While national attention fell on the race for U.S. Senate in Texas, other monumental changes are likely from down-ballot races that also went to Democrats for the first time in decades.
Among those are a shakeup in the Texas Supreme Court and promised changes at the Texas Education Agency related to school vouchers and public education.
Democrat James Talarico sailed past Republican Ken Paxton to claim a U.S. Senate seat from Texas — something that hasn’t happened in Talarico’s lifetime. He’s 37.
Democrats swept every statewide office on the ballot after being shut out of statewide leadership for 32 years.
But on the same night, Democrats swept every statewide office on the ballot after being shut out of statewide leadership for 32 years. Come January, Texas Democrats will control the governor’s office, the lieutenant governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, the comptroller’s office, the Railroad Commission (which oversees oil and gas), the land commission’s office and the agriculture commission’s office.
Lesser noticed is that Democrats flipped four seats on the Texas Supreme Court, including capturing the spot of chief justice. A Democrat last won a seat on the state’s high court in 1994. There has not been a Democratic chief justice since 1988.
Maggie Ellis will be the new chief justice, the first female to hold that role. Republicans will still hold a slim 5-4 majority on the court but the fact that the state’s attorney general will be a Democrat also figures into the equation.
Nathan Johnson will take over the office currently held by Ken Paxton, who has been among the most active state attorneys general filing suit against Democratic initiatives nationwide and defending President Donald Trump’s agenda. That will all change come January.
Mike Morath
Incoming Gov. Gina Hinojosa already has said she will fire Mike Morath, Texas Education Agency commissioner on day one. In reality, Morath’s appointed term will expire Jan. 10, a few days before Hinojosa takes the oath of office.
Under Texas law, the commissioner of education serves a four-year term that runs concurrently with the gubernatorial term. The appointment requires confirmation by the state Senate.
Morath has been a highly polarizing figure in Texas as Gov. Greg Abbott has sought to defund public education and divert money to charter schools, religious schools and homeschoolers. Abbott worked hard to remove state legislators who did not go along with his plans.
Morath recently took over the Fort Worth Independent School District and Houston Independent School District — hugely controversial moves. This year, Morath has threatened to take over Richardson ISD north of Dallas, one of the state’s premier school districts. He could do so, according to state law, if a single school in the district receives a failing rating five years in a row.
One elementary school in the Richardson district has received four failing grades, despite every other school in the district being highly ranked.
Houston ISD was taken over by Morath because of one high school’s failing grades. The same thing happened in Fort Worth.
Hinojosa, a former Austin ISD school board member, has said she not only will replace Morath but will change the way the Texas Education Agency interacts with local school districts.
She also has pledged to end the state’s $1 billion private school choice program.
In her acceptance speech Tuesday night, Hinojosa said she will “work tirelessly to repair the damage of the Texas voucher scam and end an era in which our schools are sold for parts.”
Texas has the nation’s second-largest population of public school students, 5.5 million.
Charles Foster Johnson
“Gina led the fight against private school vouchers in the 89th legislative session. She was our leader in the House, building a bipartisan opposition to the corrupt policy,” said Charles Foster Johnson, founding director of Pastors for Texas Children and now leader of the national organization.
“Gina secured the votes to defeat it until the president of the United States intervened with his bullying threats against rural Republicans philosophically opposed to it. Her victory last night was a clear referendum on vouchers — and an overwhelming denunciation of private school vouchers. She will resolutely lead the upcoming 90th Legislature to expose and assess the corruption of voucher policy, to stop additional funding of it and to create the conditions to repeal it.”
The new governor also will have an opportunity to reshape public higher education in the Lone Star State after Abbott has used his appointment powers and bully pulpit to wipe out entire departments of study at schools across the state based on what he considered “woke.”
The three huge university systems at play are the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech University.
The Dallas Morning News reports that three of the nine board members that govern the university systems have terms that expire in February. They include UT board chairman Kevin Eltife, A&M chairman Robert Albritton and Texas Tech chairman Cody Campbell, “who have overseen controversial efforts on the campuses to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and limit what professors can teach.”