The speaker, Dennis Bonnen, said he would not seek re-election. Support from his fellow Republicans has evaporated over the fallout from a secretly recorded meeting.
By Dave Montgomery
AUSTIN, Texas — With the fallout from a secretly recorded meeting with a conservative activist plunging him deeper into scandal, the Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives announced on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election to the leadership post or in his district.
Though many inside the party had been pressuring him to step aside, the announcement by Speaker Dennis Bonnen tipped Texas Republicans into further uncertainty ahead of the 2020 elections.
“After much prayer, consultation and thoughtful consideration with my family, it is clear that I can no longer seek re-election as State Representative of District 25 and, subsequently, as speaker of the House,” Mr. Bonnen said in a statement released by his office.
In an acknowledgment of his evaporating support, Mr. Bonnen listed the names of 43 Republican colleagues, including his brother, who had “made clear that it is in the best interest of both myself and the House to move on.”
Mr. Bonnen’s announcement came just over a week after the release of a recording of a June 12 meeting he had with a conservative activist at the State Capitol that included what critics have called a quid-pro-quo offer that is now under investigation by the Texas Rangers.
In the meeting, Mr. Bonnen offered to provide Michael Quinn Sullivan, the leader of Empower Texans, with long-sought press credentials to the House floor in exchange for help from Mr. Sullivan in working to defeat 10 moderate Republicans whom the speaker perceived to be out of step with his conservative agenda.
Though the outlines of that offer were revealed in July, the release of the tape last week led to a scathing rebuke by the Texas House Republican Caucus, which said it condemned his behavior “in the strongest possible terms.”
The scandal is responsible for a stunning finale to a legislative career in which Mr. Bonnen, 47, rose from a young freshman lawmaker in his mid-20s to become one of the state’s top three leaders, along with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
A skilled legislative tactician known for a confrontational side, Mr. Bonnen quickly consolidated support among lawmakers to emerge as the consensus successor to Joe Straus, who had served five terms as speaker, after Mr. Straus announced his retirement.
Mr. Bonnen became speaker in January and won widespread praise for his stewardship of a legislative session studded with major accomplishments such as school finance restructuring and property tax reform.
“You’re seeing a promising career go down in flames over one meeting,” said Mark Jones, a political-science professor at Rice University.
Mr. Jones said Mr. Bonnen would most likely serve in a “caretaker role” until the House elects a new speaker in January 2021. But others said Republican members might seek ways to force Mr. Bonnen to step aside before then, fearful that his continued presence as speaker would be a liability during the election season.
There has been speculation that he could leave and name an interim Republican replacement. The current second-in-command is a Democrat, Representative Joe Moody of El Paso, who is the House speaker pro tempore; Mr. Bonnen has described Mr. Moody as a capable speaker if the Democrats took control of the House.
The scandal surrounding Mr. Bonnen as well as his impending departure have energized Democrats. Republicans have dominated Texas politics for more than two decades, but Democratic gains in the last election suggest they could be within reach of seizing control of the House for the first time since 2003.
“Texans are tired of politicians, like Republican Speaker Bonnen, who use back-room deals, cover-ups and outright lies to pursue power over everything,” the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, said. “Now more than ever, it is clear that only the election of Texas Democrats will return ethics and good governance to our great state.”
Governor Abbott, a Republican, applauded Mr. Bonnen’s legislative service in a statement and called on Republicans “to unite and work together” to maintain their majority in the House in the 2020 elections.
Mr. Jones said it was clear before Tuesday’s announcement that Mr. Bonnen would not be renominated for speaker by the Republican Caucus. His decision not to seek re-election, Mr. Jones said, “should calm the waters.”
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: House Speaker in Texas Will Bow Out in Scandal. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
