Lt. Gov.-Elect Vikki Goodwin Unveils a Bipartisan Transition Team as Dan Patrick Urges Senate Rule Changes
Two former Republican senators — and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson as a co-chair — headline Goodwin's transition. The outgoing lieutenant governor says Senate Republicans should change the rules before she takes the gavel on Jan. 19.
AUSTIN — Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin stood at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday with a transition team built to make a point: it includes two former Republican state senators, Tommy Williams of the Houston suburbs and Kel Seliger of Amarillo, CBS News Texas reported. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a former senator himself, posted that Goodwin asked him to serve as a co-chair of the team, the Austin News Roundup reported.
"I am so honored to be the first woman Lt. Governor-elect of the State of Texas," Goodwin said, as CBS News Texas reported. Her transition chairman, outgoing Democratic state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, said Texans "expect and deserve nothing less" than leaders working across party lines. When Goodwin takes office on Jan. 19 she becomes President of the Texas Senate — one of the most powerful legislative posts in the country, carrying the budget, committee chairs and control of which bills reach the floor — while Republicans keep the chamber's majority.
The outgoing lieutenant governor is not planning to make that easy. Dan Patrick told conservative radio host Mark Davis this week that Senate Republicans should change the chamber's rules, CBS News Texas reported. "Vikki Goodwin won, but she doesn't have the majority of votes on the floor," Patrick said. "So, I believe, and I support the Republicans standing up for their voters." What rules Republicans will try to change has not been announced, the report noted, and Republican senators CBS reached did not respond or were unavailable.
Goodwin answered with a different style: "It's not going to be one person's agenda. It's going to be formed by all of the senators," she said, naming public education funding and healthcare coverage as her top priorities — and regulation, not a ban, for THC products Patrick tried to prohibit last year. The pattern held across the Capitol the same day: presumptive House Speaker Senfronia Thompson's transition team includes three former Republican Speakers — Joe Straus, Dennis Bonnen and Dade Phelan. The House elects its Speaker on Jan. 12, the session's first day; if Thompson wins, the Capitol's top three leaders — Thompson, Goodwin and Gov. Gina Hinojosa — would all be women for the first time.
