Democrats tweeted this out. They are celebrating selecting the Republican Speaker in Texas. Conservative Republican voters are not celebrating and for good reason. #txlege

I’m pretty sure @Burrows4TX is already hating his life when he sees these five guys at the back mic of the Texas House… @Toth_4_Texas @brianeharrison @NateSchatzline @AndyHopperTX @DavidLowe4Texas But Texas taxpayers love it.

It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now. There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee, @DavidCookTexas! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!

The @TexasGOP/@abrahamgeorge just sent this text out across the state, threatening to primary House Rs if the party’s lege priorities don’t pass. #txlege

Texas GOP releases the following statement regarding Representative Cody Harris’s criminal complaint about Chairman @abrahamgeorge.

Please join me in wishing @KenPaxtonTX a very Happy Birthday! 🎁🎂 #txlege

Texas fully funds our public schools. I've provided more funding for public education and teacher pay raises than any other Texas Governor in state history. Public education funding is at an all-time high of $85 BILLION per year. That's a 57% increase since 2015.

The Chinese Communist Party has no business owning a chemical company in Texas. I've just become aware of a potential dangerous situation in which a Chinese company, Wanhua Chemical Group, is trying to purchase a large chemical manufacturer. The company the Chinese are trying to purchase is Vencorex, a chemical company located in Freeport, Texas across from the largest integrated petrochemical manufacturing complex in the U.S. & Western Hemisphere (Dow Texas Operations)! 1). Here's an article that alerted me to the proposed sale: cgs-bd.com/article/24937/It%… 2). The proposed sale may also violate a law passed in 2021 which bans companies controlling or connected to individuals holding citizenship with the governments of China, Iran, North Korea, and/or Russia from connecting into Texas' critical infrastructure. Notably, the law defines "Critical infrastructure" to mean an electrical grid system, water treatment facility, communications system, critical cyber infrastructure, or *chemical facility.* statutes.capitol.texas.gov/D…

The people who screamed, stomped, and threatened to hold their breath until Republicans banned Democratic chairs... voted to NOT ban Democratic chairs. But he's mad at the ones who did vote to ban Democratic chairs. 🤔🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️😔

BREAKING: Reports say President Trump may designate Election Day as a national holiday, implement single-day voting, require paper ballots, and enforce voter ID requirements.

Tomorrow I’m casting my vote for @DavidCookTexas for MANY reasons. 1. @DavidCookTexas has managed to unify the majority of the Republican caucus regardless of past division & infighting, which is truly difficult to do. 2. @DavidCookTexas has agreed to all 12 points of the @ContractWithTX, which includes banning Dem Chairs, bringing transparency to the calendars committee, & redistributing the speaker’s power back to the members. 3. @DavidCookTexas has committed to passing all @TexasGOP priorities, as well as universal school choice, & he believes Texas public schools should lead the nation in educational outcomes. 4. @DavidCookTexas sought the support of every Republican member before he reached out to the Democrats. He has earned the @TXGOPCaucus nomination through the caucus process, which the Governor & Lt. Governor @DanPatrick have endorsed as the process by which we must elect a speaker. And he has the endorsement of @KenPaxtonTX, Texas GOP Chairman @abrahamgeorge, over 150 GOP County Chairmen, & the grassroots across Texas. 5. @DavidCookTexas is honest & has the character to bring integrity back to the Speaker’s office. He has not lied about his support, he did not take his ball and go home in the @TXGOPCaucus meeting, & he has taken the high road while being attacked, lied about, & slandered since this race began. He has committed to honoring & respecting every member so they can fight for their values & their district without retribution from the speaker’s chair. I believe he will extend that commitment even to those who do not vote for him, because that’s just who @DavidCookTexas is. Tomorrow I will proudly vote for @DavidCookTexas so we can REFORM THE TEXAS HOUSE! #txlege

BREAKING - A University of North Texas student is going viral for confronting classmates who were passing around a video of Charlie Kirk dying while laughing, and says the professor singled her out and asked her to leave class.

🚨🚨Unprecedented lawlessness from Democrat Chairman, who CUT MY MIC OFF when I objected to passing a $5 billion appropriation that was decided without any recording in VIOLATION of House rules! Texans, your House is out of control and Democrats are SECRETLY spending your taxes!

Five business partners control the operations of the Texas House: Dennis Bonnen, Greg Bonnen, Dustin Burrows, Cody Harris, and Dade Phelan. They are also business partners together in a bank. Many House members may not have known that and how their personal connection controls the House. There is nothing illegal about it. Texas legislators earn $600 a month. They need to make a living.   But collectively, these 5 have held the 3 most important positions in the Texas House for most of a decade: Texas House Speaker, House Appropriations Chair, and House Calendars Chair. These 3 positions control the Texas House. They pass around those positions to each other in a revolving door of power year after year. They run the House like it’s their own personal business.   Stated another way – the Texas House has become an oligarchy.   Together, they run a profitable Texas banking business. Together they decide what legislation lives and dies in the Texas House and how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent.   It’s a closed shop. There’s no power sharing in the Texas House unless you are with them. They treat members like employees, not like equally elected House members. These 5 are a non-criminal version of the “Goodfellas.” If you don’t support them, you are locked out and sometimes punished for not supporting them by getting bad committee assignments, having your bills killed or never even heard.   Why would so many members allow the same 5 to run over them year after year and box them out?   I’ve said many times I don’t care who the Republican Speaker is. Gov. Abbott and I have stated we support the caucus nominee. Burrows lost that race, and now the 5 are desperately trying to hold onto power. Not since 2019 have Texas House members had the opportunity to break free and elect their own Speaker. Republicans and Democrats have a clean shot at a new way of doing business. They can keep the “Goodfellas” in power or return power to themselves and the voters of their Districts. #txlege

Rep. @DavidCookTexas is challenging the current Speaker, @DadePhelan in the upcoming Texas House Speaker's race. Rep. @JaredLPatterson tells @cbs11jack his thoughts on the race. Full Eye on Politics: cbsn.ws/48ZWjmd

Cruz and the @TexasGOP are running ads hitting Allred over his votes on a number of things, including against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023”: thetexan.news/elections/2024…

I was honored to be invited to join President Trump. No person today is more prepared or more ready to bring back American prosperity than Donald Trump. He's the only person equipped to reverse the disaster that 4 years of Joe Biden has caused.

🚨 BREAKING: DALLAS GOP CHAIR AND PRECINCT CHAIRS ISSUE ULTIMATUM TO REPS. MEYER AND BUTTON 🚨 The @DallasGOP Chair @AllenWest along with 100 Dallas County Republican Party Precinct Chairs demand that @MorganMeyerTX and @AngieChenButton show public support for @DavidCookTexas for Speaker of the #TxLege House and oppose efforts to allow for a secret ballot, or they shall be subjected to a vote of censure with all applicable penalties imposed, campaigns against them, and recruitment efforts to replace them.

WATCH: Texas House Democrats are celebrating after new rules give them even more power than before #txlege

Congratulations to newly elected Senate Majority Leader, Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune). We look forward to seeing you support the Trump Administration. Best wishes for your success! 🎉

The @TexasGOP will be sending direct mail into #txlege districts of members who are backing @Burrows4TX’s speakership bid. One of the messages to a Rep from @abrahamgeorge:

Republican Texas House Speaker @Burrows4TX on RPT Chair @abrahamgeorge: “I don’t respond to him. He’s not worth responding to” #txlege

We MUST have a roll call, public vote for the Texas House Speaker election. Every member should be held accountable. RT IF YOU AGREE! #txlege

Texas Defense PAC (funded by Miriam Adelson) is up with this ad hitting @MattShaheen in his district. $300k buy to start. Shaheen is one of the most outspoken opponents of expanded gambling in the House. #txlege

Billionaires are trying to close our public schools with something called private school vouchers. They say it’ll help poor kids go to private schools. They call it “school choice.” It all sounds so noble. But vouchers are the biggest scam I’ve ever seen.

After much thought, prayer, and conversations with my family and friends, I have made the decision to switch to the Republican party. Our shared values here in South Texas — hard work, faith, family, and freedom — are no longer pillars in the Democrat party and I want to be part of a party that stands and protects those principles. Republicans made major gains in South Texas, including Donald Trump winning my county — not because our values have changed, but because the Radical Democrat Party's values did. I will continue to fight for what matters most in our community by supporting our oil and gas industry, securing our border, and keeping faith and family at the center of everything we do. I am committed to continuing to build a bright future for all South Texans.

State Representative @leachfortexas shows massive political courage in closing arguments in the impeachment trial of @KenPaxtonTX, whom he called a friend and mentor. tinyurl.com/Courageinpolitic…

Let me be clear: I worked this entire year to elect conservative candidates who will pass conservative laws, including school choice. To achieve that goal we need a Texas House Speaker chosen by a majority of Republicans in accordance with the Republican Caucus Rules.

A lot of people have asked me about the Harris-Abraham TEC complaint and "what happens next." Buckle up, I'll walk you through the craziness of the TEC's lack of due process. Understand, as things stand, this same thing could happen to any one of you, about any number of things. The TEC has jurisdiction over every Texan and their speech about candidates, campaigns, elections, legislation, you name it. So @CodyforTexas filed a complaint against @abrahamgeorge. It asks the TEC to do two things: (1) Initiate a civil investigation that would cost about a million in legal fees to fully defend, all over whether to impose a $5000 civil penalty; and (2) Refer the case to a district attorney to indict Abraham George and put him in prison for a minimum of two years. Both requests are handled through a secret, closed-door, combined civil/criminal process at the TEC, which is a body of legislative appointees split fifty-fifty between RINO Republicans and Democrats. The TEC's first step is to reach out to the accused to ask them to waive their right to receive notices by mail. The TEC is very concerned about the cost of having to mail notices to people who are in their gunsights. So they call and email and ask for a waiver of the respondent's rights. They ask to do everything by email. Most people agree because they assume they have to. This is how most people learn that they are being subject to the TEC's process. They are not provided with a lawyer to explain this stuff. And quite frankly, there's only a small handful of lawyers who know anything about it. The TEC has five business days to decide whether to accept jurisdiction of the complaint. To be clear, I think the legal theory here is so insane that they probably won't accept it. But the TEC is also insane, so I'm occasionally surprised when they plunge headlong into cases based on crazy legal theories. (For example, I was surprised when the TEC accepted jurisdiction over a complaint against one of my clients because an attendee at her fundraiser tipped a musician who was performing $20 and she allegedly failed to report the tip as a political contribution. I'm not kidding.) The jurisdiction decision will be made by a single career bureaucrat with a hard-Democrat voting history named – I kid you not – John Johnson. If the TEC decides the complaint doesn't state a violation, they will send notice to Cody Harris and will invite him to amend his complaint and try a second or third time. Rinse and repeat until he comes up with a cockamamie theory that the TEC thinks sticks. If John Johnson (the hard Democrat) decides that he agrees with Cody Harris that the Republican Party Chairman telling Republicans to vote for the Republican nominee is a second degree felony, the TEC will open an investigation. To be clear, John and his cohorts at the TEC claim to have no prosecutorial discretion. If the Harris complaint states facts that, if true, would be an offense—in their opinion—they believe they MUST start an investigation. Abraham George would then be given 10-25 business days to file a response to the TEC complaint. He's required to raise all jurisdictional challenges immediately in that response. But that doesn't really matter, because the TEC has never approved a jurisdictional or constitutional challenge. This answer is not expected to be a general denial. He will be expected to substantively explain why he is innocent, or to plea for mercy. Filing a general denial, like any lawyer would in any court, is viewed as non-cooperation. We'll get at that in a moment. After he files his answer, the TEC will send Chairman George a bunch of written questions about the case. He is REQUIRED to answer these questions. If he doesn't answer the questions, the TEC has granted itself the authority to impose a fine of up to $5,000 for inadequately answering the questions. After they get through the "you must incriminate yourself" part of the interrogation, the TEC will typically offer to settle the case for a hefty fine. If George refuses to pay a fine, or pleads his innocence, a "preliminary review hearing" will be scheduled in Austin. It will be held behind closed doors, in the bowels of the Capitol. Typically the TEC will subpoena only one witness – the accused. The TEC staff will argue their case to the eight TEC commissioners, and then they will call George as their only witness. They will demand that he testify against himself in the matter. Since this is the state party chairman, he'll have a lawyer, unlike 90% of those who are dragged in front of the TEC. That lawyer will advise George that he is still subject to referral for criminal prosecution at any time, and that anything he says, even in his own defense, can only be used against him. So he'll probably invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. If he does, the TEC will make a civil finding against him. They will find that his invocation of the Fifth Amendment is evidence of his guilt, for civil purposes. If they find there is sufficient evidence (including their finding based on Fifth Amendment invocation), they will order that the investigation/prosecution proceed to a "formal hearing" which will repeat this whole process, except this time in front of cameras. But get this, even if they find that there's NOT enough evidence to know whether a violation has occurred, they STILL can order the formal hearing. So the preliminary review hearing is really just kind of a secret test run on the real trial, to be conducted later. At this point, they will offer the accused a deal. Settle today for about half of the possible total penalty, maybe even a quarter or ten percent, and the whole process ends. About 99% of people accused before the TEC choose this very reasonable option. For a fine like $1,000, they can end the nightmare, and stop paying a lawyer vast sums to defend them in this process. But settling the civil case doesn't mean the criminal referral is off the table. The TEC could impose the civil penalty, and still vote to send the case to a criminal prosecutor. In fact, there will be a perception if the accused settles that they "confessed" and that "confession" might be used as evidence of guilt to call for criminal proceedings. But if at this point, Abraham George wants to continue to protest his innocence, he would need to turn down the TEC's offer. The TEC will then start to prepare for a formal hearing. To do that, they'll likely vote to issue subpoenas to investigate all facets of George's life, fishing for evidence. These subpoenas and pre-hearing motions about them can indefinitely delay the case from going to a formal hearing, even for years. Each time George objects to a subpoena, he'll have to go back in front of the very same eight-person tribunal that issued them in order to ask them to quash their own demand. Of course, they will overrule his objections. And they have granted themselves authority to fine George up to $5,000 per order that they deem him to violate. There are no limits on these penalties. Eventually the TEC will schedule a formal hearing on the Harris complaint, probably years in the future. They'll set a time limit on the hearing. So unlike a real trial, that might go on for days, this one will be heard and disposed of in hours. The TEC are busy people and they're not going to give the accused more than a few hours of their time. At the formal hearing, the same TEC commissioners who have heard this case before at the preliminary review stage will hear the same evidence and argument from their own staff that they've seen several times before. At the conclusion, they will affirm their prior decisions. No one has ever "won" a formal hearing. They will again call George, the accused, to the stand and demand that he testify against himself. In a public humiliation ritual, they will subject him to a litany of questions, and force him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to each question. They will make a civil finding against him if he does so. Liberal media will crow about how the GOP chairman "plead the fifth." After the formal hearing is over, they can vote to issue findings and an order fining Abraham George $5,000 per offense, or "three times the amount that is at issue" (whatever that means) plus impose fines for his non-cooperation with their orders and for failing to adequately answer their written questions. Typical fines for non-cooperation are $2,500 but there are no limits. The TEC has claimed authority to issue fines totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in recent years has started to issue fines in the tens of thousands. If at any point in this process Chairman George decides this process is abusive and unfair and refuses to show up, the TEC has granted itself authority by rule to impose a default civil judgement against him. At the end of the process, and hypothetically at any point during the investigation, the TEC can vote to refer this matter to a district attorney to pursue a criminal indictment. But even if they do that, they can continue on with their civil prosecution. It's not an either-or proposition. If they make such a referral (and thanks to our court of criminal appeals, ONLY if they make such a referral), then the prosecutor could take the case before a grand jury, seek an indictment, and if he obtains one, have George arrested and prosecuted and ultimately imprisoned for no less than two years. If that happened, George would not just be deprived of his liberty, he would be disenfranchised from voting, stripped of his second amendment rights, blocked from many professional licenses, separated from his family, and locked in a cage. Meanwhile, the TEC's civil finding against him would become final and unappealable within 30 business days if he does not hire a lawyer at his own expense to file a "trial de novo" in a Texas district court. There, the procedure gets even more confusing, believe it or not. The TEC will officially have the burden to prove its case "de novo" in the trial court. However, because George is the plaintiff who files the case, the TEC will claim that it is the defendant, and that it is not required to file a petition or otherwise plead its case. It will actually file an answer, including a general denial. The TEC will paradoxically demand that George prove his own innocence, and if he attempts to have their case against him dismissed, they will argue that he is "attempting to dismiss his own appeal." Ultimately, they will go through a full civil case. Nine months of discovery. A full jury trial. They will seek to affirm their penalties, and maybe seek even more. This process can be the subject of appeals, possibly multiple appeals, that can take years on top of the initial trial. If Chairman George wins at any point, his "win" is only that this insane nightmare is over. He never gets his time or attorneys' fees back. The TEC litigates against him at taxpayers' expense, while he would be required to fund his own defense, regardless of the cost. This has happened before. It could repeat here. And it could happen to you. And this is why we must end the Texas Ethics Commission's abuse of everyday Texans who simply want to speak out about their own government.