Senfronia Thompson says she has the votes to become the first woman and first Black Texas House speaker
By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune
November 6, 2026
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. State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, described her majority as “overwhelming” and increasing “every minute,” with every Democratic member and a growing number of Republican supporters behind her.
“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 150-member 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’s rapid coalescing of support marked a significant early show of unity among the new Democratic majority, with lawmakers on Friday emphasizing the numerous policy priorities they had to tackle ranging from education and property taxes to healthcare.
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.”
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, including through committee leadership appointments and oversight of floor debates, 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.
The initial support came from Anchía and state Reps. Jessica González and Toni Rose of Dallas; Diego Bernal of San Antonio; Erin Gámez of Brownsville; Donna Howard of Austin; and Ana Hernandez, Ann Johnson, Armando Walle and Gene Wu of Houston.
Other early supporters included state Reps. Ramon Romero of Fort Worth and Barbara Gervin-Hawkins of San Antonio, who lead the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, respectively; John Bryant, Yvonne Davis and Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos of Dallas; Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio; Christina Morales of Houston; and Ron Reynolds of Missouri City.
The group of lawmakers that surrounded Thompson on Friday was far more expansive, and included newly elected Democrats from across the state, in addition to at least three Republicans: state Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo, Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi and Charlie Geren of Fort Worth.
In a brief interview, Darby said he was “encouraged by her words about bipartisanship” and planned to ensure Thompson, who would be the first speaker in several years from a major urban metro, heard from rural communities.
“I have served under a bipartisan administration,” Darby said. “We got great things done. There are great needs in this state right now, and we need to work together to make sure that we meet the needs of our state.”
State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress and chair of the House Republican Caucus, said some Republicans told him they respect the role of the caucus but plan to support Thompson because she is a longtime friend. The GOP caucus’ rules direct members to vote for the group’s endorsed candidate, which has not yet been decided.
“I’m not going to judge them for that — that doesn’t mean that others won’t,” Oliverson said in an interview Friday morning. “I believe that the vast majority of Republicans are going to hold together and make a decision together, and be united and be an opposition party next session.”
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. She became known throughout her time in office for her advocacy on behalf of the downtrodden and the marginalized — “let the little dogs eat,” she would say as she fought for measures like raising the minimum wage, providing support to sexual abuse victims and protecting LGBTQ+ people from hate crimes.
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,” Davis said in a statement. “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.”
In dropping his speaker candidacy Friday, Morales Jr., the Eagle Pass Democrat, said he believes Thompson “understands the pivotal and significant role the border and rural communities played in turning Texas blue.” He said he feels “comfortable that the border coalition will have a voice in her administration.”
As the press conference wrapped, the room in the Capitol overflowing with reporters, staff and lobbyists taking in the historic moment, Gervin-Hawkins began to tear up.
“To see the level of support Ms. T has, having the first African-American woman, who was one of the first women — to be here and to be able to look at it in this time, it just was overwhelming to me,” she said.
Renzo Downey contributed reporting.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune. 
