire after reflecting with his family. He called serving Southeast Texas the “greatest privilege of my professional life.”
“Your confidence in me has been a profound responsibility, and I am thankful for the opportunity to represent our resilient community — one my family has called home for generations,” he wrote. “I am proud of the accomplishments we achieved together.”
Phelan earned the speaker’s gavel after three productive sessions in which he emerged from being a rookie lawmaker to a lieutenant of former Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who assigned him in 2019 as chair of the influential House State Affairs Committee, which tends to oversee the Legislature’s hot-button issues.
Phelan was elected speaker in 2021 with all but two votes when Bonnen retired after losing the chamber’s support in the wake of an intraparty warfare scandal.
But he did so with the backing of Democrats. While it was not as controversial at the time, some to the right of Phelan — who was regarded as middle-of-the-road ideologically — did not approve of his ascent, which proved to be a foreshadowing.
Still, his ascent continued. By the end of his first regular session overseeing the House, Democrats and Republicans alike praised Phelan following a session in which lawmakers passed gun and abortion laws that once might have been too fringe even for some Republicans.
Meanwhile, Phelan kept happy members of the minority party who felt he respected chamber rules and others who saw their priorities finally get through the finish line after years of trying. This included one lawmaker’s push to extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers — which Phelan added in his priority health care package.
Phelan continued riding high in 2023. By the end of the year, however, his entire career in politics would be called into question.
Despite delivering an unprecedented immigration law and other socially conservative priorities, the entire year was overshadowed by another move from Phelan’s House: An investigation and subsequent impeachment of Paxton, the state’s top civil lawyer who was accused of bribery and corruption.
After the House impeached Paxton, the Senate — which the state Constitution calls for holding the impeachment trial — acquitted the grassroots Republican standard-bearer on all charges. Paxon vowed retribution on Phelan.
And Phelan drew the ire of another top elected official: Gov. Greg Abbott, whose top priority of passing taxpayer-funded school vouchers failed in session after session in 2023.
By primary season, he was the number one enemy of Texas’ far-right.
But he remained confident, seeing a road to victory by reminding voters in his district — in which his family has deep roots — of all he had done in representing them.
“I look at some of the folks who don’t care for me; that’s fine. They have their own motives,” Phelan said in early 2024. “I have the support here in my district … none of that has changed. I have the support of my colleagues and that’s what matters to me. I can’t focus on the outside noise.”
Phelan was right, albeit barely. After becoming the first House Speaker in 52 years to be forced into a primary runoff, he won his seat in 2024 by 366-vote margin and vowed to once again preside over the lower chamber, telling supporters: “I will be your state rep for HD 21 and I will be your speaker for the Texas House in 2025.”
This time he was wrong.
Although he won his primary, 15 other House Republicans lost their seats — among them were his supporters ousted by challengers running on explicit pledges to oppose Phelan’s speakership.
Phelan abandoned his bid for the speakership a day before a December meeting where Republicans were going to pick their nominee for the gavel.
“Leading the House required tough choices,” Phelan said Thursday. “But I sought to chart a course inspired by the values we share in Southeast Texas: protecting our families, defending our liberties, and leading with independence, loyalty, integrity, and resolve.”
Burrows, his successor who similarly earned the gavel by courting the support of Democrats, praised Phelan on Thursday in response to his retirement announcement.
“Dade is more than a colleague — he is a treasure to Southeast Texas, to the Texas House, and to the great Lone Star State. His legacy of leadership, service, and friendship will live on long after he leaves the chamber,” Burrows wrote in a social media post. “When Dade Phelan retires, even the Texas Capitol dome tips its hat. Thank you Speaker Phelan for your service to our State.”
Phelan, for his part, listed a series of accomplishments he was proud to have secured for his district: new mental health and veterans affairs hospitals and higher education and port investments among them.
He did not rule out pursuing other public offices.
“Looking ahead, I will seek God’s path in mapping out my next chapter,” he wrote. “The future is bright for the Great State of Texas, and I remain committed to its promise.”
Source: Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune
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