Vikki Goodwin Names a Bipartisan Transition Team as GOP Senators Weigh Her Powers

Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin named a bipartisan transition team Tuesday at the Texas Capitol, her first press conference since she defeated Republican Dan Patrick last week, The Texas Tribune reported.

"I understand the immense responsibility of this position and I am ready to take it on," Goodwin said, according to the Tribune. She is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 19, and the 90th Legislature convenes Jan. 12, KVUE reported.

The Tribune said longtime Texas political operative Angela Hale will serve as executive director. It listed outgoing Democratic state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, former Democratic state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte — the party's 2014 nominee for lieutenant governor — and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, also a former Democratic senator, as co-chairs. KHOU and KVUE described Turner as chairing the team.

"Over the past week, we have put together an exceptional transition team that will help me build a great staff and hit the ground running," Goodwin said, according to KVUE. "We're focused on ensuring the Senate will operate effectively, and my office stands ready to work with all senators to accomplish the business of the state."

Republicans, and registered lobbyists, on the list

The Tribune said the leadership also includes former Republican state Sens. Kel Seliger, who left the Senate in 2023 after nearly two decades and was often at odds with Patrick, and Tommy Williams, a veteran of both chambers who also advised Gov. Greg Abbott on fiscal matters.

Also named, according to the Tribune, are Judd Messer, a former chief of staff to Lufkin Republican Trent Ashby, who was elected to the Senate last week; Denise Davis and Jesse Ancira Jr., both former chiefs of staff to former Republican House Speaker Joe Straus; and retired Republican Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips.

Seliger told KVUE that cooperation will matter once the new officials take office. "Starting on January 19, 181 members of the legislature, lieutenant governor and the governor all have issues of importance to them and agenda, and if they're going to be successful in any measure, they have to cooperate, and hopefully that cooperation begins through this transition," he said.

The Tribune reported that Williams is one of at least eight registered lobbyists leading the transition, along with Hale and Van de Putte, and that those lobbyists make up a majority of the 14 names announced Tuesday. Dock Line has not independently checked the lobby registrations. Nothing in state law bars lobbyists from serving on a transition team, the Tribune noted, though the appointments can create the appearance that clients will have influence.

Randy Erben, a University of Texas at Austin law professor and a former lobbyist, told the Tribune the practice is permissible under the state's ethics rules as long as the advisers remain in an advisory role. If they were hired as state employees, they would have to deregister, he said.

The Tribune also noted that Patrick announced Monday he is forming a consulting firm, Patrick Strategies, that will "advise clients on legislative and business development matters," and that he said he "will not serve as a lobbyist."

A Democratic lieutenant governor and a Republican Senate

Republicans will still hold 19 of the Senate's 31 seats. Most of the modern lieutenant governor's power comes from Senate rules, not from the Texas Constitution, and a simple majority can change those rules. We covered that fight this morning in Dan Patrick Backs GOP Senators Changing Rules to Curb Vikki Goodwin's Powers. Patrick said Monday he thinks senators should rewrite the rules. No change has been filed or adopted.

Asked Tuesday how she will work with the GOP majority, Goodwin pointed to eight years in a Republican-controlled House, the Tribune reported. "When you get a bill passed in the House, you still have to work to get it passed through the Senate," she said. "I have that experience already of finding common ground with even the Republican senators."

"It is not going to be one person's agenda. It is an agenda formed by all of the senators," she said, according to KHOU. "My focus right now is sitting down with each senator, many of whom I worked with while in the House, to talk about their individual priorities and how we can work together."

KVUE reported she named public education, affordability and health care as priorities, said she opposes school vouchers, wants to re-examine state takeovers of school districts, and supports more oversight of data centers. Those are positions, not laws. Bills still have to pass a Republican Senate.

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat and the Senate's longest-serving member, told KVUE she is confident senators will "unite behind her and doing what's best for the people of Texas." KVUE and KHOU reported Goodwin will be the first woman to hold the office. KVUE also reported she noted that the state's top three Capitol leaders — Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, herself and presumptive House Speaker Senfronia Thompson — will all be women, and that Texas has never had a woman speaker or lieutenant governor. Dock Line has not independently audited that historical claim.

Names are not the same as votes

A transition team can hire staff and open doors. It cannot write the Senate rules, pass a bill or settle whether Republican senators will leave the gavel intact. Hiring people from both parties is a start, and it is also a press conference. The test comes in January, in public, on the bills and the rules.

Proverbs 11:14 says, "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety." The value of Tuesday's list will be measured by whether those counselors help the Senate do the state's business in the open — not by how bipartisan the announcement looked on the first day.