House speaker Dade Phelan fights back against some Texas Republicans

AUSTIN, Texas - House Speaker Dade Phelan has made some Texas Republicans so mad, they're trying to get him primaried from office. That includes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who promised revenge following his impeachment acquittal. 

Speaker Phelan is fighting back with a new digital campaign, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune.

"It pains me to say this Ken Paxton had an affair with a Senate staffer when his own conservative deputies discovered Paxton traded legal favors to cover up his adultery. They reported him to law enforcement. 70% of House Republicans impeached him, and Paxton just admitted to the charges, no longer contesting the lawsuit. Vengeful Paxton is the reason Trump's involved himself in our race. It Paxton will break an oath to his wife and God. Why would he tell Trump or you the truth?" the Phelan ad stated.

Travis County GOP Republican Chairman Matt Mackowiak and Democratic analyst Ed Espinosa joined FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren to discuss.

Mike Warren: Matt, beginning with you. Is this a case of Republicans sort of eating their own?

Matt Mackowiak: Well, look, there's a there's certainly a bit of a civil war occurring in the Republican Party right now in Texas. And that's true as we're, you know, roughly a month from the primary Election day. Well, there's been a divide between the most conservative Senate in our state's history, led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and the House, which has become more conservative than it was two or 3 or 4 sessions ago, but is not as conservative as the Senate. And so conservative bills passed. The Senate don't always pass the House. There certainly are some bills that passed the House that's always passed the Senate. But there's no question that the sitting speaker is facing the most significant primary challenge, in the last ten years, of anyone who is currently serving as speaker. And you now have Paxton on one side, and you have the speaker on the other, and they're going right at each other. And this is about as nasty as it gets.

Mike Warren: Ed Espinosa, are they going to be able to primary out the House Speaker?

Ed Espinoza: Well, we shall see. The important thing here is that everything Dade Phelan said in his video is accurate. And as he said in that video, the attorney general is not even contesting those in court anymore. What he's really pushing here is a vendetta that Republicans dare vote to impeach him for breaking the law in the first place. This is a very unique situation for a party that refers to itself as the party of law and order. So I think that you have this vendetta that Paxton is pushing. And let's keep in mind, the reason Donald Trump is even invoked in the middle of this is because Ken Paxton was the only attorney general to come to the defense of Donald Trump when he tried to overturn the election after the 2020 race.

Mike Warren: Matt Mackowiak, talking about this civil war among the Republican Party, the Texas Republicans, as you put it. You've got the impeachment with Paxton. You've got the governor with the school vouchers. Where does this go?

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah. We're in an interesting situation where you have different political leaders, in some cases supporting challengers, some cases supporting, incumbents. And yes, you have the governor on one side fired up on the school choice issue. You have the attorney general, Ken Paxton, fired up to go after the people that did impeached him. And then you have other players that are involved, you know, sort of conservative versus more mainstream elements of the party. I do want to just clarify one thing, Ed, you said Ken Paxton hasn't been charged, let alone found guilty of anything related to this, to the issue that he was, where the articles of impeachment were considered. That, you know, there was, I guess, at one time, a grand jury, although they haven't returned an indictment, he is facing a securities fraud challenge on the whistleblower lawsuit. That's a civil matter. And that's correct. That is no longer being contested. And there will likely be a judgment there. But he hasn't been charged and hasn't been convicted with these matters. And I think it's important to point that out.

Mike Warren: Ed Espinoza, For Democrats, this must be great. The Republicans seem to be at war. How did Democrats take advantage here?

Ed Espinoza: Well, unfortunately, I don't think it's great for Democrats to see what's happening with Dade. Feeling right now is that they have gerrymandered the state to create this majority for these MAGA Republicans. And much like every other Republican has learned, MAGA is faithful to one entity, and that is Donald Trump. They will turn on you as quickly as the man himself will. And that's what's happening with Dade feeling. And, you know, he may have a strong enough base at home to protect him, but he's got gerrymandered districts that support these far-right voters, and I don't know where they will go.

Mike Warren: Okay. We, we're out of time. We've got to wrap it up. But the Civil War continues. Matt. Ed, thank you both very much.