Texas Republicans weigh rewriting Senate rules to curb incoming Democratic lieutenant governor

Six days after Texas Democrats won the governorship and the lieutenant governorship on the same night for the first time in decades, Republican state senators are weighing a rewrite of their chamber's own rules that would strip much of the incoming lieutenant governor's authority before she ever wields it.

State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, an Austin Democrat, defeated three-term Republican incumbent Dan Patrick in the Nov. 3 election by an unofficial count of roughly 52 percent to 46 percent, according to early Associated Press tallies reported by Fox-affiliated stations in Houston and Dallas. Her win ends 27 years of Republican control of a post last held by a Democrat, Bob Bullock, who left office in 1999. The same night, Austin state Rep. Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott, becoming the first Democrat elected Texas governor since Ann Richards left office in 1995 and the first Latina to hold the job.

The dual upset was the first time since the early 1990s that Democrats have won both of Texas's top two statewide executive offices in the same election, and it leaves the state with a form of divided government it has not seen in a generation: a Democratic governor and lieutenant governor sharing power with a Legislature that Republicans still firmly control. How much real power Goodwin and Hinojosa can exercise now turns substantially on a procedural fight playing out largely behind closed doors in the Capitol.

Statewide results are not yet legally final. Under the election law calendar published by the Texas Secretary of State, the governor cannot begin the official state canvass of races for governor and lieutenant governor until Nov. 21, 18 days after the election. Patrick and Abbott have each publicly conceded, and news organizations have called both races, but the formal tally — and any recount window — remains open for another two weeks.

A post whose power lives in the rulebook, not the constitution

The Texas Constitution gives the lieutenant governor only modest formal duties: presiding over the Senate and stepping in as acting governor when the governor is out of state, incapacitated or the office is vacant. Those powers cannot be taken from Goodwin by a legislative vote.

Nearly everything else that has made the office one of the most powerful in American state government — more powerful, by some measures, than the governorship itself — comes instead from the Senate's own rules, which the chamber adopts by simple majority at the start of each two-year session. Under the rules Patrick has operated by, the Texas Senate's procedures hand the presiding officer the power to appoint every committee chair, decide which bills get a hearing and when, name the members of conference committees that reconcile House and Senate bills, and create special panels at will. In practice, that lets a lieutenant governor single-handedly decide which legislation lives or dies.

Texas Senate Republicans will hold 19 of the chamber's 31 seats when the new session opens, more than enough to rewrite those rules without a single Democratic vote, since 15 seats were on this year's ballot and the partisan balance did not change. According to reporting by The Texas Tribune, Republican senators have discussed reducing Goodwin to a largely ceremonial presiding role and shifting agenda-setting power to a majority leader the caucus would elect internally — a structure closer to the U.S. Senate's, where the vice president's gavel carries little practical weight.

It would not be unprecedented. In 2015, when Senate Republicans fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority historically required to bring a bill to the floor, they lowered the threshold to three-fifths, a change that has remained in place ever since. And Patrick himself raised the same tactic in reverse six years ago: in January 2020, he said he would urge Senate Republicans to rewrite the rules to preserve GOP control of the chamber's agenda if Democrats picked up seats that November.

Goodwin and Hinojosa push back

Goodwin has acknowledged for weeks that a rules fight was likely. Speaking to the Tribune before the election, she said she expected "there may be some attempts to change the rules," but added that she would "figure out ways to get things done" regardless. Since her win, she has also warned Republicans against moving too aggressively, telling reporters that stripping her authority would come "at their peril because we will have elections again in 2028."

"Republicans don't know how to be in the minority," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political scientist, who called any significant cut to the lieutenant governor's powers one of the Texas Senate's biggest institutional changes in recent memory.

Hinojosa, the governor-elect, has also weighed in, saying "the people of Texas have spoken" and urging legislative leaders in both parties not to "get in the way of the progress" a newly divided state government could still make together. Her agenda — which includes $1,500 payments to Texas households, a freeze on residential electricity rates, an end to certain tax breaks for large data centers and a return of state-controlled school districts to local boards — would need Senate floor time to pass, floor time Goodwin currently controls and Republicans could take away.

Republican senators have been largely circumspect in public. Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston called it premature to discuss rule changes but stopped short of ruling them out. Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown posted before his own race was called that "Texas stands as long as the Texas Senate Republican caucus holds the line," adding, "We will." The Tribune said it sought comment from 14 Republican senators, including Bettencourt, Joan Huffman, Bryan Hughes and Angela Paxton, and none had responded as of its report.

What happens next

The fight will not be settled until lawmakers are actually back in Austin. Under the Texas Legislative Council's official calendar of legislative dates, Monday, Nov. 9 — today — is the first day legislators and legislators-elect may pre-file bills for the 90th Legislature, and the regular session does not convene until noon on Jan. 12, 2027, when the Senate will adopt its rules for the new term. Any change to the lieutenant governor's powers would take effect at that point, not before.

That gives both sides roughly nine weeks to negotiate, lobby or dig in. Goodwin will be sworn in alongside Hinojosa in January, and whatever rules the Senate adopts that day will shape how much of the new governor's legislative agenda — and how much of Goodwin's own influence — survives the regular session that follows.