Senfronia Thompson Says She Has the Votes for House Speaker After Morales Ends His Bid
Thompson released a Nov. 6 list of 90 pledges after Morales dropped out. Those pledges are not the January speaker vote.
As of Friday's Tribune reporting, the Democratic speaker field narrowed after Eddie Morales Jr. ended his bid. State Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston said she has the votes, released a list of 90 supporters including eight Republicans, and saw her only announced Democratic rival drop out, The Texas Tribune reported Friday, Nov. 6. No later reporting through Nov. 9 was found that overturns those pledges or reopens a competing Democratic bid, but pledges are not the January election.
If her coalition holds when the 90th Legislature convenes Jan. 12, the 87-year-old Democrat known as Ms. T would become the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to wield the speaker's gavel. She would also be the first Democrat in the chair since Pete Laney left after Republicans took the House in 2003.
How the field cleared
Thompson launched her bid around midnight on election night, as returns were still coming in. Hours before her Friday news conference, state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass ended his own speaker bid and endorsed her, the Tribune reported. Morales said he believes Thompson "understands the pivotal and significant role the border and rural communities played in turning Texas blue" and that he feels "comfortable that the border coalition will have a voice in her administration."
State Rep. Rafael Anchía of Dallas described her majority as "overwhelming" and said every Democratic member, plus a growing number of Republicans, was behind her. At the Capitol, Thompson said, "The bottom line is, the majority of the House has pledged to me."
It takes 76 votes to elect a speaker in the 150-member House. The Tribune reported Democrats were poised to control more than 80 seats, with some races still unofficial; a Democratic candidate can win without Republican help if that majority holds. Thompson is also seeking Republican support.
What she says she will do
Thompson told reporters the House would not be a "dictatorship" under her watch. She said she would appoint members of both parties to chair committees, restoring a bipartisan practice the Burrows-led House dropped. "I'm not here to punish anybody. I did that when I was a parent," she said. "But I have my own ideas, and I expect members to represent their districts, to work hard and to deliver to the people things that we promised we were going to do."
Doing that, she said, will take "the expertise of Republicans and the expertise of Democrats, working as a unit," without "bickering and fighting about little wee wee things that have no place within our legislative process."
Republican state Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo, one of at least three Republicans who appeared with her Friday, said he was "encouraged by her words about bipartisanship" and planned to make sure a speaker from a major metro heard from rural communities. House Republican Caucus Chair Tom Oliverson of Cypress said some Republicans respect the caucus but plan to support Thompson as a longtime friend. The caucus has not yet endorsed a candidate, and its rules direct members to vote for the group’s choice.
Current Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, will leave the post when the new session begins.
What still has to happen
A pledge in November is not a vote in January. Coalitions can fray. Committee chairs, calendar control and the fate of bills on education, taxes, the border and the budget will test whether "working as a unit" means shared power or shared talking points.
Republicans still control the Texas Senate. Any Democratic House agenda still has to clear a GOP-led upper chamber before it reaches Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa. We laid out that divided-government math when the speaker race first opened in Democrats Flip Texas House Seats and Eye Their First Majority Since 2003. The Speaker Race Has Already Begun.
If she is elected, Thompson's speakership would also complete a historic lineup alongside Hinojosa and Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin: Texas' governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker would all be women for the first time. That is a milestone. It is not, by itself, a policy record.
Judge the gavel by the fruit
Thompson has served in the House since her first election in 1972. Supporters praise her focus on the vulnerable and on decorum. Critics will watch how she uses committee power, whether she keeps her bipartisan promise and whether the House under her watch tells the truth about costs, crime and the unborn.
Christians do not owe any party a blank check. Second Samuel 23:3 says, "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." The speaker's race matters because the speaker decides which bills live and which die. Texans should take Thompson at her word about bipartisanship, then measure her by what the House actually passes.
