The Progress Texas Daily Dispatch is delivered every weekday by Progress Texas Communications Director Chris Mosser. Rapid response on the breaking news stories Texas progressives need to know—all in less than 10 minutes!

Click below to listen! LINK TO MAIN PODCAST PAGE: https://progresstexas.org/progress-texas-podcast-network

The proof of the 90th Texas Legislative Session will, of course, be in the proverbial pudding—and how the newly empowered Democrats and the newly marginalized Republicans cooperate or not, in my mind, will ultimately be secondary to the results. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa included on her transition team former Republican State Rep. Ernest Bailes, who was one of several GOP lawmakers drummed outta there under super sus circumstances by Governor Greg Abbott because they sided with protecting their local school districts instead of folding in the face of Abbott’s push for private school vouchers—a guy with one thing in common with most progressives but, still, a Republican—and thus potentially problematic for Texans who have spent a lot of time and energy fighting against Republicans.

Following that comes announcements from Lieutenant Governor-elect Vikki Goodwin, presumptive House Speaker Senfronia Thompson, and Comptroller-elect Sarah Eckhardt of their transition teams. Alejandro Serrano at the Texas Tribune says Team Goodwin is considerably more bipartisan, and in fact leans Republican: three Democrats in outgoing state representative Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, former state senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, herself a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2014, and current Austin mayor and former Democratic state senator Kirk Watson. From there we list six Republicans on Team Goodwin—former state senators Kel Seliger and Tommy Williams, former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, and former Republican chiefs of staff Judd Messer, Denise Davis, and Jesse Ancira Jr.—this perhaps makes sense when one considers that Goodwin is on her way into a Republican-controlled chamber with hopes for a productive session. It also reminds us of the expectations of the electorate for fundamental changes in the eventual legislative output of the session—certainly gonna be a spotlight on the Senate this time around.

Over to the transition team of Senfronia Thompson, also bipartisan and notably very specific to the role she’s believed about to take on as Jeff Bell and Amiya Williams at KVUE TV in Austin say they’re all themselves former Speakers: three Democrats in Ben Barnes, Gib Lewis, and Pete Laney, along with three Republicans in Joe Straus, Dennis Bonnen, and Dade Phelan. To 2026 ears those Republicans are a lot more familiar, having served much more recently—and there’s a common thread among them: all three were forced on their watches as Speaker into bitter battles with the rising hard right Tea Party and MAGA Republican faction that, over time, became increasingly unwilling to tolerate bipartisan governing, compromise, or departures from its own ideological priorities—culminating last year in a demand that no Democrats be allowed to chair committees, leading current and outgoing Speaker Dustin Burrows to abandon years of bipartisan power-sharing tradition.

Scanning the transition team announced by Sarah Eckhardt: one Republican, but a much more Democratic lean. These first two—John Sharp, former state comptroller and more recently former chancellor at Texas A&M, and Garry Mauro, former Texas land commissioner—were among the last Democrats to hold statewide office before the darkness fell, both leaving office in 1999. Two current State Senate Dems, Royce West and Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa—both, frankly, known for casting puzzling and troublesome votes in the Senate from the progressive viewpoint, frequently in relation to public education, criminal justice, and economic policy. I spy some familiar and friendly faces on Eckhardt’s staff—Peter Einhorn as Executive Director, Lisa Craven as Senior Advisor, Susan Harry on Campaign Finance, Jeffrey Clemmons as Comm’s Director, and former Progress Texas President Ed Espinoza, as Political Director—Ed actually hired me here at Progress Texas, and did a terrific job managing the Eckhardt campaign—we love ya Ed, and great work. And, the lone Republican on Team Eckhardt has been playing nice lately: longtime Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, whom you’ve seen in recent weeks from your T.V. endorsing James Talarico’s run for Senate. Whitley also endorsed Democrat Mike Collier for Lieutenant Governor in 2022, and Democrat Colin Allred for U.S. Senate in 2024—and he’s lately also been publicly and visibly hot over outgoing Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare’s treatment of citizens trying to speak up at meetings, as well as the voting-access misbehavior that Commissioner’s Court has become known for.

Again—not all progressives, basking in the long-awaited triumph over what seemed an intractable Republican stranglehold, are happy about all this bipartisanship, and I totally get it. In fact, Michelle Davis dedicated an entire Lone Star Left column this week to the idea that the new Democratic majority should turn the tables in 2027 and refuse to allow Republicans to chair committees, as they did to the Dems just last year. Me personally, I think living in this new version of Texas is going to require a fair amount of cooperation and negotiation, which can work as long as we’re not cooperating and negotiating with a party whose goals are the further enrichment of the rich at the expense of the rest, or the targeting and trampling of vulnerable communities we should instead be protecting and supporting. Longtime Texas progressive activists and advocates cannot be faulted for raised eyebrows at the prospect of working with Republicans—but cooperation is not surrender. For me the proof is gonna be in what gets done, and if Democrats and Republicans can get great stuff done together, I say let’s go.