Thompson Names Bipartisan Team for Shift
as Patrick Pitches GOP Senate Stranglehold
Capitol Inside
November 10, 2026
Veteran Democratic lawmaker Senfronia Thompson enlisted three former former Texas House speakers from each major party for a transition team that she unveiled on Tuesday as she gears for her ascension to the powerful leadership post as a product of last week's blue tsunami.
After promising to restore the chamber's bipartisan tradition when she locked the job down late last week, Thompson is taking the House in the opposite direction that outgoing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is urging Republicans to take in the Senate after voters gave him the boot at the polls a week ago.
A Houston attorney who's been a member of the Legislature's lower chamber for more than half a century, Thompson named former Democratic House leaders Ben Barnes, Gib Lewis and Pete Laney to the group that will help her make the shift to the speaker's office as the first Democrat to hold the post in two dozen years.
Thompson also added three ex-Republican speakers - Joe Straus, Dennis Bonnen and Dade Phelan - to the transition team for her elevation to the pinnacle of power in the Texas Capitol's west wing.
"These former Speakers know the House does its best work when Members treat each other with respect, put their districts first and take care of the people's business," Thompson said. "I'm grateful that they're willing to help the House get off to a good start."
Voters paved the Thompson's path to the speaker's position when they elected Democrats in 20 Texas House districts that the GOP controlled before the second midterm election on President Donald Trump's watch. Democrats ran the table in statewide races - flipping all of 15 that were on the Texas ballot last week. Democrats transformed two U.S. House seats from red to blue on a congressional map that Republicans redrew last year for a five-seat GOP gain at Trump's command last year. Democrats flipped the State Board of Education as well in the midterm vote last week.
Aside from U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and a pair of railroad commissioners, the Texas Senate majority is all the Republicans here have left. But GOP control in the upper chamber could be in the twilight stages with Trump in the White House for two more years and three or more Senate Republicans in districts they may have no chance to win again when they're on the ballot again in 2028.
Patrick said in a radio interview on Monday that the Senate Republicans should strip Democratic Lieutenant Governor-elect Vikki Goodwin of her powers in a move that could paralyze the Legislature in 2027 and spell doom for the GOP majority in the Texas Capitol's east wing two years from now.
Patrick sought to temper the push for the partisan power play after getting tossed by a majority of the voters - telling conservative radio host Mark Davis that he'd planned to get the senators to weaken the Senate president's powers if he'd been re-elected to the post as he expected to be before the election. The lame duck leader didn't say why he'd been content to wield a record amount of power during three terms over the course of a dozen years if he believes now if the clout he had was excessive.
But after micromanaging the Senate Republicans and punishing those who'd dare to defy him, Patrick has put the senators for the GOP in a major bind. Patrick's pressing is forcing the Republican senators to decide how much they value the advice of someone who ran for months as a prohibitive favorite, raised almost $26 million compared to the Democratic challenger's $3 million haul and lost the race by more than 6 percentage points at the polls.
more to come ...
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