Texas government braces for Senate vs. House feud after Paxton acquittal

The next few months in Texas politics will likely see intense Republican-on-Republican political warfare. Saturday the Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment sent over by the Texas House in late May. The president of the Texas Senate is calling for an audit of the House's process. The Speaker of the Texas House called his counterpart "biased" in presiding over the Paxton impeachment trial.

Paxton will remain the attorney general and is scheduled to speak to his ally and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson next week.

Both chambers are led by Republicans representing two different ideologies and theories of governing. They've clashed over the years, most recently over property tax and education policy. Tempers flared Saturday night as Lt. Governor Dan Patrick very publicly criticized the House's impeachment process. Paxton supporters and House supporters signal a campaign brawl ahead of the March 2024 Republican primary.

After the Senate voted to acquit Paxton, the presiding officer of the Texas Senate, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick lashed out at the House, calling for an official audit on how much money was spent and a constitutional amendment to forever change the impeachment process.

"In the House, the vote to send articles of impeachment against the attorney general to the Senate happened very quickly, with virtually no time for 150 members to study the 20 articles. The Speaker and his team rammed through the first impeachment of a statewide-elected official in Texas in over 100 years while paying no attention to the precedent," said Lt. Governor Patrick.

In late May at the end of a months-long quiet investigation into Paxton's actions, the Texas House quickly impeached Paxton with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. Nearly three-fourths of the GOP caucus in the House voted to impeach and suspend Paxton from office. The Texas House is one of the last Republican-led but bipartisan governing coalitions in the country. The general investigating committee and impeachment management team are also led by Republican members but have Democrats heavily involved.

Patrick blasted the Texas House for only spending days on the public airing of grievances against Paxton. The impeachment of Governor James Ferguson in 1917 took several weeks of public back and forth. The Lt. Governor called for a constitutional amendment to require under oath testimony, a lengthier public hearing of the issues, and allowing the subject of impeachment to cross-examine witnesses. He also called for an investigation to tally the amount of money the state spent through this most recent impeachment.

Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, R - Beaumont, released a statement after Patrick's comments blasting the Lt. Governor, accusing him of putting his thumb on the scale - noting Patrick's prewritten speech.

"To be clear, Patrick attacked the House for standing up against corruption. His tirade disrespects the Constitutional impeachment process afforded to us by the founders of this great state. The inescapable conclusion is that today’s outcome appears to have been orchestrated from the start, cheating the people of Texas of justice," wrote Speaker Phelan.

Political experts note the Texas Senate more reflects "movement" conservatives coming to power through the Tea Party and more recently former President Donald Trump. In the state's upper chamber, Patrick's power goes largely unquestioned. The Texas Senate only has thirty-one seats which represent areas larger than congressional districts, making them more impacted to national partisan trends. On the Republican-side, grassroots leaders have strong supporters in the Senate. Compared to the relatively small 150-member districts in the Texas House, voters send people with different ideologies to the two chambers. Speaker Phelan's House is more business oriented. The Speaker appoints committee chairs, including several democrats, who control the pace of legislation.

The Texas House accused Paxton of accepting a $120,000 home remodel and a job for his former mistress in exchange for using the attorney general's office to help Austin developer Nate Paul get state and federal investigators off his back. Paul was indicted over the summer with financial crimes by the Federal Department of Justice. Paul has pleaded not guilty. Paxton is facing state criminal charges on securities fraud stemming from 2015 and a Federal investigation. He has denied any legal wrongdoing and plans to fight the charges.

Despite four thousand pages of evidence released through the impeachment process, the Texas Senate believed the House managers did not prove their case. Paxton's attorneys largely denied he crossed any moral or legal lines. All but two Republicans voted to acquit Paxton on the most serious allegations.

The trial lasted nine days and Patrick largely drew praise for handling the trial in a fair and evenhanded way until his final statements spurred controversy. Patrick ruled Paxton himself did not have to testify. Paxton's former mistress also did not take the stand because she was expected to plead her 5th Amendment right the entire time, eating up valuable time in the impeachment trial clock.

It is unclear how the Senate vs. House feud will impact an expected special session on education reform. Many expect Governor Greg Abbott to call the special session in October. Abbott was largely quiet during the impeachment process until the verdict where he praised Paxton and wrote the jury had spoken.

The Texas House has largely rebuffed Senate efforts to allow families to use public money for home and private schools, one of Patrick's top priorities. Many political onlookers expect those "school choice" measures to be dead on arrival in the Texas House after the public impeachment snub by the Senate.