Texas GOP fighting over Democrats chairing House panels. Here’s what it’s really about | Opinion

Republicans are fighting over how the House is run. A rump group is making demands of their speaker and taking their demands to the public airwaves.

Is this Washington, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy has a tenuous hold on his chamber and his party? No, this is Austin, where a few lawmakers and activists are trying to make an issue of Speaker Dade Phelan’s still-unannounced choices to chair legislative committees.

As with demands upon McCarthy over procedure, few people who don’t make politics a career or hobby know or care about it. But it’s useful for understanding ongoing internal divisions in the GOP.

The concern is whether Phelan names Democrats to lead committees. Republicans control the chamber, 86-64. Every speaker for decades has made bipartisan appointments, usually ensuring that the most important panels, the ones that handle the biggest bills and control the flow of major legislation, are in the hands of allies.

There’s not an issue in the Senate, where Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appointed just one Democrat to lead a committee: John Whitmire of Houston, the most-tenured senator who has long led the Criminal Justice Committee.

GOP activists want Washington-style leadership, in which the slightest majority wields total control. They point to a handful of measures that they blame Democratic committee leaders for blocking. Among the targets is Rep. Nicole Collier, the Fort Worth Democrat who led the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee two years ago and allegedly stopped a desired bill heightening penalties for damaging public monuments.

There are other decided differences with D.C.’s drama, too: In this case, Phelan holds all the cards. The Beaumont-area Republican was elected speaker, 143-3, on the legislative session’s first day. Two of the holdouts were Arlington Rep. Tony Tinderholt, who offered himself as a candidate, and Fort Worth Rep. Nate Schatzline, who damaged their ability to deliver for their constituents with their quixotic quest.

Phelan’s opponents have no leverage over him; they are trying to build it by taking their fight to the party’s grassroots. It’s also worth noting that if Phelan doesn’t appoint Democrats, few if any minorities will lead committees, which is unacceptable in a majority-minority state.

It’s odd that the state party apparatus itself is involved. Party chairman Matt Rinaldi has made this a priority, giving it much more attention than tax cuts, border security, school choice or other top GOP concerns.

And that illustrates an important truth: These fights are not about policy and ideology. The Republican rebels fashion themselves the most “conservative” members of the party. Some may be — many are particularly strong supporters of the “Make America Great Again” agenda or conservative Christian priorities.

But this is about power. Specifically, it’s the latest in a long-running war over keeping the “establishment” in check. Yesterday’s solid, respected conservative — say, Phelan — is today’s “RINO” squish.

As a result, though, the state GOP itself is becoming isolated and irrelevant. There couldn’t have been a clearer example than last year’s campaign, when Gov. Greg Abbott crushed three Republican primary opponents and cruised to re-election, all while prominently choosing not to appear at the state party’s convention.

The traditional purpose of parties is to raise money and help candidates get elected. But hobbyists have won control of the Texas GOP and made their obsessions its priorities. If you dig politics, there’s nothing like a good row over the process and purity tests. Meanwhile, most Republican voters shrug and ignore the drama.

There’s a consequence, though. Gradually, Republican leaders have to slide to the rebels’ sides, or at least throw them a bone or two. Consider two years ago, when conservatives enacted some of the toughest abortion restrictions of any state. It might have seemed like an easy victory to let them have, but once Roe v. Wade was overturned, it became reality.

Republicans can govern with conservative priorities and still be bipartisan, steering a center-right path that maintains the state’s business-friendly climate and economic success.

Once upon a time, those were the Texas GOP’s focus, too.