Republicans Backing Dem for House Leader
Include 1st Speaker for GOP Since the 1870s

Capitol Inside
November 6, 2026

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson rolled out a list early Friday evening with the names of 90 Texas House members who've pledged to support her bid for the chamber's top leadership post - with all of the Democrats and eight GOP colleagues including the original Republican speaker on board for the ride.

The longtime Houston lawmaker announced at a news conference earlier this afternoon that she had more than enough voters to become the new House speaker in the wake of a tsunami that washed the Republican majority away in Tuesday's midterm election. Thompson made the representatives who are in her corner public a couple of hours later in a social media post.

"I am honored to have secured the support of this growing bipartisan coalition of 90 Members," Thompson said on X. "I look forward to leading the Texas House as Speaker."

Thompson's bipartisan coalition features all of the chamber's Democratic incumbents and incoming members who won seats in the lower chamber at the polls this week. The Democrats will enter the regular session in January with 82 seats compared to 68 for the GOP. The Republicans had an 88-62 advantage until the general election on Tuesday when Democrats flipped 20 House seats.

The list of Thompson backers has 19 Democrats who will be freshmen after winning House seats that Republicans were attempting to defend. Twenty-nine Thompson supporters will be freshmen class members in 2027. The Republicans who appear on the Thompson pledge list include Tom Craddick - the first speaker for the GOP in Austin since Reconstruction when he won the gavel initially in 2023 after the party seized the majority at the polls the year before.

Thompson's pledged supporters include four of the current Republican leadership team's most powerful members - State Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi and Ken King of Canadian. Republican State Reps. Pat Curry of Longview, Jay Dean of Longview and J.M. Lozano appears on the Thompson supporter roster.

Darby is a 20-year House veteran who's chaired the Energy Resources since the start of last year. Hunter is a former House Democrat who chairs the powerful Calendars Committee after a stint as the State Affaris Committee leader. Geren was back in his familiar role as the House Administration Committee chairman after four years in other leadership posts. King leads the State Affairs Committee - the chamber's third most powerful standing panel.

Lozano's presence on the Democrat's backer list raised eyebrows as a former Democratic member who'd taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years. Lozano had voted with 59 fellow Republicans for Ken Paxton's impeachment in 2023 before apologizing profusely to the attorney general for turning against him. Curry is a freshman who won a second term at the ballot box this week.

Twenty-nine of the Democrats on Thompson's pledge list are incoming members in one of the largest freshmen classes ever in Austin.

more to come ...

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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