Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan Wins GOP Primary Runoff, Fending Off Anger Over Impeachment
HuffPost
Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan has won his primary runoff to survive a wave of party turbulence in America’s biggest red state.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas was out to save his job Tuesday in a GOP primary runoff that has put rifts within the party on display.
Gonzales, who has clashed with some of his hard-right colleagues in Washington and drawn a rebuke from the state party, is in a race against Brandon Herrera, a gun-rights YouTube creator with more than 3 million followers.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan survived a tough challenge and avoided an ouster that could have upended the Republican-controlled Legislature. Phelan angered conservatives for leading the 2023 impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was later acquitted in a Senate trial and then set out to remove those who voted against him.
A Gonzales loss, his supporters warn, would give Democrats an opening to flip a traditionally moderate district in November, while a change in Texas House leadership could push the state’s policymaking even further right.
Here’s a look at the key primary runoffs in Texas: