Shelley Luther Joins Anti-Phelan Parade
while Speaker Ally May Be Baggage in OT
Capitol Inside
April 16, 2024
Sherman Republican Shelley Luther - a future representative who'd been the state's original pandemic lockdown revolutionary - dished out an endorsement to David Covey on Tuesday for a primary runoff duel with Speaker Dade Phelan in a southeast Texas district where she's largely unknown outside of conservative activist circles.
As Luther threw her support behind Covey in a move that could secure a seat at the end of the House bench next year if he loses, Fort Worth Republican John McQueeney touted an endorsement that he scored from a high-ranking Phelan ally for an overtime fight in an open race for the Legislature's lower chamber in Tarrant County.
State Rep. Jared Patterson - a Lewisville Republican who's the speaker team's self-appointed enforcer - added his name last week to the McQueeney supporter list for the House District 97 runoff that he's running as a considerable underdog after trailing Cheryl Bean of Fort Worth by 20 points in the first round last month.
Bean came within 79 votes of an outright victory in the March 5 primary election with nearly 49.6 percent of the vote. McQueeney claimed almost 30 percent to keep his campaign alive in a bid to replace outgoing State Rep. Craig Goldman of Fort Worth. Goldman is favored to prevail in the May 28 OT election after leading John C. O'Shea by 18 points in round one with 44 percent of the vote.
Luther is gambling that Covey is going to oust Phelan at the polls next month with the decision to fall in line behind a parade of much better-known Republicans who are backing the challenger in House District 21 including Donald Trump, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
But Luther has never been afraid of taking chances - having risen from the ranks of obscurity to temporary celebrity status after keeping her hair salon open during the early stages of the covid onslaught in defiance of Governor Greg Abbott's order that shut down non-essential businesses.
Abbott cancelled the restrictions that he'd imposed to protect the public health immediately after Luther's release from jail in Dallas County for violating them. But the governor harbored a grudge despite the panicked pandering and opposed Luther in a Texas Senate special election in late 2020 and again two years later when she challenged State Rep. Reggie Smith of Sherman in the primary election in 2022.
Abbott showed he was still bitter when he avoided the House District 62 race completely in a 2024 primary rematch after pulling his support for Smith as revenge for a vote that he cast against a school vouchers measure in special session last fall. The governor's decision to stay planted on the sidelines in HD 62 was tantamount to an endorsement for the candidate who'd embarrassed him in terms of the effect that Abbott had on the eventual outcome in March when Luther unseated the incumbent with 53 percent of the vote.
But Abbott is going against the grain in HD 97 as the only major name in the McQueeney endorsement file in the suburban district that Goldman has represented for more than a full decade. Bean in dramatic contrast boasts Patrick, Paxton, Miller along with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and a handful of lawmakers in State Reps. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, Brian Harrison of Midlothian, Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth, Tony Tinderholt of Arlington and Cody Vasut of Angleton as supporters.
Bean shows endorsements from 20 party officers and nearly 100 precinct chairs on her campaign web site. McQueeney touts Abbott's support on his own site but has no endorsements page for comparative purposes with the runoff foe who appears to be a prohibitive favorite in the second round despite the governor's position in the contest.
But McQueeney has cause to be concerned that Patterson could be more of a liability than asset in light of his close ties to Phelan, who's arguably the most unpopular House speaker in Texas history in his own party's ranks.
The endorsement page on the Phelan campaign site has at least one group of supporters missing with no mention of the plug that he received for the runoff late last month from the political committee for the AFL-CIO in Texas known as COPE. Covey and other Republicans have been attacking Phelan relentlessly for his ties to Democrats.
more to come ... |
