Senfronia Thompson says she has the votes to become the first woman and first Black Texas House speaker
State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest-serving woman and the longest-serving Black legislator in any state, said Friday that she has enough votes to win the Texas House speaker’s gavel when the Legislature convenes in January.
Her announcement came hours after state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., a centrist Democrat from Eagle Pass and Thompson’s only other competitor for the post, dropped his bid and endorsed her. Thompson did not release a list of supporters or say how many members she has in her corner, noting only that she has enough to hit the 76 votes needed to control the 150-member House.
“The bottom line is, the majority of the House has pledged to me,” Thompson said at a news conference at the Capitol, flanked by a crowd of legislators that included a handful of Republicans.
If elected, the Houston Democrat, 87, would become the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to serve as Texas House speaker.
Thompson’s bid for the gavel comes after Texas Democrats routed Republicans in Tuesday’s midterms, sweeping every statewide seat on the ballot and winning their first majority in the Texas House since 2003. Democrats were poised to control more than 80 seats in the chamber, with some races yet to be officially called because they were decided by razor-thin margins.
The power shift all but ensures that Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows of Lubbock will lose the gavel. In Burrows’ first term, Republicans unleashed new levels of partisan domination over the minority party and passed a slate of long-elusive GOP priorities, including a new school voucher system, further restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights and a rare mid-decade gerrymander of Texas’ congressional map, which backfired this week.
Thompson said the House would not be a “dictatorship” under her watch, and she said she would appoint members of both parties to chair committees — resuming a tradition of bipartisan panel leadership scrapped by the Burrows-led House.
“I’m not here to punish anybody. I did that when I was a parent,” Thompson 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 is “going to take all of us working together, the expertise of Republicans and the expertise of Democrats, working as a unit,” she said, adding that the chamber would no longer engage in “bickering and fighting about little wee wee things that have no place within our legislative process.”
At least three Republican lawmakers attended Thompson's news conference: State Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth and Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi. All are veteran House members who currently chair committees and who are part of the chamber’s moderate GOP wing.
If her coalition stays intact through January, Thompson would become the first Democrat to control the speaker’s gavel since Pete Laney of Hale Center, whose decade-long run ended when Republicans took over in 2003. His successor, GOP state Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland, still serves in the House.
Thompson’s elevation to the speakership would also make for a historic trio of Texas’ top state-level officials, alongside Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa and Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin: Texas’s “Big Three” has never before been all women. The speaker controls the flow and overall fate of legislation in the House, making it one of the most powerful roles in state government.
Thompson launched her run for speaker around midnight on election night, as returns were still coming in. A news release announcing her candidacy was accompanied by a list of 10 Democratic House members, including four colleagues from Houston, offering what could be an early glimpse of her leadership team — the speaker’s inner circle entrusted to chair key committees.
Affectionately referred to as “Ms. T” and respected on both sides of the aisle, Thompson was first elected to the Texas House in 1972, making the next session her 28th. Her supporters heralded her longtime leadership — she has long served as a voice for decorum and civilized debate in the Texas House — and said she would be an inclusive speaker focused on policy and returning bipartisanship to an institution increasingly cleaved by partisan battles in recent years.
“Dean Thompson’s leadership provides Texas and Texans an opportunity to realize the benefit of leadership focused on policy vs. politics,” state Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, said in a statement appended to Thompson’s speaker candidacy announcement. “Her understanding and commitment to governing for all vs. a political agenda to exclude some will make a difference for all Texans. The message from this election is clear. Texans want their government to work for them.”
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune. 