Carl Tepper, image from Facebook page
Lubbock’s Carl Tepper is among state representatives targeted in a texting campaign by the Texas Republican Party, pressuring them to drop support for Lubbock’s Dustin Burrows in the race for speaker of the Texas House, which goes to a vote next Tuesday.
“In short, Rep. Tepper, like all the supporters of Burrows, believes they are not accountable to their voters,” Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wrote Tuesday on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“I listen carefully to Texas voters. I just won my election by 900,000 votes because I do listen to voters. Governor Abbott and I clearly stated that we support the Republican Caucus nominee. That is not Dustin Burrows,” Patrick also said.
Republican Tepper – who represents District 84 – is not backing down, responding on X, “I won my election too. … My constituents are solidly behind @Burrows4TX. If you’d like to correct my observations please feel free to call.”
Tepper voiced his frustration with the speaker controversy in an interview with LubbockLights.com. Some of his main points:
- It’s ludicrous to say Burrows – the Republican who represents District 83 – is more liberal than Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.
- The Texas Republican Party has “become an arm of Empower Texas and Scorecard,” adding, “There’s a lot of discussion about how to take the party back.”
- “Today I feel like Dustin Burrows will prevail. Of course that can change tomorrow. Who knows? … He’s usually very stoic, but he’s been in a very, very bullish mood lately. I think he’s enjoying the battle. And I think he’s making some progress,” said Tepper, who added he speaks with Burrows often, almost daily.
How it started, what’s happened since
In December, outgoing House Speaker Dade Phelan announced he would not seek the position again. Cook and Burrows became the contenders to replace him.
Cook won a majority of Republicans in a December 7 caucus vote after Burrows and his supporters walked out of the caucus meeting. By itself, that didn’t give Cook enough votes to be speaker. He would need 76 or more.
That night, Burrows announced he had the votes, a combination of Republicans and Democrats, to become speaker – a claim that’s been challenged. Burrows has also said not all his names were public.
One path to victory is a unified Republican party with 88 votes. The other is a bipartisan coalition, the path Burrows chose and some say is important to get 100 votes for major legislation needing two-thirds approval.
So far as anyone can tell, Cook has public support from 57 Republicans and no Democrats. Burrows has public support from 31 Republicans and 38 Democrats.
Burrows has also said his approach is the traditional approach for the Texas House.
“The two basic principles common to any legislative body are the right of the majority to rule and the right of the minority to have a voice and participate in the process. The process works best when these two principles are in balance,” he wrote in an opinion for the Avalanche-Journal.
That has not swayed the likes of Attorney General Ken Paxton or Patrick.
“For the record, I don’t care who the Republican speaker is as long as they win with a large majority of Republicans. Any Republican who wins with a majority of Democrats will be a counterfeit speaker who will be beholden to the Democrats,” Patrick wrote on X.
Related story: Burrows’ speaker bid praised: ‘He understands how you get things done’
One of the key issues is Cook promised to end a long-standing promise of letting Democrats chair committees. Burrows only promised to let the House decide for itself if Democrats could be committee chair.
Paxton and Texas Republican Chair Abraham George began a statewide tour Monday to prevent Burrows from becoming speaker. The two men openly threatened if Burrows becomes speaker, his Republican supporters will be censured, a move that could keep their names off the primary ballot in 2026 statewide elections.
“If the Speakership is controlled by a block of Democratic votes, which it has been since Joe Straus, it prevents Republicans – who are elected to get certain things done – from getting their priorities done. And that’s been happening for the past 16 years, and I think this is the first time we’ve really had the chance to expose that,” Paxton said at an event.
George did not return a call to LubbockLights.com inviting comment. He made several statements publicly, including a couple of social media comments directed at Tepper.
“Actually Representative @CarlTepper, I want to remind you that @GregAbbott_TX and @DanPatrick have worked tirelessly this year to bring our party together. This is something you and a handful of your GOP colleagues are working hard to stop,” George wrote on X.
Tepper recently said in a media interview he was not scared of a primary fight and went so far as to say he thinks the governor and lieutenant governor are susceptible to pressure. That’s in part why Patrick called him out on X.
As for the pressure, it has not come from local voters, Tepper said. He said a “baker’s dozen” challenged him.
“I’ve gotten almost nothing but support,” Tepper said.
Other representatives
Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, defended Burrows’ approach even though she supports Cook as the next speaker.
“They are not that far apart on this issue, just different methods for achieving it,” Noble said in an email newsletter.
One of those under pressure in Tarrant County, Giovanni Capriglione, told CBS News in a statement, he’s not withdrawing support for Burrows, and, “His proven leadership and unwavering commitment to our shared conservative values will ensure that the priorities of our constituents will be implemented.”
A handful of other Republicans statewide have, when speaking publicly, said similar things.
Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview, said, “We will see them at the courthouse,” when he was threatened with censure by Harrison County Republicans.
Who’s conservative?
Tepper takes issue with Burrows portrayed as liberal compared to Cook, saying anyone who knows the records of the two men, knows Burrows is the “true conservative.”
“We all know David Cook’s record by any metric is quite moderate,” Tepper said.
Burrows has a track record like property tax reform, the heartbeat bill (pro-life), gun rights and the elimination of certain diversity programs at state universities, Tepper said.
Texts and responses
LubbockLights.com collected a few more examples of the texts going out to Republican voters.
“Burrows will keep giving liberal Democrats Committee Chairmanships in the Texas House. This is one of the many deals Dustin Burrows has made to receive Democrat support in his race for Speaker,” one such text message said.
That’s just not true, Tepper said.
“I think the days of the Democrat chairman will be over,” Tepper said.
Outgoing speaker Dade Phelan did appoint some Democrats, nine in the last session, as committee chairs, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Tepper reiterated Burrows will give the House a chance to accept its own rules.
“He’s not being dictatorial about it. … Whereas the Cook camp has stated clearly they’ll just ban them dictatorially. And Dustin’s at least allowing them to have a vote,” Tepper said.
Another text message said, “Republicans have nominated David Cook as the next speaker of the Texas House but a liberal Republican, Dustin Burrows, is trying to steal the election by uniting the Democrat caucus behind his campaign.”
“I just really wanna drive home the fact that people are being lied to. It’s important not to be sheep,” Tepper responded. He emphasized folks should know Burrows has been more conservative than Cook.
“We are fighting for conservatives and we’re fighting for the Conservative candidate for speaker. It’s important to realize that there are outside influences that are very well funded, for reasons unknown, that are lying,” Tepper said.
Interestingly, one of the texts sent in Burrows’ district, said, “Tell State Rep. Dustin Burrows to OPPOSE Dustin Burrows and vote for the Republican caucus nominee, David Cook.”
‘Overrun by the fringe’
Tepper told us the state GOP has become an “imposter organization.”
“I think it’s really being run by George Soros. Not joking around. I think there’s very suspicious things going on,” Tepper said to LubbockLights.com.
“The Republican Party of Texas has been absolutely overrun by the fringe, which is why donations are down. Finances are in turmoil, and they’ve had very little participation at the county conventions,” Tepper said.
“They’ve just become an arm of Empower Texas and Scorecard. Their communication – their activism has been very disingenuous, and I think there’s a lot of discussion about how to take the party back,” Tepper said.
There’s nothing official, Tepper said. There’s no formal movement to do that.
“There are several different ways it could possibly work, but we’re free people allowed to form another Republican Party if we want,” Tepper said.
“We want to reach out to people with a good ideology – good, honest, open discussion. I think that a political party needs to allow dissent on any given issue, within reason,” Tepper said,
Outside influence, including Republicans on the national stage, Tepper said, made the state’s GOP a secretive angry party.
“Being angry is not the way to build a political party. It’s being positive, being strong, remembering our history of civil rights, remembering our history of Lincoln,” Tepper said. “I think if Burrows wins, it reestablishes common sense in the Texas House of Representatives and kind of marginalizes the fringe.”
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