The former Republican state House Speaker in Texas, Dade Phelan, told reporters in Dallas that the national Republican Party is failing them and that candidates across the state are “freaking out.”
Texas Monthly reported on Wednesday that the man who ensured passage of some of the “most conservative bills in state history during his two-term speakership” is now a RINO, which stands for Republican in Name Only. It all goes back to Ken Paxton’s impeachment. Now, it turns out Phelan and others like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) were right to caution the party against Paxton.
To make things worse, as the Republican Party rushes to spend over $330 million on advertising in the state to prop up Paxton, Phelan said it’s doing nothing because no one cares about the few dozen transgender people in sports. They just want cheap gas.
He attended the Texas-Oklahoma football game last weekend, which Republicans use as a major fundraising opportunity. With rented-out suites, Phelan said he can stop by a few dozen events over the course of two hours.
“Especially this cycle, you need all the friends you can get,” said Phelan.
Texas Monthly agreed they were shocked by what they were seeing in the cycle.
“It’s real,” Phelan explained. “People are freaking out. You see it in their faces. There’s serious concern like I’ve never seen before.”
While he talked about the Hispanic vote shifting and the affordability crisis and various demographics that have changed, he confessed, “They were with us last cycle, and they’re not with us this cycle. We’re just not paying attention to the issues that matter.”
“We’re still running transgender ads. It’s just not resonating,” the former Speaker said. “$100 million in ads, $125 million in ads, and nothing’s moved the needle here in Texas in a month in the Senate race. Let’s be honest. The 8 to 10 percent of voters in the middle who are going to decide this election, when they hear stuff about boys in girls’ sports, they don’t even know what you’re talking about. This never happened in their communities, and they’ve been hearing about it for so many years, and so many other people have been accused of it. What Republicans are talking about is just not what the swing voter is really interested in.”
Texas Monthly wanted to know why Republicans are doubling and tripling down on this kind of messaging, and Phelan compared it to 2018 elections.
“But Texas is becoming a battleground state, and when people are spending $1,500, $2,000 a month on healthcare for their family, and we’re too afraid to even talk about healthcare, and we’re still talking about defund[ing] the police, which happened six years ago . . . I mean, we’ve got to catch up with the times,” he said.
Locally, he confessed that there are far too many state House seats that will be closed.
“People say eight Republican seats are at risk. I could see ten,” said Phelan.
“That doesn’t mean they’re all going to lose. But these suburbs are nasty. Nasty. Houston, DFW, Bexar County [San Antonio]—you can’t spend enough money to keep up. And if [James] Talarico wins this and gets the margin up to six or seven, it’s a bloodbath down [the] ballot. I don’t know how people survive,” he explained.
Even Phelan said he won’t be voting for Ken Paxton. He said he’s never voted for a Democrat and doesn’t intend to now. But he’ll leave the race blank instead of voting for Paxton.
“There’s not a world in which I can vote for a Ken Paxton. Knowing who he is and knowing his integrity, no. I just can’t do it. No whatsoever,” he added.