(The Center Square) – After Democrats flipped the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday, its likely next speaker is also making Texas history: a Black, 87-year-old woman from Houston.
Democrat state Rep. Senfronia Thompson says she has the votes to become the next speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. “The bottom line is, the majority of the House has pledged to me,” she said at a packed press conference at the capitol on Friday.
“I’m not only grateful, but I’m very honored to have been selected to lead the next session of the legislature, which will be the 90th session. I know that with the colleagues that are being sent to the legislature, both Democrats and Republicans, working together, we can make a difference in the state of Texas and the lives of the people that we represent,” she said.
“I don’t have a dictatorship that I’m going to tell people what to do. But I have my own ideas that I expect members that represent their districts to work hard and to deliver to the people things that we promised that we were going to do. It’s going to take all of us working together, the expertise of the Republicans and the expertise of the Democrats working as a unit to get the things done for this state.”
If elected, she will be the first woman and first Black state lawmaker to lead the chamber.
Referred to as Dean Thompson, Thompson has served in the Texas House since 1973. She is the longest-serving woman and longest-serving Black lawmaker in Texas legislative history.
A Texas native, she was born in Booth and raised in Houston. She represents District 141, which includes Northeast Houston and Humble in Harris County.
As the dean, she “is often referred to as the conscious of the Texas House,” her official bio states.
She has served in many leadership roles, chairing multiple committees and championed a range of issues from education to energy to pioneering multiple anti-human trafficking laws.
She authored thousands of bills, including the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act; a bill creating the Sexual Assault Program Fund; the Model School Records Flagging Act to help find abducted children; Texas’ current minimum wage law and Texas’ first and only alimony law. She led the charge to pass Texas’ Equal Pay Act, which was vetoed.
She also authored laws creating drug courts, providing insurance coverage for anti-cancer oral medication, 3D mammograms, HPV and cervical cancer screening tests and contraceptives. She also helped pass laws to protect unpaid interns from sexual harassment, to allow Medicaid nursing home residents to keep more of their retirement or Social Security money, to allow homeowners over age 65 to make quarterly property tax payments without penalty, to allow parents to request cameras in classrooms for special needs students, among other measures.
She also sponsored laws banning racial profiling, secured state funding to install video cameras and audio equipment in every police car, reformed jail sentencing and increased legal aid funding for low-income Texans.
She also helped pass legislation to protect women and children in domestic violence situations, increased penalties for sex offenders, created additional rights for rape victims and fought to end sexual discrimination in the workplace.
She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Houston. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Texas Southern University, a Master of Education from Prairie View A&M University, a JD degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law and a Master of Law in International Law from the University of Houston.
She was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014. She is the only member of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus to receive the Rosa Parks Award.
The formal vote won’t take place until Jan. 12. There are 150 members of the Texas House, 76 votes are needed to be speaker.
She will replace outgoing Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock. Burrows was speaker for one term and won reelection to his district in the panhandle on Tuesday.
