Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) recently faced the consequences of his decision to stage an impeachment against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023. Phelan’s reelection race has now headed to a runoff against a GOP primary challenger backed by former President Donald Trump.
Phelan has faced immense criticism for his push to impeach Paxton. This decision led Phelan to slightly trail Trump-backed primary challenger David Covey in his reelection race for the Southeast Texas district.
The Texas House speaker and Covey will now face a runoff election in May 2024, but things are not looking well for Phelan following his attempts to oust Paxton, according to Just the News.
Today's election results have revealed that the battle for the soul of Texas is far from over. While David Covey and Dade Phelan are headed to a runoff, it's clear that our fight against the liberal forces in Austin must continue unabated.
I am still immensely proud to have…— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 6, 2024
Phelan’s push to remove Paxton came after the attorney general fought tirelessly to secure the state’s border with Mexico, given the Biden administration’s refusal to do so. Paxton had also filed a lawsuit against lewd companies over age verification processes and has worked hard to prevent children in the state from receiving so-called “gender-affirming care.”
Paxton was acquitted of all impeachment charges brought against him in September 2023. There were 16 charges against the attorney general. A conviction on one article would have likely caused him to be removed from his position.
The Texas attorney general claimed the Biden administration played a role in impeachment efforts against him.
“We were causing a lot of trouble for the Biden administration. Even if we didn’t, we slowed them down. We were winning. Like, I think our number is 77 percent of our cases,” Paxton told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“So we are a huge problem for the Biden administration, and that was the way to get me out of the way,” Paxton added.
The Post Millennial pointed out that many of the lawyers involved in trying to impeach Paxton were from President Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ).
The impeachment trial against Paxton began on Sept. 5, 2023, when Paxton asked the Texas State House to approve a $3.3 million payment to former staff who accused him of misconduct in the workplace. The chamber did not approve Paxton’s request and impeachment articles were eventually introduced against the attorney general.
