State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat and longtime ally of the LGBTQ+ community in Texas, announced at a news conference earlier today (Friday, Nov. 6), that she has enough votes to win the position of Speaker of the House when the Texas Legislature convenes in January, according to reports from the University of Houston’s Houston Public Media website and a number of other sources.
Thompson’s announcement came after state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass dropped his bid for the speaker’s seat and endorsed Thompson.
If she wins the speaker’s chair, Rep. Thomas will be the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to be Speaker of the Texas House.
Texas Democrats won every statewide office in the Nov. 3 midterms, and although Republicans still hold a seven-seat majority in the state Senate, Democrats will now have control of the House for the first time since 2003.
Based on races already settled after the election and the expected outcome of those as yet not officially declared, Democrats will likely start the 2027 legislative session with a 16-seat majority. And despite the GOP majority in the state Senate, newly-elected Lt. Gov. Vikki Goodwin, the Democrat who ousted incumbent Republican Dan Patrick, will be that chamber’s presiding officer.
Rep. Thompson’s years-long support for the LGBTQ+ community includes:
• Opposing efforts to ban transgender people from public restrooms (Her emotionally-charged speech against such bans on the floor of the House in 2017, Thompson liked such restrictions to her own lived experience under Jim Crow segregation laws)
• Authoring legislation in the 2013 session to prohibit insurance providers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
• Working with her Democratic colleagues to block anti-LGBTQ+ amendments to other legislation
• Opposing efforts to ban transgender student athletes from gendered sports, and much more.
