How Many GOP's Censured Speaker Dade Phelan

Robert West | September 21, 2023

21 County GOPs have acted on the Phelan Censure to date. I have listed them and their population, representing more than half of Texans. The state GOP has thus far refused to censure Dade Phelan. What is it about meeting in Austin which makes people immune to representing the people of Texas?

The SREC as a whole has begged, lied and bullied to stop counties from acting on this. Numerous County Chairs have violated party rules and Robert’s Rules of order in order to stop counties executive committees from voting on this.

The first lie was: “Censure does nothing”

While it is true that censure does not force an official removal from office, history shows that the targets of district-wide or state-wide censure resign, never run for office again or draw several primary opponents. 

Would you rather they be removed from office or politics? If you were running, would you rather run with or without a censure hanging around your neck?

The Second lie

The second lie was: “You can only censure your Representative.”

Rule 44 does not capitalize “representative” therefore, you may censure anyone that won office as a Republican and represents all or part of your county. Anyone with two brain cells tied together can tell you The Speaker of the House of TEXAS, represents all the counties of Texas.

While you do not directly vote for the Speaker, part of your political power, through your representative, does. Just like we do not directly elect a President but choose him through the electoral college. Add to that that, many of the current SRECs, including one of my own, voted to censure Speaker of the House, Joe Strauss under this same rule.

The Third and Fourth Lie

The third lie was “Only his district can censure him” and “we would support them if that is what they wanted.” Now that Orange County has passed a censure and represents more than half of his district the SREC wants to count the number of counties, not the population.

The fourth lie was: “Not enough counties have passed this; it has no traction.”

More than half the population of Texas is represented by the counties that have acted thus far. The will of the people is expressed through the population, not the number of counties.

The current line is: “If we censure him, we will not get school choice.”

Allow me to translate, “If we punish him for not doing as we ask, he will refuse to do as we ask.”

I have a hard time figuring out if this is dishonesty or stupidity, but I hope the SRECs spreading this one did not raise their kids with that approach.

We all know what we should do to a tree that bears bad fruit. They are to be removed and replaced with one that will bear good fruit. 

Phelan should be censured and replaced in the primary. Any SREC that has voted against his censure needs to be replaced, start finding people or run for these positions now.

Counties who voted to Censure or Passed a Resolution

Censure requires a 2/3rds vote of the county executive committee and I've included their population. 

Seven GOP CEC's have passed Censure.

• Angelina, 86K
• Cass, 28K
• Ellis, 200K
• Harrison, 70K
• Liberty, 100K
• Orange, 86K (more than half of Phelans District)
• Rains, 13K
• Jasper, 33K (voted after this writing)

Resolutions require a majority vote from the CEC.

Passed Resignation Resolution, 1:

• Cherokee, 50K

Passed Resignation Resolution and Orange County Concurrence Resolution, 2:

• Hunt, 100K
• Montgomery, 700k

Passed Orange County Concurrence Resolution, 9:

• Collin, 1.1 million
• Comal, 177K
• Dallas, 2.5 million
• Denton, 1 million
• Harris, 5 million
• Kerr, 53K
• Smith, 240k
• Tarrant, 2.2 million
• Travis, 1.4 million
• Williamson, 700k
• Wise, 71K

I will save you the math, more than 16 million people are represented by these 20 counties. The rest of Texas is spread out among the other 235 counties.

I have never seen this list anywhere. Please share this to encourage others that might act knowing they are not alone. 

When I brought up a censure as a Precinct Chair, I was shocked when it passed unanimously. Sometimes, all it takes is for one person to do the right thing to get the ball rolling.

19 down, and the question remains, “is your county GOP going to be the next to hold the Speaker accountable? “

Don’t worry about how to write a censure, examples are available here and all you have to do is cut and paste. Do not worry if you are not a precinct chair, ask yours to do this.  If you do not have a PC then request to fill it or run against them if they refuse to seat you, we can help. Reach out today!

Robert West