Rep. Shelby Slawson, R-Stephenville, announced that she would run for leadership of the Texas House of Representatives to replace Dade Phelan as Speaker.
She announced her campaign for the speakership just days after Phelan survived a tough primary, winning by just 1.4 percentage points.
In a letter to the House, she criticized Phelan’s allies, calling them an “arrogant cadre.”
“We deserve a speaker who is committed to uniting Republicans inside and outside the chamber – not dividing us against ourselves and our constituents,” Slawson wrote in a three-page letter.
Slawson is the second representative to announce his bid for speakership. Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, announced his intentions to replace Phelan just about two weeks after the Speaker was forced into a runoff by David Covey, a candidate supported by former President Donald Trump.
“I welcome another reformer into the race for Speaker of the Texas House and applaud [Slawson] for her honest appraisal of the status quo, and optimism for the future,” Oliverson posted on social media. Wrote Oliverson on X/twitter. “The movement is growing!”
Phelan has been targeted by the right side of his party for voting to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, for appointing Democrats to committee chairs and for failing to pass Gov. Greg Abbott’s voucher bill.
Slawson openly blasted Phelan in a letter after the 1 year anniversary of the impeachment.
“Whatever the House has learned from impeachment it should, at a minimum, be this: The architects of impeachment lit the House on fire, and regardless of what happens in the runoff elections, we cannot select an arsonist as fire chief,” she wrote.
In the letter, Slawson said she would not appoint Democrats to committee chairmanships and that Republicans should not rely on Democrats to elect a new House speaker, even though all House members vote for the speaker.
“Regardless of who our next speaker is, what we all must agree upon is that we cannot return to the same beleaguered battles under the same defiant general and expect anything better than more failure, frustration, and electoral carnage,” she concluded.
Slawson was first elected in 2020 and has held her House seat for two terms .She is currently in three committees: State Affairs, Calendars and Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence.
