AUSTIN, Texas — To discuss the balance of power in the Texas House of Representatives this election, KVUE was joined by Sherri Greenberg, a clinical professor, fellow and graduate adviser at the University of Texas and former Texas state representative.
I want to talk about the battle for the Texas House right now. Republicans have an eight-seat advantage and Democrats are hoping to gain control of the House in November's upcoming election. It's a lofty goal, but just how realistic is it?
It certainly is realistic. The balance of power really could change. In 2018, the Democrats gained 12 seats. They are targeting, of course, nine. Now they need nine to actually have the majority, and it's going to be close. We may not even know election night how it turns out. And that has happened, in fact, before in 2008 when we had a very, very close race and we didn't know for several days whether the Republicans or the Democrats would control the Texas House of Representatives.
It sounds like a long shot, but if the Democrats pick up eight seats in this election, the House would have 75 members from each party. I know you said it came close years ago, but what would it mean if neither party has control?
Yes, it's a great question. We came close in 2008, but it's never actually happened. But what you would have is equal number of Democrats and Republicans. What we saw when we came close last time was Strauss was elected speaker and a moderate. And, of course, he had to have a lot of support from Democrats, not just Republicans, and he did when he became speaker. So it could mean that you have a type of consensus moderate candidate for speaker. Either way, if it's a split or very close, either way, it could also mean that you end up with some gridlock, as we've seen when the Texas Senate was very close years ago.
No matter which side wins, they'll have to find a new speaker of the House, as you were saying. And two Democrats, longtime State Rep. Safranek Tompsett of Houston and Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, have both announced they want to be the new speaker of the House. But surprisingly, no Republicans have filed to run for speaker yet. Why? Why is that? Why do you think they might be, I guess, sort of keeping it quiet for now?
Well, we know we will have a speaker's race. The current speaker is not running for reelection. So no matter what, we will have a race. I think the Democrats are very excited at the prospect, and we have two who have gone ahead and gotten their names out there. It's been quite a while since we had a Democrat as speaker of the House. Republicans are, you know, laying back, keeping their powder dry, so to speak.
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