Call to Action! Vacate the Chair
October 6, 2023 | Austin, Texas
Don’t ever doubt it. Your voice matters. Rumors are that Texans, encouraged by the historic removal of a U.S. House Speaker, are planning a similar tactic to remove Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan.
The rules are not the same for Texas and the needed bar to call for a vote is significantly higher. But buoyed by Republican outrage over the shoddy impeachment of AG Ken Paxton, voters are leaning on their GOP legislators.
When the gavel falls to open the third special session of the 88th Texas Legislature, a motion is expected to vacate the chair of Speaker Dade Phelan.
X (formerly Twitter) posts by Representative Giovanni Capriglione suggest that he may be leading that charge. The way it works in Texas is one representative can make the motion, but the Speaker can refuse to allow the vote. If that happens, it will take a majority of state representatives, or 76 votes, to overturn that refusal.
There is no more clear indication of determining where each of our Republican representatives stand. Will they support the man who bought his seat through a deal with the Democrats that neuters Republican voter voices?
Will they support the man who showed his disdain for Republican voters from the beginning of the regular session by refusing to allow even a vote for the GOP priority of appointing no Democratic committee chairmen?
Will they support the elected official who killed one priority after another on border security and election integrity, as GOP voters seethed with frustration?
Will they support a man who orchestrated and spent millions of your dollars on the impeachment of the most impactful conservative AG in the country, with no thought to the process or discernible evidence?
This is the person who kills your bills. This is the person who makes sure that a red state serves blue interests and allows the colonization of our sacred territory by foreign and criminal interests.
Will you allow this to go on? Monday will be our opportunity to change it all. Before then, we must devote ourselves to loudly and frequently letting our state representatives know what we think.
“If not us, who? If not now, when?”
― John F. Kennedy
TAKE ACTION
Contact your Texas House Representative and demand he vote to vacate the chair and remove Rep. Dade Phelan as Speaker.
Rep. Cecil Bell (HD 3)
(512) 463-0650 (Austin office)
(281) 259-3700 (District office)
Send an email
Rep. Steve Toth (HD 15)
(512) 463-0797 (Austin office)
(346) 220-0300 (District office)
Send an email
Rep. Will Metcalf (HD 16)
(512) 463-0726 (Austin office)
(936) 539-0068 (District office)
Send an email
Rep. Ernest Bailes (HD 18)
(512) 463-0570 (Austin office)
(936) 628-6687 (District office)
Send an email
Read more about Special Session #3