Briscoe Cain Went Full-On Fascist In Racist Attack On Voting Rights

Representative Briscoe Cain
R–Deer Park
When Dade Phelan tapped Cain to chair the House Elections Committee, some speculated that the Speaker must have been trying to sink the politically charged “election integrity” legislation. After all, in his first two terms, Cain showed an aptitude for little more than getting dunked on by his colleagues. Last session, he was relegated to the chairmanship of the backwater Select Committee on Driver’s License Issuance and Renewal. So why would Phelan give the Legislature’s chief bumbler such a delicate assignment, under a harsh national spotlight?


As it turned out, Republican leaders didn’t need a dealmaker to push through one of their top priorities; they just needed someone who’d eat dirt for them. And, boy, did Cain eat dirt. In committee, this small-government crusader seemed unable to describe his own bill, refused to take questions from the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, and got into a tussle for the gavel with his vice chair, Democrat Jessica González. Then he abruptly recessed the committee, violating House rules and robbing hundreds of witnesses, some of whom traveled long distances, of the opportunity to testify that day. One Republican member began referring to himself as “Briscoe’s babysitter.” For his part, Cain blamed the committee kerfuffle on COVID-19 protocols that kept him from getting to know González. “I do wonder if things would have been different,” he said.

Things got even worse when his bill reached the floor. One of the viral moments of the session came when Representative Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat, explained that language in Cain’s legislation regarding the “purity of the ballot box” was a Reconstruction-era phrase used to justify the disenfranchisement of Black Texans. Cain suddenly looked like a panicked Boys State participant. That day, he was locked out of negotiations over his own bill.

Cain was unchastened: he continued to insist he was defending the state against the specter of voter fraud. But he also seemed to be enjoying it. At a House football game, he tried to reprise his glory days as a high school cheerleader by doing a cartwheel. The next day, he arrived at the House on a crutch.