Texas House Republicans have spent several sessions at war with each other. Insiders say it’s fueled in part by West Texas billionaire Tim Dunn, who is aiming to make the party more conservative as he expands his influence nationwide.
The party took steps this week toward kicking members off the primary ballot for failing to back the party-endorsed candidate for state House speaker. It’s the latest example of several years’ worth of powerful political figures seeking to eliminate fellow Republicans for resisting their agendas.
“It’s gotten to this point because of large donors pouring millions of dollars into attacking people around the state that basically won’t fall in line with their direction, the direction of those donors,” said Wayne Hamilton, who runs Project Red TX and is a vocal critic of the state party. “It’s not about issues. It’s about who’s going to be telling who what to do.”
Dunn was a key player in a fight over the speakership last month. Sources told NOTUS the conflict represented the old guard seeking to keep its foothold against Dunn and his allies, who backed state Rep. David Cook. While Cook received the party endorsement, state Rep. Dustin Burrows won the speakership with Democratic support — a victory for the more establishment wing of the Texas GOP, but one that only worsened internal party tensions.
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This week, the Dallas County Republican Party voted to censure members who didn’t back Cook. If the state Republican executive committee passes the censure, those members will be barred from running on the Republican primary ballot.
“These two factions spend more time battling each other, in some ways, than they do battling the Democrats, because the Republican faction that comes out on top of these battles is the one that’s going to govern,” said Texas political consultant Brendan Steinhauser.
Texas insiders said that even if Dunn’s preferred candidate lost this time, his power has only grown.
“Tim Dunn has a deleterious effect on Texas politics. His level of control in the Texas Senate and of the lieutenant governor is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in politics at any level,” said a Texas Republican consultant who requested anonymity to speak frankly about party politics. “Fundamentally, that is really what this was all about.”
Neither Dunn nor Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick responded to a request for comment.
The effort to kick censured Republicans off ballots would result in a legal fight, which the censured Republicans are considered highly likely to win. But Republicans and operatives said the intention is clear: get the rest of the defectors out of office and keep the rest in line.
“There’s a purity test every year,” said Rep. Carl Tepper, who supported Burrows. “Last year it was the impeachment of Ken Paxton. This year, it’s the election for speaker. They keep moving the goalposts, so even if I was more malleable and voted their way for Cook, there would be something next month that I would have to vote for to keep their favor.”
Those who still align themselves with the old guard are bombarded with criticism from Dunn-funded endeavors, including the website Texas Scorecard, which publishes articles promoting conservative policy goals and attacking opponents. They could face primary challengers backed by Dunn — he funded about 28 candidates challenging incumbents last cycle, some who voted to impeach state Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Paxton, along with Patrick, is one of Dunn’s close allies.) Or they could be censured by the party, which is also largely funded by Dunn.
Dunn is also influential nationwide. He donated $5 million to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and joined the board of the America First Policy Institute. He’s long been involved in the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which has given rise to some of Trump’s nominees and joined in the making of Project 2025.
Despite the cutthroat nature of the speakership fight, both factions largely agree on policy. The ideological lines between the two are also inconsistent: Cook received backing from Dunn, Gov. Greg Abbott, Patrick and Paxton in spite of his vote in 2023 to impeach Paxton. Burrows supports school choice, the biggest fight of the last session that nearly led to then-Speaker Dade Phelan losing his primary race. Tepper, the member who supported Burrows, was one of Trump’s earliest backers in Texas.
“The conservative wing is on some issues more conservative than the moderate wing, but there’s not a lot of daylight on many of the big issues,” Steinhauser said. “Ultimately, it’s about who gets to make the decisions.”
Now Burrows has the monster task of wrangling the state House to have a productive legislative session. If he can’t, his job is on the line and everyone who supported him will likely face a well-funded primary challenge.
While the Cook faction lost this time, they might fare better in the future. Many aligned with that side of the party pointed out that their candidate in past speakership races had garnered only about 10 votes. This time, the faction’s candidate got more than 50. It’s not enough to win, but it’s a huge jump in support.
Not everyone agreed that Dunn and his allies had a major influence on the speakership race. Abraham George, chair of the state party, said “nothing changes for [Dunn], regardless of who’s the speaker.”
“The previous leadership team wanted to stay in control,” said Scott Bowen, an executive committee member who supported Cook. “The vast majority of the representatives who voted for David Cook have nothing to do with Tim Dunn.”
But others said the threat of Dunn and his allies is constantly looming.
“I would argue to all the elected officials in Texas: Be careful, because these forces, the scorecard crowd, will turn on you at any moment,” Tepper said. “You live by the sword, you die by the sword.”
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Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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