Could Rick Perry’s Role As Phelan’s Advisor Cool Down GOP Tensions?

Former Gov. Rick Perry reportedly told Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to back off his attacks on Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan. Now that Perry works in Phelan’s team, it is possible that some Republicans will stop their attacks on the speaker.

According to Scott Braddock, editor at the Havey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, Republican sources said that Perry called Patrick during the primaries and told him he was going too far with the attacks on the speaker and that he needed to back off. Since the primaries, Patrick has regularly attacked Phelan on social media in every issue he can, but mostly for appointing a few Democrats as committee chairs and for supporting the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

Many Republicans have followed Patrick and Paxton’s lead, saying that Phelan is not conservative enough. However, now that Perry is Phelan’s senior advisor, Braddock said this could rally the fears of some Republicans who think they’re going to be targeted if they show support for Phelan

Perry, to this day, is the longest serving governor in Texas history and also worked as the secretary of energy in Trump’s administration –depicting him as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) is difficult.

Perry has also attended Phelan’s campaign events, saying that he too had Democratic chairs when he was Lieutenant Governor and that Republicans must go back to the time when they tried to work together instead of being in the middle of a civil war all the time.

According to Braddock, Perry and Patrick have had a friendly relationship, however, their conversation didn’t stop Patrick from attacking Phelan. Last week, Patrick even came out with a new term to attack Phelan, describing him as a RINORAD (Republican in name only, really a Democrat) on X/Twitter. Despite this, it is still possible that now that a high profile Republican works for Phelan, Patrick could calm down.