Republicans Torched Their Own Agenda And Blamed Democrats For It

Brainworms, billionaires, and the burning wreckage they left behind.

This past week in the Texas House wasn’t just about bad bills or ugly speeches. It exposed how fragile power is when it’s abused. Fresh off ramming through a school voucher scheme against public opposition, House Republicans torched the memorial resolutions calendar, dragged a dead woman’s name through the mud, and then collapsed into chaos when Democrats fought back. By Friday (4/25), the far-right faction had done what even the Democrats hadn’t: they nuked the entire Local and Consent Calendar, killing dozens of bills, including their own.

What happened wasn’t just Friday’s disaster. It was the latest eruption in a full week of games, betrayals, strategy, and shifting alliances. Here’s what really went down, and what it means for the final weeks of the session.

Setting the Stage: The Voucher Vote and the Fallout.

The week before all hell broke loose, Republicans had the numbers, and they used them to ram through the voucher scam.

Democrats tried to get a deal. They said to put vouchers on the November ballot and let the people decide. Republicans refused. Flat-out.

So Democrats warned them: you force this through, and you’re not getting our votes on constitutional amendments. Period.

Well, Republicans forced it through anyway. They thought they won. Thought they could do whatever they wanted.

The very next day, just to flex, they killed the entire memorial resolutions calendar, all because Cecile Richards’ name was on it. Cecile Richards, a former Planned Parenthood president, and Republicans dragged her name through the mud like it was sport.

It was one of the ugliest breaches of House tradition anyone could remember. And it set the tone for everything that came after.

The Slow Burn to Friday.

After that, the House wasn’t the same. Republicans knew they’d crossed a line, and Democrats weren’t about to let them forget it.

All week, Republicans kept trying to tiptoe around the consequences. They stalled. They pulled their own constitutional amendments off the board. They tried to regroup. But the mood had already turned.

At one point, Candy Noble tried to sneak her constitutional amendment onto the floor. Fifty-one Democrats abstained. Two voted no. (A few Democrats crossed over and voted with the Republicans, and they’ve been called.)

It was starting to sink in: Republicans might have the numbers for regular bills, but they don’t have a supermajority.

And without 100 votes, they can’t pass constitutional amendments.

Not without help.

Not without playing nice.

They’re just now figuring out what it feels like to lose the advantage they’ve taken for granted.

How the Local and Consent Calendar Was Supposed to Work.

Usually, the Local and Consent Calendar is the boring part of the session.
It’s for bills that don’t stir up fights, local stuff, name designations, and minor tweaks. Bills everyone quietly agrees on, so the House can keep moving.

Joe Moody, Speaker Pro Tem, got up Friday morning and laid out the ground rules one more time, so that nobody could claim confusion later.

Here’s what he said, boiled down:

• The author of a bill gets three minutes to explain it.

• After that, if five or more members object, the bill gets pulled.

• If the bill gets laid out and debate drags past ten minutes, it also gets pulled.

Simple. Clean. Been that way for years.

The whole point is to move things along without wasting the chamber’s time.

But the second the Brainworm Brigade saw a chance to wreck it, they took it. (See the first video in this article.)

How the Far-Right Blew It All Up.

At first, everything was humming along.

Republican bills were sailing through Local and Consent just like usual, with quick layouts, no objections, and the next bill.

Then they got to the first Democratic bill. Erin Zwiener’s HB2842.

It wasn’t anything controversial. It was about controlling white-tailed deer by lethal means in certain areas.

Hardly revolutionary stuff. But that didn’t matter.

Far-right chaos agents like Steve Toth and Brian Harrison’s crew objected.

Not because they had a problem with deer.

Because they finally realized they could use the five-member objection rule as a political weapon.

And once they pulled that thread, the whole sweater came apart.

The Collapse.

Once Zwiener’s bill got shot down, the whole House floor broke into chaos.

Source. Non-Brainworm Brigade Republicans huddling on the House floor.

Lawmakers huddled into small groups, Democrats, Republicans, and Brainworms, all whispering, arguing, and running numbers.

Source. Democrats huddling on the House floor.

It went on for almost two hours.

Source. The Brianworm Brigade huddling on the House floor.

Nobody knew who was going to move first, or how bad it was going to get.

Finally, Joe Moody came back to the front mic.

Voice steady. No drama. Just facts.

He announced that five or more members had now objected to every single remaining bill on the Local and Consent Calendar except two: HB 155 by Richard Raymond and HB 245 by Terry Wilson.

The rest?

Dead. Withdrawn. Pulled back to committee.

Weeks of work, gone.

And not just Democratic bills, either.

Republicans killed a pile of their own legislation, too.

All because a handful of far-right trolls wanted to make a point, even if it meant burning the whole place down.

How Bad Was the Damage?

By the time the smoke cleared, 53 bills had been yanked off the calendar.
Fifty-three. (You can read all the bill numbers in Friday’s journal.)

And this wasn’t just a stack of radical left-wing bills.

A lot of them were plain, boring, everyday fixes, things like:

• Local transportation projects.

• Water management tweaks.

• Cemetery maintenance rules.

• Small-town stuff that usually goes unnoticed.

Dead. All of it.

Because the Brainworms decided that if Democrats couldn’t be completely shut out of government, nobody should get anything.

And the kicker?

Most of the bills they killed were their own side’s work.

They torched their own people just to “own the libs.”

That’s the level of dysfunction we’re dealing with now.

How the Far-Right Spun the Whole Thing.

While the House floor was melting down, the far right’s propaganda machine kicked into overdrive.

Brian Harrison, Texas Scorecard, and some SREC members all ran to social media to blame Democrats.

Their big conspiracy theory?

Since Joe Moody, a Democrat, was standing at the front mic as Speaker Pro Tem, that somehow meant Democrats were secretly running the House.

Never mind that Republicans still have an 88–62 majority.

Never mind that it’s literally the Republican Speaker’s job to designate who runs the floor when he’s gone.

None of it mattered.

They needed a narrative, and fast, to cover the fact that Republicans blew up their own calendar with their own hands.

And who’s bankrolling a lot of this chaos?

Tim Dunn.

The same billionaire is behind half the brainworm nonsense that’s tearing apart the Republican Party from the inside.

The goal isn’t the truth.

The goal is to burn the place down and tell their voters it was someone else’s fault.

Follow the Money.

If you’re wondering why the lies and chaos sound so organized, it’s because they are.

A lot of the loudest voices pushing the “Democrats are secretly in charge” fantasy, Brian Harrison, Texas Scorecard, and SREC extremists, are funded by Tim Dunn and his deep-pocketed network.

Tim Dunn isn’t playing for the Republican Party.

He’s playing for total control, and if burning down the Legislature is what it takes, so be it.

The whole plan is simple:

• Attack public schools.

• Attack public services.

• Attack public trust.

• Then replace it all with their own bought-and-paid-for version of government.

And while they’re at it, they’re happy to stab their own Republican colleagues in the back.

Nobody is safe, not even themselves.

The Growing Paranoia Inside the House.

By the weekend, it wasn’t just chaos anymore. It was full-blown paranoia.

Rumors were flying in every direction.

• Some claimed Democrats were secretly cutting deals with Republicans to kill their own bills for political favors.

• Others whispered that Republican operatives had planted spies among Democrats to feed information back to leadership.

• Still others said some Democrats were actively working against their own caucus for crumbs of influence.

Nobody trusts anybody right now.

And honestly? That’s exactly what the far right wants.

Confusion is the point.

If Democrats and moderate Republicans are too busy second-guessing each other, they can’t focus on fighting the real threat: the extremists trying to tear down the House from within.

And here’s the kicker:

When I called around this weekend to get the real story?

Most folks either didn’t know what was going on or told me flat out, “We’re counting on you to keep tabs.” (And you’re damn right I will.)

The Path Forward: What Democrats Can (and Should) Do.

Here’s the brutal truth:

Democrats don’t have the numbers to stop regular bills.

But constitutional amendments? Those need 100 votes, and Republicans don’t have them without Democratic help.

That’s real leverage.

And after the mess Republicans made this week, a whole lot of folks are saying: Democrats should block every single constitutional amendment for the rest of the session.

No more business as usual.

No more “helping the process along.”

Make Republicans feel what it’s like to govern without a supermajority, because they don’t have one.

Some insiders say Democrats should make zero exceptions, not even for popular stuff like property tax relief.

Others argue that they should only make an exception for critical water infrastructure because of its statewide importance.

Meanwhile, there are other tools still on the table:

• Flood the floor with points of order.

• Astroturf public pressure campaigns.

• Drag every dirty trick Republicans pull into the sunlight.

And when Republicans start whining about Democrats “blocking property tax cuts”?

Democrats can smile and remind them:

“You have the majority. That’s your problem.”

Now It’s Your Turn: I Need to Hear From You.

Here’s what I want to know:

This will lead to consequences that negatively impact the Republican primary, and could also affect Democrats in 2026—maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, we don’t know.

Water infrastructure is one of the most critical issues facing this state.

Because the issue seems complicated, I’m curious:

This session is about who gets to decide what Texas looks like for the next generation.

Democrats have a real chance right now to show the difference between power and abuse, between majority rule and mob rule.

The far right made their move.

Now it’s time for Democrats, and all of us watching, to make ours.

• April 29: Early Voting Ends

• May 3: Local and County Elections

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• June 3: The beginning of the 2026 election season.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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