Dade Phelan
Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives
Assumed office
January 12, 2021
Preceded byDennis Bonnen
Member of the Texas House of Representatives
from the 21st district
Assumed office
January 13, 2015
Preceded byAllan Ritter
Personal details
Born
Matthew McDade Phelan

(1975-09-18) September 18, 1975 (age 48)
Beaumont, Texas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseKimberly Ware
Children4
EducationUniversity of Texas, Austin (BA)

Matthew McDade Phelan (born September 18, 1975) is an American real estate developer and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 21, which includes most of Jefferson and all of Orange and Jasper counties in the southeast corner of the state. He has been Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives since January 2021. He has been censured by the Texas GOP.[1]

Background

Phelan is a 1994 graduate of Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont and a 1998 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.[2]

State legislator

As of 2023, Phelan is Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He was previously Chair of the House Committee on State Affairs, on the Natural Resources Committee as Vice-Chair, the Calendars Committee, the Appropriations Committee, Elections Committee as well as the Select Committee on Ports, Innovation and Infrastructure. He is also a founding member of the House Criminal Justice Reform Caucus.[3]

Texas Monthly recognized Phelan as one of the best legislators of 2019.[4]

On December 2, 2020, Phelan was traveling in a private plane to meet Representative Trent Ashby when it crashed on landing during a rainstorm at Angelina County Airport near Lufkin, Texas. There were no serious injuries.[5]

Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives

On January 12, 2021, Phelan was elected the 76th Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

Voting rights

On August 12, 2021, Phelan signed arrest warrants for the 52 Democratic lawmakers who had left the state to deny a quorum. The lawmakers were attempting to block the passage of legislation considered by certain civil rights groups to restrict voting access to voters of color.[6] During the House debate on the bill, Phelan banned Texas representatives from using the word "racism".[7]

Call for resignation and Paxton impeachment

On May 19, 2023, Phelan struggled to speak while executing his duties as speaker of the Texas House. Fellow Republican and attorney general Ken Paxton called upon Phelan to resign due to "apparent debilitating intoxication". Phelan "negatively impacted the legislative process and constitutes a failure to live up to his duty to the public" according to the statement.[8][9] Phelan's office characterized Paxton's statement as "a last-ditch effort to save face" given the timing – that same day, a Republican-led House committee came public with an investigation into Paxton that had been ongoing since March of that year.[10] That investigation led to the House formally impeaching Paxton on May 27 by a vote of 121–23.[11] On September 16, 2023, Ken Paxton was acquitted of all sixteen corruption charges brought at the "historic" impeachment trial.[12]

Personal life

Phelan is Catholic; he and his wife, Kimberly (née Ware) Phelan, have four children.[2]

References

  1. ^ Downen, Robert (10 February 2024). "Texas GOP leaders reverse course, ban antisemites from party". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "About Dade Phelan". texansfordade.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  3. ^ McCullough, Jolie (18 July 2019). "After defeats in 2019, a group of Texas lawmakers is teaming up to push criminal justice reform". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  4. ^ Sanchez, Carlos; Ratcliffe, R.G.; Hooks, Christopher (18 June 2019). "2019: The Best and Worst Legislators". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Incoming Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan On Plane That Skidded Off Airport Runway". CBS DFW. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  6. ^ Multiple sources:
    • Eva Ruth Moravec; Elise Viebeck (12 August 2021). "Texas House speaker signs arrest warrants for Democrats who broke quorum over voting restrictions". Washington Post.
    • Ura, Alexa (2021-05-07). "Texas GOP's voting restrictions bill could be rewritten behind closed doors after final House passage". The Texas Tribune. But both the original SB 7 and the original provisions of HB 6 were opposed by civil rights groups who raised the prospect that the legislation violates federal safeguards for voters of color. Republicans' efforts to further restrict voting in the state come as their presidential margins of victory continue to thin and Democrats drive up their votes in diverse urban centers and growing suburban communities.
    • Ura, Alexa (2021-03-22). "Texas Republicans begin pursuing new voting restrictions as they work to protect their hold on power". The Texas Tribune. Senate Bill 7 is part of a broader package of proposals to constrain local initiatives widening voter access in urban areas, made up largely by people of color, that favor Democrats.
    • "New GOP-led voting restrictions move forward in Texas". CBS News/AP. 1 April 2021. The bill is one of two major voting packages in Texas that mirrors a nationwide campaign by Republicans after former President Donald Trump made false claims about election fraud. Voting rights groups say the measures would disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority voters.
    • Wines, Michael (2021-04-01). "Texas lawmakers advance a bill that would make voting more difficult, drawing comparisons to Georgia". The New York Times. Critics of the Senate bill said most of its provisions were less about making voting secure than about making it harder, particularly for urban voters and minority voters, two groups that tend to vote for Democrats.
    • Barragán, James (2021-04-01). "In overnight vote, Texas Senate passes bill that would make it harder to vote". Dallas Morning News. [President of the Texas Civil Rights Project] said many of the bill's provisions would disproportionately affect voters of color. The extended voting hours in Harris County, for example, were mostly used by voters of color. Fifty-six percent of voters who cast ballots in late night hours were Black, Hispanic or Asian, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.
    • Coronado, Acacia (2021-05-30). "EXPLAINER: How Texas Republicans aim to make voting harder". Associated Press. Advocates say the changes would disproportionately affect minorities and people with disabilities.
    • Gardner, Amy (2021-05-30). "How the new Texas voting bill would create hurdles for voters of color". Washington Post. While Senate Bill 7 would have wide-ranging effects on voters across the state, it includes specific language that critics say would disproportionately affect people of color — particularly those who live in under-resourced and urban communities.
    • Jasper Scherer; Zach Despart (1 May 2021). "GOP bills target Harris County's efforts to expand voting. Here's how that played out in the 2020 election". Houston Chronicle. Voting rights experts say the bills — which include measures that would apply only to the state's most populous counties, all of which are predominantly nonwhite — would discriminate against voters of color.
    • Nick Corasaniti (24 April 2021). "Republicans Target Voter Access in Texas Cities, but Not Rural Areas". New York Times. The Republican focus on diverse urban areas, voting activists say, evokes the state's history of racially discriminatory voting laws — including poll taxes and "white primary" laws during the Jim Crow era — that essentially excluded Black voters from the electoral process. Most of Harris County's early voters were white, according to a study by the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit group. But the majority of those who used drive-through or 24-hour voting — the early voting methods the Republican bills would prohibit — were people of color, the group found.
    • Paul J. Weber (15 April 2021). "Houston's expanded voting becomes target of GOP restrictions". The effort is one of the clearest examples of how the GOP's nationwide campaign to tighten voting laws can target Democrats, even as they insist the measures are not partisan. With Americans increasingly sorted into liberal urban areas and conservative rural ones, geography can be an effective proxy for partisanship. Proposals tailored to cities or that take population into account are bound to have a greater impact on Democratic voters.; The county exemplifies the GOP's slipping grip on fast-changing Texas. In 2004, former President George W. Bush, who is from Texas, easily won Harris County and Republicans ran every major countywide office. But recent years have been routs for Democrats, whose wins now extend down the ballot to local judicial races.
  7. ^ Scully, Rachel (27 August 2021). "Texas state House Speaker bans the word 'racism' amid voting bill debate". The Hill. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  8. ^ Heckman, Elizabet (23 May 2023). "Texas Attorney General Paxton calls on state House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign after 'apparent intoxication'". Fox News. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Dade Phelan allegedly drunk on House floor". KDFW. 24 May 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  10. ^ "House panel investigating AG Ken Paxton's office; Paxton calls on Speaker Dade Phelan to resign". Texas Tribune. May 23, 2023. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  11. ^ "Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House. See how each representative voted". Texas Tribune. May 27, 2023. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  12. ^ Weber, Paul J.; Lozano, Juan A. (September 16, 2023). "Republican Texas AG Ken Paxton is acquitted of corruption charges at historic impeachment trial". Associated Press. Retrieved September 16, 2023.

External links

Texas House of Representatives Preceded byAllan Ritter Member of the Texas House of Representativesfrom the 21st district 2015–present Incumbent Political offices Preceded byDennis Bonnen Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives 2021–present Incumbent
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Statewide political officials of Texas
Members of the Texas House of Representatives
Speakers of the Texas House of Representatives
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