Harrison County Republican Party threatens to censure State Rep. Jay Dean

MARSHALL – As the struggle to nominate a new speaker for the Texas House of Representatives continues, one East Texas State Representative has come under scrutiny.

The Republican Party of Harrison County passed a resolution on Dec. 20 that lays out how the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) has made it a “Legislative Priority” to have “No Democrat Chairs” in the 89th Legislative Session (2024-2025). The resolution continues by saying that they could censure their elected representative for violating that priority.

“The Harrison County Republican Party may censure their elected representative should he deliberately violate the RPT priorities and the will of the voters, by voting to elect a Speaker of the House who appoints Democrats to chair committees in the Texas House,” according to the Dec. 20 Harrison County Republican Party resolution.

State House Representative for District 7, Republican Jay Dean, is then named specifically by the resolution, which calls on him to only support “a Speaker of the House who is committed to honor the will of the voters and the Republican Party of Texas and will only appoint Republicans to chair committees in the 89th Legislative Session.” According to a report from the Texas Tribune, a potential censure could mean that Dean might be barred from running in a Republican Party primary for two years. A similar resolution which threatened Texas House District 17 Representative Stan Gerdes with censure was passed by the Bastrop County Republican Party on Dec. 30.

This is the latest development in an ongoing campaign to confirm Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, who was endorsed by the the House GOP caucus, over Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who claims to have enough bipartisan support to be elected speaker.

Dean commented on the process to confirm a new speaker on Dec. 13, saying, “For the record both candidates are courting the Democrats. It’s about the math of 76 votes needed to be speaker. Neither candidate has that number of Republicans. Both sides are dug in but the process continues for the next 30 days and we will see what happens!”

Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, said he was personally texted by Texas Republican Party chairman Abraham George. The texts reportedly threatened to take out mailers against Harris if he doesn’t support Burrows. Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, said he’s also gotten backlash for supporting Burrows. He’s he’s one of three East Texas representatives, along with Dean and Harris, who will be the subject of a visit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton announced on Tuesday that he’s doing a statewide tour with George which will attempt to highlight “representatives who have fallen short of upholding conservative principles in the past and are reportedly working for a Speaker not elected by a Republican majority.”