Houston's Senfronia Thompson Says She Has 90 Supporters for Texas House Speaker

AUSTIN - The next speaker of the Texas House is on track to come from Houston. 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 speaker's gavel when the Legislature convenes in January, the Texas Tribune reports - and she put a number on it: a list of 90 supporters in the 150-member House, including eight Republicans, where 76 votes elect the speaker.

The race effectively ended hours before she spoke. Her only remaining competitor, Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., a centrist Democrat from Eagle Pass, dropped his bid Friday and endorsed her, saying he believes Thompson understands the role border and rural communities played in turning Texas blue. Flanked by a crowd of legislators at the Capitol, Thompson kept her claim plain: 'The bottom line is, the majority of the House has pledged to me.' Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, one of her earliest backers, described her majority as 'overwhelming' and increasing 'every minute.'

The history in front of her is not small. Thompson, 87, was first elected in 1972 and took office in 1973; the session that opens January 12 will be her 28th. If her coalition holds, she becomes the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to serve as Texas House speaker, and the first Democrat to hold the gavel since Pete Laney, whose run ended when Republicans took the chamber in 2003 - the same year Democrats just avenged, winning their first House majority since then and standing poised to control more than 80 seats, with some races still uncalled. She would succeed Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows of Lubbock. Alongside Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa and Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin, her election would also give Texas an all-women 'Big Three' for the first time.

How she says she will run the House is the other half of the story. Thompson pledged the chamber would not be a 'dictatorship' under her watch and said she would restore the tradition of appointing members of both parties to chair committees. 'I'm not here to punish anybody. I did that when I was a parent,' she 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.' The Republican reaction, so far, is notably unhostile: Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo said he was 'encouraged by her words about bipartisanship,' and Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress, who chairs the House Republican Caucus, acknowledged some Republicans will back Thompson out of longtime friendship - 'I'm not going to judge them for that,' he said - while expecting most of his caucus to unite behind its own eventual choice. The formal vote waits for January 12; between now and then, Thompson's job is simply to keep 90 promises warm.