Less than three months ago, Dennis Bonnen was on top of the world—or the Texas Capitol, at least. But in a stunning reputational about-face, the Texas House Speaker may soon have the Texas Rangers knocking on his front door with questions about his role in one of the biggest scandals in state politics in years.
So, what the hell happened? In a word, hubris. Instead of dancing with the ones who brung him, Bonnen tried to salsa with a serpent. In this case, the snake was Empower Texans, a radically right-wing insurgent group financed in large part by a West Texas oil billionaire who thinks that the ideal system of governance is a theocratic Christian kingdom.
At the start of the 86th Legislature, Bonnen, a longtime creature of the Lege (22 years and counting), was unanimously—and seemingly out of nowhere—elected by his colleagues to succeed Republican state House Speaker Joe Straus and lead the lower chamber. He guided the House through the 2019 session, avoiding political landmines like constitutional carry, Confederate monuments, and voter suppression while shepherding conservatives, moderate GOPers, and Democrats to almost unanimously support a massive bipartisan school finance and property tax deal. The utter lack of drama was almost a scandal in itself. There was nary a single person, Democrat or Republican, in the crowded halls of the Texas Capitol who had a bad word to say about him.
