Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is struggling to gain support amid his 2024 re-election campaign, according to a new poll.
Phelan received a 22% approval rating and 31% disapproval from Texans in a December poll from the University of Texas and The Texas Politics Project. Nearly half of respondents said they either did not know if they approved or had no opinion.
The House speaker faces a primary challenge from Republicans David Covey and Alicia Davis next year. He received a 26% approval rating and 24% disapproval ratings from GOP respondents in the new poll.
Democrats in the poll had 19% approval and 40% disapproval ratings.
The results continue a concerning trend for Phelan ahead of the election. A poll of Republicans in his district in October from Defend Texas Liberty found that 49% had an unfavorable opinion of the speaker, and only 35% had a favorable opinion of him.
Phelan led the impeachment effort against Attorney General Ken Paxton this year. He passed the measure in the House with ease, but he was acquitted by the Senate, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The 16 articles of impeachment against Paxton alleged corruption and bribery. After Paxton’s acquittal, Phelan said he planned to hold the attorney general accountable.
“If new facts continue to come out, those who allowed him to keep his office will have much to answer for,” Phelan said.
Mitch Little, one of the lead attorneys for Paxton on the trial, said the investigation violated the Texas legal code.
“My immediate reaction as a lawyer, I go straight to the black letter law, to the government code … and it was immediately obvious to me that the law had been broken by not taking sworn testimony,” Little told The Dallas Express.
“The House General Investigating Committee is required by black letter law, written into the law by the legislature,” he continued. “I just immediately go, ‘This is illegal.'”
