Eddie Morales Challenges Senfronia Thompson for Texas House Speaker

State Rep. Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass announced Thursday that he will run for speaker of the Texas House, giving Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston her first declared opponent for the post, the Texas Tribune reported. Morales, a Democrat, represents House District 74 and won re-election Tuesday.

“Texas faces critical challenges and we must hit the ground running to solve them,” Morales said in a statement. “There is no time to waste. I look forward to earning the votes and trust of my colleagues to deliver results across the state.” He pledged that every member’s district would have a voice under his speakership.

Thompson announced her campaign Tuesday night, before the House had officially changed hands. On Thursday evening she won the backing of Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, a Democrat who was closely aligned with Republican House leadership in previous sessions. “Democrats have won and won big, and now we have to do the job the voters expect and truly deliver for Texas families,” Moody said. “Dean Thompson is the one to make that happen.” Someone in Thompson’s camp was telling members Thursday that as many as 65 of them were ready to back her, according to a Republican member who received a call from her side. That member told the Tribune at least five of her supporters are Republicans. The Tribune has not seen the list.

A speaker needs 76 votes in the 150-member House, and Democratic candidates won 83 of the 150 seats in unofficial returns. That is enough room for a split. Some Democrats believe a border member like Morales could draw Republican votes into a coalition, the Tribune reported, and two Republican staffers told the paper that a group of Republican House members held a Zoom meeting to discuss backing a Democrat in a power-sharing arrangement. Rep. Brent Money of Greenville, who signed the Texas First Pledge, has ruled that out for himself. “There is no scenario in which I will vote for a Democrat Speaker,” he posted on X.

The House elects its speaker on January 12. A candidate who can show 76 votes before then can settle the race before the session opens.

The winner will appoint the committee chairs and send every House bill to a committee. That power decided the fate of the bill to let Texans vote on Texas independence in 2021 and 2023, when it went to the House State Affairs Committee and died there without a hearing. The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) has said it will press the next speaker for a hearing on a bill setting the vote for November 2027. Neither Morales’s statement nor Thompson’s announcement mentions it.