TEXAS, USA — After the Super Tuesday primary results in Texas, it is clear the Texas House will likely move further to the right when lawmakers return to Austin for the next legislative session in January.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, didn’t mince words, telling us that grassroots conservatives are defeating the “liberal, uniparty establishment” he claims has been controlling the Texas House for far too long.
And he’s talking about fellow Republicans.
“The Republican voters across the state of Texas, they spoke loudly and clearly in last week’s primaries and the establishment has no choice but to recognize that,” Harrison told us on Inside Texas Politics.
State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, has already announced his candidacy for Speaker of the Texas House.
The Houston area Republican authored the House version of the controversial bill, now law, that bans gender-affirming care for transgender kids.
Oliverson says one of his priorities will be to get a school voucher plan passed in the House.
And he says he would no longer award Democrats with committee chairs, eliminating a long-held tradition in Texas that sometimes prioritizes experience over party, but that many Texas conservatives feel should only go to Republicans, the party in power.
Harrison says he strongly supports both moves, but wouldn’t say if he’s supporting Oliverson’s bid for Speaker.
Gov. Greg Abbott recently said he’s only two votes away from passing vouchers in the House. Abbott says he has 74 votes after the primary but needs 76 total, and he expects to get those after the runoffs.
For his part, Harrison says he wants to see a universal voucher system open to all children in Texas.
“The private schools, the charter schools, the homeschoolers, and the public schools, everybody would be improved by letting competition do in education what it does in every sector of our economy, where over time quality goes up and costs go down,” said Harrison.
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