Burrows, Patrick and Abbott: Texas’ “Big Three” have big plans and a wary new dynamic

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By the time lawmakers called it quits on the last legislative session the relationship between the state’s top three leaders – Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan – had hit rock bottom.

The state's three most powerful Republicans were largely in agreement at the top of the session about tightening border security and lowering property taxes. But their animosity and refusal to work together required multiple special sessions, breaking through stalemates, to get that done.

Phelan and Patrick, who presides over the Senate, openly feuded on social media, with Patrick calling on Phelan to resign. And Abbott felt burned by the House’s refusal to pass his priority school vouchers bill after his office had announced a deal with lawmakers.

The animosity spilled over into last year’s primaries where Abbott and Patrick got heavily involved in Texas House races against fellow Republicans – a rare move. Patrick even endorsed and gave a $100,000 donation to Phelan’s primary opponent.

Since then, Phelan has given up the speaker’s gavel and a new speaker, Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, is looking to change the dynamic among the "Big Three" this session. Burrows, a 10-year veteran of the Legislature is known as one of the best dealmakers in the Capitol and has a close working relationship with Abbott, according to people who have worked with both men, and a mutual respect with Patrick, the fiery leader of the upper chamber who has feuded with past House speakers.

A lot is riding on how quickly the three leaders can adapt to each other. Their ability to successfully navigate the relationship could lead to a quick resolution to this year’s legislative session with the passage of a large chunk of GOP priority bills. If the three fail to harmonize, those bills could stall and the Legislature could be thrown into chaos, requiring multiple overtime sessions.

So far, the three men have projected political alignment and a willingness to work with one another. Despite some strong criticism for Burrows during the race to replace Phelan, Patrick has expressed a wait-and-see attitude to working with the new speaker since his election.

“I’m going to give him a chance,” Patrick said at an event for The Texan news outlet. “He says he’s going to be the most conservative speaker ever so, you know, that would be a great thing for all of us… I’m going to do everything I can to help him succeed. And we’ll see what happens.”

Burrows has also tried to keep the doors for cooperation open, emphasizing his past work with Patrick and Abbott and highlighting their common goals, including several of the governor’s emergency items, like water infrastructure, increased vocational training and, importantly, the passage of a school voucher bill.

“I have enjoyed a respectful working relationship with the Lieutenant Governor since I was first elected to the House in 2015 and have a proven record of successfully working across both chambers to deliver major legislative achievements and conservative priorities,” Burrows said in a statement. “As Speaker, my focus will remain on strengthening the institution of the Texas House, equipping my colleagues to best serve their districts, and working with Governor Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Patrick to advance meaningful solutions to Texans' top legislative priorities — issues on which we are largely aligned.”

The question now is whether the three leaders can turn those words into action.

Long-standing relationships

In June 2019, Abbott sat at a burger joint in West Austin and smiled as he signed a priority bill to limit how much counties could increase property tax rates every year.

Sitting to his right was Patrick, who has pushed to cut property taxes for Texas homeowners since joining the Legislature as a senator in 2007. To his left was former Speaker Dennis Bonnen, and in the seat next to him was a 40-year-old Burrows, who had authored the bill in the House and been one of its main negotiators.

That was the year Burrows became a major player in the Legislature. Bonnen tapped him to lead the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and shepherd Abbott’s priority property tax legislation through the chamber.

People who have worked for Abbott and Burrows said that’s when the close relationship between the two began. They said that Abbott was impressed by Burrows’ handling of the complicated legislation and that Burrows was seemingly in the middle of every big negotiation that session. Those people were granted anonymity to more openly discuss the relationship between the two men.

Abbott endorsed Burrows in his last election and traveled to Lubbock to be at his campaign kick-off, saying the area could not find a politician “whose value sets are more conservative” than their incumbent.

The two men are so close that when Abbott decided he had to publish a message distancing himself from Burrows during the speaker’s race, he did so without clearly throwing his support behind the other candidate. The setting was a heated time in the race when a political action committee sent a text blast urging people to “support Burrows” with an overlaid photo of Abbott next to Burrows, implying the governor’s support even though Abbott had not made an endorsement. Abbott published a post on social media saying he backed the candidate endorsed by the Republican caucus, but the carefully worded statement did not overtly endorse the other candidate, Rep. David Cook of Mansfield.

Burrows and Abbott developed a trust over the years of working and fraternizing together. As a state representative, Burrows was often invited to dinners the governor put on for lawmakers. And in 2019, Burrows was among several lawmakers who watched the NCAA Championship basketball game between Texas Tech and the University of Virginia with Abbott. Burrows is a lifelong Tech fan and earned graduate degrees at the university.

Patrick also seems to have a good impression of Burrows. Through the years, Patrick has often called on the leaders of the House to send Burrows to the Senate to work out a deal on specific bills – sometimes completely sidestepping the actual authors of the legislation.

“He might be the smartest guy over there,” Patrick said recently.

That doesn’t mean Patrick has shied away from playing hardball with Burrows. Two days before the speaker’s race was decided last month, Patrick, who was supporting Cook, accused Burrows on social media of only sharing power with other lawmakers who were invested in the same bank as him, calling Burrows and his close allies a “non-criminal version of the Goodfellas.”

Burrows did not respond to the criticism and eventually won the race.

People familiar with Abbott’s thinking said he respects Burrows’ direct approach to assessing the likelihood of a bill’s passage, even when it wasn’t to his favor. That kind of blunt honesty could spare the governor from embarrassing flubs like last session’s declaration of a deal on the school voucher bill that never materialized.

“Burrows was someone that when you asked him a question, he gave you the answer,” said one person who witnessed Abbott and Burrows work through bills together. “He never shied away from telling you what that was … He’s not afraid to tell you you look fat in those jeans. Abbott appreciated that.”

‘Let’s get it done’

The new blood in the dynamic has already started paying dividends. The traditional “Big Three Breakfasts” on Wednesday mornings between the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker – which had stopped last session – are back on. During those meetings, the three leaders discuss how bills are moving through the process and can try to work through any hiccups or disagreements.

But Jason Embry, a communications consultant and senior aide to former speaker Joe Straus, said just having the breakfasts isn’t enough. Actual work needs to get done.

“Just the fact they meet over eggs once a week doesn't tell us that much,” said Embry, who spoke in his role as a communications consultant. “What happens in the room matters and what happens the rest of the week matters even more.”

Beyond the breakfasts, top staffers in the three offices are also in constant communication, indicating that the three leaders are working well together this year.

To make progress, all sides of the triangle need to be aware of the pressure points the other leaders face. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected statewide, while the House speaker is a state representative chosen by a majority of his 149 fellow lawmakers. That leads to different interests that need to be represented — like protecting incumbent House lawmakers from tough votes – and potential clashes with the other chamber and the executive.

So far, Patrick has been the most open about those differences and how they might impact the session and he’s been wary of the progress Burrows can make on some of the Senate’s priority bills because he was elected by a coalition made up mostly of Democrats.

“If he’s the Houdini of the House and he can pass all the conservative bills that we want then I’ll pat him on the back and say ‘Job well done,’” Patrick said recently. “But, man, he’s put himself in a tough spot.”

Patrick also hasn’t shied away from continuing to put the pressure on his new counterpart.

“My job is to pass conservative legislation out of the Senate and then my job is to help them pass it out of the House. And my job is if they kill bills, to let everybody know that they were killed,” Patrick said. “If it doesn’t work, I’m not going to sit quietly.”

And while all three men are working together behind closed doors, they have each left themselves an out in case trouble arises. Burrows has alluded to maintaining the independence of the House as a chamber and Abbott’s team would not go on record to praise the relationships. Patrick’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Senate has already started moving priority bills, including, possibly the most controversial one of the session, which would create a school voucher system that would allow parents to take public taxpayer money and put it toward their child’s private education. The bill was a main sticking point between the three leaders last session and Patrick has made clear that he wants the bill to move quickly through the House.

If that bill and other priority items begin to stall in the House, Burrows will face increased public pressure from Patrick, just as his predecessors have.

But this weekend, Burrows, who has expressed support for the bill, tried to signal alignment among the Big Three again when he responded to a social media post by President Donald Trump calling on the House to pass school voucher legislation with two words: “We will.”

Patrick responded positively on social media: “For the first time in my 10 years as Lt. Governor, Texas has a Speaker of the House who’s committed to passing school choice … Let’s get it done.”

That morning, the governor had also posted on social media about passing school choice.

Embry said the leaders will face challenges as the session moves on and will have to work out disagreements. But he said those tensions always exist between the House and the Senate and between the Legislature and the governor. Sometimes those disagreements come from the need for the House speaker to protect the other members of the chamber from tough votes that would harm them in reelection campaigns. Other times, they come in retaliation for past wrongs – real or perceived. And still other times, there are actual policy disagreements about how to reach a certain goal.

Last session, the House and Senate both agreed they wanted to give Texas homeowners tax cuts but they disagreed about how to provide them. Patrick was adamant that the state should raise its homestead exemption to $100,000 while the House favored an approach that would plug part of the state’s surplus money into driving down school districts’ tax rates. House tax-cut proponents also wanted to further limit how quickly property values grow and expand the benefit, which previously only applied to homeowners, to commercial property owners.

And four years ago, Abbott vetoed the part of the state budget that funded the Texas Legislature and its staffers in retaliation for a walkout by House Democrats that killed his priority bill to tighten election laws in the state.

One of the most famous disagreements between leaders of the legislative chambers came in 2003, when former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst accused then-speaker Tom Craddick of negotiating like “an Iranian cab driver” over newly drawn political maps for the state.

Embry said the real measure of the relationship between the state’s top leaders will be the results they produce at the end of the session in June. He predicts that the three top leaders will get along more than they will fight.

“I don't think this relationship is predestined to fail,” he said, with a nod to the June final date for this legislative session. “I would not be at all surprised if we get to the end ... and we realize there’s been a lot more cooperation between the House and Senate than we expected in January.”