AUSTIN — A group of Republican state lawmakers is claiming there is no competitive race for speaker of the House as they seek to unify their party ahead of the next legislative session.

In a joint statement released Thursday night, the seven legislators from North Texas claim four-fifths of their caucus is backing Joe Straus, the three-term speaker who’s facing a long-shot challenge from Rep. Scott Turner, R-Frisco. Turner has said he wants the House to put the contest to a vote on the first day of the session.

Urging “unprecedented unity,” the lawmakers argue now’s not the time for their party to splinter if they want to keep up the momentum gained from resounding wins on Election Day in Texas and across the country. The statement lists several accomplishments the legislators say they’ve been proud of under Straus, R-San Antonio, including strict abortion regulations and a voter ID law seen as the toughest in the country.

“No action of the Legislature is more divisive than a Speaker’s race,” the statement reads. “This is particularly true when, as in the current situation, the challenger has less than 20 votes out of 150 under any legitimate scenario. Over 80% of the Republican members of the Texas House support the reelection of Speaker Straus and we are among those ranks.”

The group that issued the statement includes Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, who stunned a tea party audience Monday in Tarrant County when he declared, “The reality is, there is no race for Scott Turner versus Joe Straus.” Conservative activists say Capriglione’s comments amount to a betrayal because he rode into office on a wave of anti-Straus sentiment in 2012.

The other legislators who signed off on the statement are Reps. Tan Parker of Flower Mound, Ron Simmons of Carrollton, Phil King of Weatherford, Myra Crownover of Denton, Drew Springer of Muenster and James Frank of Wichita Falls.