“I understand the immense responsibility of this position and I am ready to take it on,” said Goodwin, a four-term state representative.
Vikki Goodwin named a bipartisan transition team on Tuesday, tapping former lawmakers and aides to prepare for her January assumption of office after unseating Republican stalwart Dan Patrick, The Texas Tribune reported.
Longtime political operative Angela Hale will serve as executive director for the Austin Democrat. The transition co-chairs include outgoing Democratic state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, former Democratic state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson.
“The voters sent a message on Tuesday evening: Texans want change and they want their elected leaders to be effective,” Goodwin said at her first Capitol press conference since the election.
The leadership team also incorporates former GOP state Sens. Kel Seliger and Tommy Williams. Seliger departed the upper chamber in 2023 after nearly two decades, while Williams previously advised Gov. Greg Abbott on fiscal matters.
Bringing aboard Seliger and Williams proves notable because Goodwin will preside over a Texas Senate that remains under Republican control. Republicans secured 19 of the upper chamber’s 31 seats, breaking a Democratic absence from the lieutenant governor’s office that dates back to 1999.
Asked about working with the chamber’s GOP majority, Goodwin pointed to her eight years serving in the Republican-controlled Texas House. “When you get a bill passed in the House, you still have to work to get it passed through the Senate,” Goodwin told The Texas Tribune. “I have that experience already of finding common ground with even the Republican senators.”
Williams joins Hale and Van de Putte as one of at least eight registered lobbyists appointed to Goodwin’s transition committee, comprising a majority of the 14 announced names. The roster also includes Judd Messer, former chief of staff to state Rep. Trent Ashby; Denise Davis and Jesse Ancira Jr., former chiefs of staff to ex-House Speaker Joe Straus; and retired GOP Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips.
While lobbyist appointments can invite criticism regarding potential client influence, Goodwin follows a well-worn path. In 2002, former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst appointed Bruce Gibson, a former Democratic state representative and chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, while Rick Perry retained Bullock staffers after taking office in 1998.
Randy Erben, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said that utilizing lobbyists remains permissible under state ethics provisions provided they serve purely in an advisory capacity. “Members used to say that the lobby is the world’s largest reference library,” Erben said. “There’s a lot of expertise.”
