Randa Duncan Williams is a high-dollar political donor, and it looks as if she has brought Texas Monthly into the Enterprise Products Partners network that supports embattled Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan.
Williams is the non-executive chairman of Houston’s Enterprise Products Company (EPCO).
EPCO owns Texas Monthly LLC, which has owned the eponymous magazine of which she has also been chairman since 2019. Her father, Dan Duncan, founded Enterprise Products Partners (EPP) in 1968, according to Forbes.
Williams has been a political donor, donating $5,000 to EPP’s political PAC in 2017 and 2018, according to Open Secrets. However, her contributions ceased after she assumed leadership of Texas Monthly. This does not mean that there is no correlation between these entities, however.
Notably, EPP donations seem to align with Texas Monthly’s coverage in some key ways. EPP executives have donated to Phelan (R-Beaumont) as recently as this summer, and Vote Smart recorded a $35,000 contribution from the EPP network this cycle.
Simultaneously, Phelan has become the belle of Texas Monthly coverage. In a story titled “2023: The Best and Worst Legislators,” Phelan is repeatedly framed as a talented young politico who is being hampered by zealots in the Texas House of Representatives. He is the protagonist in any story where Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) is the villain.
Another story that fits neatly into this line of coverage is titled, “Dade Phelan Won His Runoff, But the Texas GOP Establishment Is Losing the War to the Far Right.”
Framing him as an ally of Democrats, a theme also present in Texas Monthly’s other coverage, the magazine ran the headline, “Democrats Finally Won a Big Texas Election (Maybe. It’s Complicated.),” which was followed by the subheader, “Conservative Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan narrowly beat a far-right challenger—and liberals appear to have pushed him to victory.”
Texas Monthly has made Phelan the focus of 19 articles and mentioned him in countless more. In each of the articles where he is the main focus, most of the same thematic elements are present: Phelan is the good guy, he helps Democrats, he is the best option in the House, and –– sometimes –– the Paxton impeachment was justified.
Conventional political wisdom holds that you need two things to get votes in the United States: good press and cash. While there are many exceptions to this rule, especially in recent years, it still generally seems true.
With this in mind, it is conceivable that the confluence of Texas Monthly with its owner’s former political PAC has produced a machine for affecting their preferred political outcome. This could have real-life impacts.
School choice will likely be the focus of the Texas Legislature after the new class of incoming members is sworn in. Bills supporting choice through school vouchers or other reforms will be numerous and their fate could be partially determined by who the speaker of the Texas House is.
Other publications, such as the Houston Chronicle have run articles that identify multiple ways Phelan could maintain the speakership. As Mark P. Jones, a professor in Rice’s Department of Political Science, wrote, “[I]f Phelan returns as speaker in 2025 by winning a majority vote in the Republican Caucus and without the overt need to broker a deal with Democrats, he’d end up with more flexibility to pass priority conservative legislation such as a robust school voucher bill and additional property tax relief than will be the case if he is forced to form an explicit coalition with Democrats to retain his speakership.”
While Jones, like many, thinks school choice is inevitable, one must remember that not all school choice bills are created equal. Some proposed “sweeteners” to the various school choice bills proposed in 2023 would have increased public school teacher pay, other amendments did not. Some bills included education savings accounts, others did not.
Other bills and amendments immensely worried urban Democrats and rural Republicans who feared school choice bills may lead to tighter budgets for their school systems, which are often major local employers and economic engines.
As procedural deadlines substantially influenced how various bills died in 2023, it is foreseeable that the man in control of the administrative functions of the Texas House will influence which bills proceed or fail.
Notably, Phelan is a man in need of support from the Texas Monthly-EPP axis, which could grow its influence. The Texas Republican Party censured the speaker in February because of his alleged “lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities.” His primary opponent, David Covey, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and the ever-popular Paxton, whom he tried to impeach.
Moreover, Covey forced Phelan into a runoff after the speaker finished second in a district that he has represented since 2015. Although Phelan ended up winning in the head-to-head matchup in May, he did so only by a few hundred votes.
This is to say nothing of the video that appeared to show Phelan incoherent and slurring his words while presiding over the Texas House. This video was highly damaging to his reputation when it was first circulated in May 2023.
At the time, the speaker’s office refused to comment.
As the Texas Monthly-EPP axis appears poised to steady Phelan’s hold on the gavel, other reports from The Dallas Express have noted the left-wing drift of the magazine under Williams’ leadership.
Stories in the publication have exalted drag queens and cast a scouring eye toward right-leaning Christians, DX reported.
“I remember when I used to buy Texas Monthly magazines in the airport when I was taking a flight back in the early 90s. I haven’t bought one in years because every time I pick one up, it is filled with radical leftwing opinion,” Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Bo French once told DX. “It has totally lost what was once a pretty good magazine. I am not surprised, though, because it seems all the media is just pushing radical leftwing bias 24/7.”