University Of Texa — Texas has long Republicans led, from its governor’s mansion and state legislature down to many of its locally held offices. But this year’s elections have abruptly turned the ruby-red state blue, with sweeping implications for Texas’ laws and the lives of its more than 30 million residents.
Democrats scored a series of historic victories in Texas state politics earlier this month, winning every statewide race on the ballot and a number of more local contests to boot. Gina Hinojosa upset Gov. Greg Abbott to become the state’s first-ever Latina governor and the first Democrat elected to the position since the 1990s. Therefore, democratic candidates swept up key posts in the races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, and land and agricultural commissioners. In the state House, Democrats won a majority for the first time in over two decades.
On a statewide level, only the Texas Senate, the state’s Supreme Court and court of criminal appeals. Additionally, the railroad commission remain under Republican control. And while they didn’t win the majority in the latter three bodies, Democrats gained significant ground there, too. For the first time since 1990, the party claimed one of the state’s three railroad commissioner positions.In the races for Texas’ state courts, meanwhile, Democratic candidates managed to secure three of nine seats on the criminal appeals court and four of nine on the state Supreme Court, smashing another decades-long streak of Republican victories several times over. Therefore, the last time any Democrat had been elected to either court was in 1994.
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Experts tell TIME that these victories could impact Texans across the state in a variety of areas—and soon.
In January, newly elected officials in Texas’ executive branch will begin their terms. The new slate of Texas lawmakers will also convene that month for their first legislative session, in which they will propose and vote on legislation.
Here are some of the most significant—and quickest—ways in which the state’s blue takeover could affect Texans’ lives.
Immigration
One area in which newly elected Texas Democrats have indicated they will change course: combatting President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
During her gubernatorial campaign, Hinojosa accused Abbott of facilitating “fatal ICE operations” in the state and called on the governor to “lead with responsibility and decency by refusing to provide state resources until DHS stops killing U.S. citizens and detaining our children.”
Shortly after Trump returned to the White House last year, Abbott issued multiple Executive Orders directing state agencies to coordinate and assist with the Trump Administration’s immigration operations. The Republican governor also previously signed into law a controversial measure, SB 4, that requires cities and counties to share information regarding the immigration status of detained individuals with federal officers.
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Abbott has pursued a hard-line immigration agenda of his own in recent years as well, transporting migrants from Texas to Democratic-led cities and launching an initiative aimed at combatting illegal immigration in the state, Operation Lone Star, that has seen thousands of Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers deployed to the southern border and the state work to erect a number of physical barriers there.
Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson has said that he would review state agreements with Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE), allowing him to have “private individual investigative authority over actions by ICE committed in my state.” And following the elections earlier this month, Houston Mayor John Whitmire has already instructed city police to limit cooperation with ICE officers through an Executive Order.
Josiah Heyman, a professor of border studies at the University of Texas El Paso, notes that SB 4 “is still in place,” but says that “certainly a great deal matters in terms of how it’s carried out, how it’s interpreted.”
“What they could change would be the ways that the Texas law enforcement cooperates with the ICE and Customs and Border Protection. I think that’s far and away the most important thing that could be done,” Heyman tells TIME.
He says that Democratic leaders may increasingly push back against SB 4 by directing reduced cooperation with ICE. Additionally, eventually attempt to repeal the law entirely. “There’s an enormous amount of discretion that could be exercised in assigning officers,” he says. He cautions, however, that “it’s going to take a while for changes to take place in the actual laws themselves.”
Faisal Al Juburi, the co-CEO of RAICES, a non-profit legal aid organization serving the Texas immigrant community, tells TIME that there could also be an end to family detention in Texas following the change in the state’s leadership, noting that this is “one of the key areas that has appeared to be a focus” for Hinojosa. The governor-elect has vowed to stop private prison companies from holding children and their families in immigration detention in the state.
Al Juburi says that the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, currently the sole migrant family detention facility in the U.S., could potentially be shuttered shortly after Democratic officials take office.
‘That is an area where there’s the potential for some action to happen right out of the gate,” he says.
Data centers
Several newly elected officials have also promised to restrict the rapid growth of data centers, which have been a source of discontent for many Texans, who have expressed concerns over the centers draining water supplies, driving up energy costs. Additionally, creating unwanted noise and pollution.
Hinojosa said last month that she would issue a moratorium on all data center approvals and proposed requirements for companies to show that their facilities would not drive up water and electricity costs for residents living nearby. Lieutenant governor-elect Vikki Goodwin has also vowed to “prioritize bills that regulate data centers and protect our water, land, health. Additionally, access to electricity,” while Agriculture Commissioner-elect Clayton Tucker said that he would issue impact studies on data centers’ effect on Texas water and farmlands. “I stand with the Texas Farmers Union, the people of Hill County. Additionally, all of the Texans who are calling to stop data centers,” Tucker said.
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Kenneth Medlock, a senior director at Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies, tells TIME that data centers are going to be at the “top of the ledger” when it comes to creating new energy-related policy.
He notes, however, that Hinojosa’s promised moratorium could only apply to new projects. Additionally, that there isn’t much she could do about those that are ongoing.
“Anything, even on the data center front, that’s already under construction, is not going to get suspended or disrupted,” he says. “This is really going to be more about how things change going forward.”
Due to data centers’ contributions to the state’s economy, though, Medlock also doesn’t see a version of Texas in which data centers cease to exist entirely.
“You’re going to see some interesting developments in the interest of preserving business expansion while also minimizing community and environmental impact,” he says.
Education
Texas’ private and public school systems could also see sweeping changes impacting millions of students under the state’s new leadership.
One of the earliest changes on that front could come as soon as Hinojosa’s first day in office, when she has pledged to fire Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath.
“Installing a new commissioner of education is a clear authority within the new governor’s office, that will have huge implications for our education policy as it stands and how things might might look going forward,” Chloe Sikes, who leads policy research across Texas for the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), tells TIME. She says that this position will be crucial in enforcing potential education reform if new laws are enacted.
A potential target for such reform is Texas’ Bluebonnet Learning curriculum, a state-owned curriculum developed under Abbott’s Administration that has drawn controversy for its inclusion of Bible-related teachings and materials that critics contend downplay the role of racism and slavery in U.S. history.
“That could be clearly rolled back depending on the leadership the governor-elect wants to develop at the state board level,” Sikes says of the curriculum.
David DeMatthews, a professor of Education at the University of Texas, Austin, adds that Hinojosa may also roll back Texas’ A-F accountability system. This assigns public schools and districts letter grades based on student achievement. The program has faced backlash over its disproportionate impact in districts serving low-income students and the harsh penalties that can be levied against schools that receive poor grades, including state takeovers in which local school boards are replaced by state-appointed managers.
“I would expect that local control would be returned to those school districts relatively quickly,” DeMathews tells TIME. “What that means for parents is they can kind of show back up to a school board meeting with people they voted for and impress upon them their concerns or their desires.”
DeMatthews also says that Texas’ state voucher program. This enables parents to put taxpayer money toward students’ private school educations, could also end in the near future. Critics of the program have argued that its funds should be used for the state’s public school system.
The voucher program, DeMatthews explains, was established as part of a state law. This would need to be repealed by passing both chambers of the state House. But Hinojosa has veto power to reject future appropriations for the program.
“There will be no voucher money to be appropriate to families … That may leave some families in a position where they’re going to no longer attend the private school,” he says. He notes, however, that “the overwhelming majority of families that are using the voucher already have their kids in private schools.”
Reproductive healthcare
Texas bans abortion in almost all cases, with narrow exceptions in cases when the life or health of the pregnant person is deemed to be at risk.
Under the state’s current Attorney General, Republican Ken Paxton, Texas has sued multiple out-of-state doctors for allegedly violating its laws restricting abortion by mailing abortion pills into the state. But Texas’ incoming top prosecutor, Johnson, has stated that he would not do the same.
“The first thing I do when people ask me about abortion is point out that I’m not a legislator. Additionally, I can’t change abortion law.” Johnson told The Texas Tribune after the elections earlier this month. “What I can do is cease using Texas abortion laws as an instrument of persecution and intimidation, harassment and political showboating. All four of those things have happened.”
Hinojosa has also voiced support for abortion rights and vowed to “prioritize making sure that doctors are no longer prosecuted” in the state for providing abortions in medical emergencies.
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“As governor, I will ensure that every woman has the right to privacy, dignity. Additionally, care,” Hinojosa said in January. “Traveling the state, I’ve heard countless stories from women who are afraid to get pregnant. Additionally, I want to remind them that they are not alone.”
Raven Freeborn, executive director of Avow, a Texas-based abortion access advocacy organization, tells TIME that declining to continue Paxton’s enforcement techniques would open the door for expanding access to reproductive healthcare across Texas.
“We’re talking about increasing investment in programs that support pregnant and parenting Texans,” Freeborn says. “We can see the shrinking of reproductive healthcare deserts. We can see the return of quality providers across the state.”
LGBTQ+ rights
Ash Hall, a policy and advocacy strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, tells TIME that the blue wave in Texas could also result in the state easing restrictions targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
“We do think that the governor, the attorney general, state agencies, they’re all going to have a role to play in stopping the harm and the terrorization that trans Texans have gone through from the government,” Hall says.
One change they predict the newly elected officials could make is overturning a state law that requires patients’ biological sex to be used on their medical records.
“Instead of everybody being forced to go by their name assigned at birth or their gender assigned at birth, for example, we’re hoping doctors will have more leeway to treat trans and intersex patients with dignity and respect,” Hall says.
Johnson has said, for instance, that he will not devote resources to enforcing a Texas law restricting transgender people’s access to bathrooms.
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Though same-sex marriage is legal in all states, Hall adds that Texas’ Constitution includes language saying the practice is banned. Meanwhile, an “anti-sodomy” provision also still exists within the state’s Penal Code. Hall contends these texts, which are unenforceable due to landmark Supreme Court rulings, could soon be removed.
Following the elections, some transgender Texans who were previously planning to leave the state have reportedly reconsidered.
“It’s nice that things aren’t going to get worse. Additionally, we can finally focus on how to make things better,” Hall says. “It’s a new era for us.”
The situation around University Of Texa remains under close watch.
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