Senfronia Thompson’s Speaker Bid Battleground Texas

Hello, everyone. I'm Rudy Kosky in Austin. I'm Greg Grugan in Houston. Stephen is off, so joining us today is author and Rice University Baker Institute fellow, Bill King. Let's get going. Following a massive blue wave at the ballot box, the race is officially on for the next speaker of the Texas House. And longtime representative Houston Democrat Sinfronia Thompson has officially launched her bid, speaking about her candidacy just about an hour ago. This is a people house. And they have been kind enough to send us here as a majority to work with the minority. And you know that I came in 1973. I have worked with the majority, and I have worked with the minority. I have been chairman of committees, and I have been vice chairman of committees. And ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you something. When we work on issues, you don't look whether or not you're working with a Republican or Democrat. Can we get a solution that's going to benefit the people of this state of Texas? And also, I'm expecting them to represent their districts. The people who sit up here is who they need to dance with. And not forget who brought them to the dance. We want to make sure. That this legislature, don't forget, who brought us to the dance. That's right. And we want to make sure that we dance on those issues that's going to be important and impactful for them. Education, health care, you name it. It's just so many issues. And we're willing, and we're rolling up our sleeves, and we're ready to go. We're ready to fight for the people of Texas. Thompson was first elected to the House in 1972, representing the 89th District, then the 141st. She holds the record as the longest-serving woman and African American in Texas legislative history. During her five decades in office, she's championed civil rights, health care, and criminal justice reform. She's also led the state's ongoing fight against human trafficking and domestic violence. Yeah, impressive resume. Now, last night, current Speaker Pro Tem Joe Moody, a Democrat from El Paso, released a statement throwing his full support behind Thompson. Moody stated that after Democrats won big, the party now has to do the job the voters expect. And he believes Thompson is the one to make that happen. He pointed to her deep experience and ability to balance priorities as the key to keeping the House effective in this historic moment. Now, a lot of people, like me, thought Representative Moody was the more likely candidate. If Thompson does become House Speaker, it will be the first time that the Texas Big Three, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, all women. And don't forget Sarah Eckhart. She's the comptroller. Now, I spoke to SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson and asked him if this House move is more about making a statement in history than reversing policy. Well, some revision of policy is going to be in the cards no matter who the Democrats choose as their speaker because they can't have epic victories like this and take over the House and not try to make some policy modifications. Their base would demand that. So I think that will happen no matter what. But the reality is they're deeply constrained in what they can do because Republicans still have a strong majority in the state Senate. The other thing is that. Democrats aren't quite sure how enduring this shift is going to be. The jury is still out on whether this is a blip and an anomaly or whether this is a new normal in terms of Texas politics. So I think if they do in fact select Thompson, she is not a firebrand. She is someone who has a degree of admiration and respect from people on the Republican side. We have to remember that within the Democratic Party. Identity politics always matters a lot. And so questions of race, gender factor into this. This is a long serving African American representative. And of course, African Americans are a critical component of the Democratic base and of their victories. So I think they would certainly want to avoid any appearance of snubbing. Yeah, definitely don't want to do that. We've got a lot more to talk about this historic moment in Texas history, and we'll do just that when Battleground continues. If Representative Sinfronia Thompson secures the House Speaker's gavel, it will cap off a trio of historic firsts for the highest levels of Texas government. Just look at this new power dynamic. A Latina in the governor's mansion with Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, a woman presiding over the Senate in Lieutenant Governor-elect Vicki Goodwin, and a black woman leading the House as Speaker. Each milestone historic in its own right. But together representing a transformation of leadership Texas has never, ever seen before. All right, guys, we all have a Miss T story, even me. I'll be forever grateful to Miss T for rescuing the Cameras and Special Needs Classrooms Initiative built on Fox 26 reporting, which almost died in the waning hours of a session until she personally intervened and pushed it across the finish line and into law, protecting untold thousands of Texas kids from abuse. Now, just had to get that on the record. Bill King, you've known Sinfronia Thompson for decades, and I'm guessing you think this is a wise choice. I'm going to tell you I'm thrilled about this choice. Mrs. T, as she's known by everyone affectionately, is liked by everybody universally in Austin. I've never seen anything quite like it. She's respected. She's been there for so long. She knows the process. She believes in the process. She believes in right order. So I think this, they couldn't possibly pick a better speaker as far as I'm concerned. Thank you. I'll tell you, she's a very quiet, reserved person. But don't let you get her dander up because I've seen her at that back mic when she thought that people were being abused. And she does not suffer fools at all. All right, Rudy, I'm jumping in here. You know, Bill left out the fact that he actually hired Ms. T when he was managing partner over at the line barter firm, but I'll let him deal with that later. Rudy, you've spent a good chunk of your adult life covering the Texas ledge, and I have watched Sinfronia Thompson up close, and you have too. What's your assessment? Is she the right leader for a house that hasn't been in Democratic hands for 20-plus years? You know, it's certainly a feel-good moment right now, right? My sources tell me that the Dean of the House was ready just to retire and agreed to take on this new top job only as a caretaker type of role. Matthew Wilson saying electing Thompson, Speaker, could help protect some of those young new Democrats from getting beaten up come January if the Texas GOP wakes up and rebounds in 28, 2030. So supposedly the current speaker, Dustin Burroughs, is already working on a return to power plan. Another potential speaker candidate could still emerge, although State Representative Eddie Morales Jr. from Eagle Pass, who initially said he'd run, has now backed out. But there is word Republicans will still try to find support for a moderate Democrat. There are a few notable Republicans to point out at Thompson's announcement, though Republican-wise. Todd Hunter, Charlie Guerin, and Drew Darby, Greg. All right, Bill, Republicans in the House are reeling, having been reduced to minority status. Democrats are understandably giddy, having long suffered under pretty heavy-handed GOP rule. The instinct is retribution and payback. I'm guessing you believe Sinfronia, by sheer force of personality, can keep her majority caucus focused on the constructive better than most. Look, she's got four decades of experience. She knows how the House works. She knows you don't get anything done with those kind of tactics. Look, she has worked with people from across the party line for all these years. And I can just tell you, I remember one time when Rick Perry came in to give a state speech, And because she's the dean of the House, she sits on the very front row. And he walked in, and he was the first person, she was the first person he called out. And he said, I'm so glad to see you here, Representative Thompson, sitting in your place of honor exactly the way it should be. That's the kind of respect she has across the spectrum in Austin. All right, Rudy, same question to you. Is Symphonia Thompson the right leader for the divided rules session on the near horizon? Well, you know, how can you go against Mrs. T? She's one of the nicest ladies around. But, you know, she has that what does grandmama think persona, and you don't want to upset grandmama. But the political agenda for the House moving that, you know, maybe she's just serving it up, not really setting it. So that raises the question, who's the power behind the curtain? Who's really pulling the strings? A full contact, hard left session in the House? That could point to current minority leader Gene Wu. Wilson thinks a politically combative tone out of the House would crash right into that GOP firewall in the Senate. And that could also deep-six any hopes for compromise on hot topics like abortion and voting rules. Greg? All right, Rudy. The governor-elect promises a bipartisan administration led by a transition team that itself is bipartisan. We break down their plans when Battleground Texas continues. Welcome back. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has announced her bipartisan transition team. Former Austin ISD trustee Tamela Barksdale will act as a senior advisor, helping shape education strategy. She tapped former Republican State Representative Ernest Bales, an East Texas rancher, and Ryan Pollack, a top labor leader with the State Building and Construction Trades Council, to serve as co-chairs. And Houston native Joe Madden will serve as the transition's executive director. Over the last eight years I've had the fortune of working in Harris County with Harris County governmental leaders. One of the things that I specialize in is transitions and building governments that deliver on the promises that were made by these elected officials. Thank you very much. Through those roles I also managed several different emergencies, pandemics, floods, fires, explosions, and managed a multi-billion dollar budget. Texas is home. It's where I'm raising my kids. It's where I'm lucky enough to coach baseball and softball. I'm doing this job for the governor-elect to deliver on her promise to my kids and her promise to the kids all across the state of Texas. We're gonna deliver a vision for Texas that belongs to the people by the people. Well, this is the first time in a very long time that there's been a transition from one party to another party at the governor's mansion. You have to go all the way back to Ann Richards, 36 years ago when Bill Clements, the incumbent at the time who didn't seek reelection, and she defeated the GOP nominee, Clayton Williams. So it's a very, very long time. I spoke to Chuck McDonald, who worked for Richards, about this transition process then and now. No, it really was not a tough transition. Ann Richards actually inherited the governor's office from Bill Clements, who really didn't have that much interest in the whole process by the time we got there. And they were glad to turn things over to us and patted us on the back and said, good luck. I think it's important to remember the biggest challenge we face, and it will be even a bigger challenge for Governor Hinojosa's team, is the state regulatory agencies who do report to the executive branch as well as the legislative branch. You have people take a state agency like TCEQ, the environmental agency. You could have worked there 30 years, and you've never, ever Had a Democratic executive directing what their expectations are for the agency. With that said, can't she really hit the ground running? She's got 60 days here to prepare herself for this monumental task. I think as hard as Gina Hinojosa and her team work to get elected, they are going to dive right into this. I remember I remember we had a retreat where all the Richards leadership came together for like five really intensive days of white boarding everything we wanted to do in that first month. And I very much suspect that's what Gina Hinojosa and her folks will do something like that. All right, guys, the Clements exit back in 1990 was the second time that he had to turn over the keys to the mansion. The first time was to Democrat Mark White, which reportedly was not very cordial. Chuck noted how Greg Abbott was able to quickly call Gina Hinojosa on election night, promising to help with the transition. Greg, we both know Abbott. That call, no surprise to me. I'm sure no surprise for you. But I'm wondering if he's trying to make sure that a lot of his economic irons that are still in the fire are going to stay hot. What's your take? Rudy, I think Greg Abbott is even more gobsmacked by this loss than all the other Republicans who hitched their wagons to Donald Trump. I think a case can be made that he was, and I'm talking about Abbott, collateral damage in a scenario which prevented himself from distancing himself from the president for a fear of losing a vital chunk of his base. As for the economic irons in the fire, I'm guessing Team Hinojosa will welcome Any help keeping the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment on track along with the jobs they bring? With a clear understanding that there's a new sheriff in town and unlike the Abbott administration, organized labor clearly has a very big seat at the table along with environmental activists. So stay tuned, everybody. You know, Chuck told me that he remembers how their transition team only had one cell phone between them all and they all had to share it. You know, technology certainly is different now from the 90s. Bill, social media increasing the pressure for instant change. I think that's the biggest challenge for Team Blue. Bipartisans pledge. Can it survive? What's your thought? No, I think for sure that the Democratic base will be looking for a lot of quick victories Those are not likely to come. First of all, it's surprising how little power the governor has in Texas. A lot of it resides in the Senate with the lieutenant governor. Of course, they hold that seat, but she's got to work with a majority of Republicans. So I'm not sure we're going to see a whole lot get done this first session, which will start here in just a couple of months. But there are some things that I could see us working out. I could see... A rape incest exception to the abortion law, I could see some structure around what data centers are going to look like, what kind of regulations they have to follow. There are some things that are bipartisan, and I think that if Hinojosa and the Democrats are smart, they'll go for those kind of things, and I think that's exactly the kind of thing that Ms. T would like to see. Yeah, I got to agree with you on that one. Ann Richards, somewhat of a political deity for Democrats, guys, but she was one and done as a governor. Hinojosa made a lot of promises, cash from the Rainy Day Fund, lowering your property taxes, which is really a local level problem. Maybe she'll change that appraisal district stuff that I've been pushing for for so long, Greg. Greg, you know, Do you think that voter apathy could really hurt her at the very end if she doesn't get enough done for the Democrats and that's the rebound for Republicans? Look, if the economy bounces back, Hinojosa will get some credit whether she has anything to do with it or not. As we learned in this election, independents are the deciders and Hinojosa needs to focus on delivering the improvement they want versus the ancillary culture and social welfare stuff. All right. Our final shots when we come back. Welcome back to the part of our show we reserve to settle all family business. I'll go first. As we were going on the air, I learned President Trump appointed Stephen Miller as his chief of staff, the same Stephen Miller who pushed the administration to conduct the heavy-handed and often deadly deportation policy, which has probably cost the Republican Party 20 or 30 seats in Congress and contributed mightily to the loss of the Senate. In my opinion, giving Stephen Miller even more influence and power amounts to a Republican death wish. And I'll predict an abandonment of the president by many still lingering in the GOP fold. Bill, what do you have? I think the thing I'm most encouraged about is the election worked. You know, we had an election all across the country. Everybody was all said, you know, that Trump was going to send in, you know, FBI agents to interfere with the election or seize ballot. None of that happened. We conducted this election like we conducted every one before. The founders had a real genius when they said we're going to let the states do their own election. States let the local officials do it. And that's the way it should be done. And we had people concede elections this time, even the president conceded that it was a fair election, as did all our statewide Republicans who lost here in Texas. So I think we ought to celebrate the fact that we still live in a country where we have a peaceful transfer of power. Rudy. Yeah, good points there, Bill. I'm noticing that the mask is already starting to come off. Houston, the mayor there announcing that they will no longer cooperate with ICE and notifying them about the nonviolent offenders that happen to be undocumented immigrants in their custody, not going to cooperate anymore. We expect that to be happening here in Austin. Austin's mayor already almost giddy, thinking that he's going to be able to dip into the state bank. They get a lot more money for the homeless projects that they have here in Austin, projects that apparently have very little accountability in auditing and making sure that the money is really going where it's supposed to be going. So hang on, folks. It's going to be an interesting ride, and we're just now starting to see the change happening. Well, that's all the time that we have. You can see more of our interviews and our segments by going to our YouTube pages and keeping the conversation going with us on social media. This is it for our daily show. I want to thank Lee Meyer for keeping the train on the tracks, at least until the 2028 election season ramps up. Starting next week, you can watch Battleground on Thursdays at 3 p.m. on Fox Local or Sunday nights on your Dallas, Austin, and Houston Fox stations. Until then, vaya con Dios.