As the Texas Legislature convened on Tuesday for the first day of its 89th session, its halls were churning with activists in red shirts and buttons busing in from around the state to urge lawmakers to end the tradition of appointing Democrats to House committee chairs.
Many wore bright red shirts reading “BAN Democrat Chairs!” in the same shade as former President Donald Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” baseball caps, which also were in ample supply among activists on Tuesday. Others wore buttons to show their support for the movement while dressed more formally. All were united by that issue, a proxy for the fight for House speaker between Republican Rep. David Cook, the party-endorsed candidate who pledged to end committee chair positions for Democrats, and Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows, an ally of the previous House speaker who has not endorsed a position on the issue.
The campaign was coordinated by the Texas Conservative Coalition, often shortened to Texas Conservatives, which collaborated with numerous local Republican Party groups, churches, political action committees and advocacy groups to charter 14 buses from all corners of the state to advocate on that issue.
Conservatively, more than 700 people came to the Capitol on Tuesday to oppose Democratic committee chairs, a member of Texas Conservatives’s board of directors told RA News in a Wednesday phone call. The member asked to remain anonymous to avoid repercussions with the organization.
That’s a huge increase from bus-ins that Texas Conservatives organized last session. Tuesday’s showing brought more people to Austin in one day than across all 12 trips the group made combined in the 2023 legislative session, the Texas Scorecard reported.
Those numbers were evident on Tuesday. With restricted access to the House gallery on Tuesday, most members of the public had to watch livestreams in designated overflow rooms, including the Capitol Auditorium. By the time the House had begun the process of deciding the next speaker, the auditorium’s 350 seats were nearly all occupied.
The quantity of activists affected the energy of the room, too. As the nomination progressed and representatives gave four-minute speeches in support of their nominee, the audience in the auditorium became increasingly raucous — cheering loudly for speeches in support of Rep. Cook and booing and mocking speeches in favor of Rep. Burrows or Dallas Democratic Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos.
When Rep. Charlie Geren, a rural Republican who voted against a private school voucher program last session, endorsed Burrows during proceedings on Tuesday, viewers in the auditorium shouted “Baloney!” at the livestream screen. And when he said “This is our Texas” — emphasizing unity and cooperation across the aisle — several people in the auditorium retorted, “This is OUR Texas!”
Viewers in the auditorium also shouted down references to supporting the LGBTQ community and the use of Spanish. When Houston Democratic Rep. Jolanda “Jo” Jones switched to Spanish in the middle of her speech endorsing Ramos, many activists began snickering loudly. Later, when Rep. Ramos began her speech in Spanish, several shouted “English!” and “We’re in America!” at the screen.
And when Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced that Burrows formally won, the auditorium exploded in boos. After a lull, people began filing out of the room to discuss the results with compatriots and prepared to bus back home.
Other advocacy groups from around the state helped Texas Conservatives pull the project together. The Republican parties of Montgomery, Wise, Dallas, Henderson and Angelina counties all chartered buses as part of the influence campaign.
That’s because the elimination of Democratic committee chairs has become a cornerstone of the Republican party platform in Texas. Last year, a majority of incoming Republican representatives pledged only to vote for speaker candidates who would appoint Republicans to chair all House committees, with the support of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Now that the party has endorsed ending Democratic committee chairs, other conservative groups have followed, many of which were involved in organizing the bus-in. Gun Owners of America’s Texas division, the True Texas Project, My God Votes and Texas Gun Rights all helped to sponsor or partner in organizing Tuesday’s bus-in.
An informational website for the speaker issue and bus-in logistics, bandemocratchairsinfo.com, was paid for by the Cy-Fair 4 Liberty political action committee.
And another entity, Daniel Nation, partnered with Texas Conservatives for Tuesday’s demonstration, and is hosting its own weekly bus-ins. Daniel Nation is organized as a religious public benefit corporation, a new classification of for-profit corporations that Texas lawmakers established in 2017 for advocacy corporations.
Some of those sponsors also defrayed the costs of tickets. Round-trip tickets for the bus-in ranged from $25 to $65, according to the website, but the bus taking residents of Beaumont and Katy to the Capitol was free, sponsored by the Gun Owners of America’s Texas branch, which also included a free lunch and T-shirt.
As for the rest of the session, Burrows has not yet committed to a decision on whom he will appoint to committee chairs. With more Democrats voting to support him than Republicans — 49 from Democrats and 36 from Republicans — he will need to weigh his options carefully. He is expected to announce committee appointments next week.
And Texas Conservatives plan to continue offering bus trips to and from the Capitol every Tuesday through the rest of the session.