State Rep. James Frank, a Wichita Falls Republican who is one of the Texas House’s leading voices on health and foster care, announced Tuesday he is running for speaker, making him the fourth member to challenge the lower chamber’s current leader, Beaumont Republican Dade Phelan.
In a statement announcing his bid for the speakership, Frank said he would work to bring better communication, member empowerment and management of the flow of legislation if he became the chamber’s leader. Like the three previous challengers to Phelan, he pledged to appoint only Republicans to leadership positions on legislative committees.
“Following the end of last session, and especially after the primary election results of March, it became clear to me that the House itself and our voters want to move in a different direction,” Frank said in his announcement. “By today’s actions, I am asking you to consider whether I represent that direction.”
Pushing back against critics who say appointing only Republicans to leadership positions would take Democrats out of the legislative process, Frank said Texas is one of only three states that continues to give the minority party leadership positions. He said restricting committee chair positions to the majority party would “allow significantly more Republicans to participate in leadership roles.”