Texas lawmakers began filing bills for the 90th Legislature on Monday morning, opening the first legislative session in more than two decades in which no single party controls the whole of state government in Austin — a Democratic governor-elect and a Democratic House on one side, and a Republican Senate standing between them and almost everything they want to do.
Source: Texas Tribune via Context Corner
Sitting legislators could submit proposals from 8 a.m. Monday. Members elected for the first time last week cannot file until they are sworn in on January 12, when the regular session formally begins. Hundreds of bills are expected on the first day alone, with thousands more to follow before the filing deadline — though, as in every Texas session, most will never reach the governor's desk.
Source: ABC13 Houston via Jouster
A Capitol split down the middle
Democrats flipped the Texas House on Election Day, taking control of the chamber for the first time since Republicans won it after the 2002 election. Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott, and Democrat Vikki Goodwin unseated Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, completing a Democratic sweep of statewide offices.
Source: ABC13 Houston via Jouster
Democrats did not sweep the Capitol itself, however. Republicans held the Senate with a 19-12 majority, which ends the old Republican trifecta without handing Democrats one of their own. Any major legislation the new House passes still has to clear a Republican-led upper chamber — and, once Goodwin takes the lieutenant governor's chair in January, a Senate whose presiding officer belongs to one party while its majority belongs to the other.
The speaker's race: a historic gavel in waiting
The House will elect a new speaker on the session's opening day to replace Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock. Democratic Representative Senfronia Thompson announced on Friday that she had locked down enough votes to claim the gavel. Thompson is the longest-serving woman and the longest-serving Black legislator in any state legislature in the country, which would make her elevation one of the session's most consequential moments before a single bill is called.
What the first filings will signal
Early filings are the first public glimpse of each party's priorities. By tradition, the lowest bill numbers in each chamber are reserved for the highest-priority legislation, as determined by the House speaker and the lieutenant governor, who presides over the Senate. In the last cycle, lawmakers filed roughly 1,500 bills on the first day of prefiling, a record pace. Among those preparing to file Monday, El Paso Democrat Joe Moody posted that his heart was in Uvalde, the school-shooting city in his region, writing: “I promised them I would never stop fighting for them. I meant it.”
Hinojosa's agenda — and the Senate wall in front of it
Governor-elect Hinojosa campaigned heavily on unwinding Republican education priorities, most notably the school voucher program passed in the 89th Legislature in 2025, which lets families use public tax dollars to pay for private schooling. Democrats also campaigned on tighter guardrails for data-center development, pulling back restrictions on consumable hemp products, and lowering the cost of living. Property-tax relief and water policy were already being discussed by legislators of both parties before the election, and some lawmakers are laying groundwork for a THC ban, reviving an effort Governor Abbott vetoed last session.
“I would hope that elected leaders from both parties don't get in the way of the progress we can make together to deliver for working people. That is our obligation as leaders in this state, and I look forward to working with Republican leaders in the Legislature.” Hinojosa signalled the same intent on Thursday by announcing a transition team that includes both Democrats and Republicans.
Why Texas's divided session matters beyond Austin
Texas is home to some of the largest Punjabi and South Asian communities in the United States, concentrated around Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, and to thousands of Punjabi-American truckers and small-business owners whose costs run through the very issues at the top of this session's list — property taxes on homes, warehouses and storefronts, the price of schooling, and the rules around the data centers and logistics corridors spreading across the state. A divided Legislature usually means slower, narrower lawmaking: bills that survive are the ones both a Democratic House and a Republican Senate can accept, which makes the first filings — and the speaker and committee fights in January — a practical early map of what will actually change.
What happens next
The Texas Tribune hosts a public preview of the 2027 session, in Austin and online, on December 10, with newly elected officials and Capitol insiders setting out what is in store on education, affordability, property taxes and the economy. The Legislature then convenes on January 12, 2027, when newly elected members are sworn in, the House elects its speaker, and filing opens to the full membership. Most bills can be filed until March 12, and the 140-day session is scheduled to end on May 31. The Senate's posture in those first weeks will decide how much of the Hinojosa agenda — starting with school vouchers — ever becomes law.