This November’s midterm election exceeded both parties’ wildest expectations for a wave — with Democrats flipping not only the U.S. House, but also the Senate, and even the Texas governor’s office.
So what happens now?
Can they expand Medicaid? Legalize THC? Kick ICE out of Texas? Finally fund passenger rail from San Antonio to Austin?
Democrats went into election night mostly hoping to slow Trump’s and Republicans’ agenda, but wound up picking up enough power to move some priorities of their own.
They took control of the Texas House for the first time in 24 years, and have already rallied around a new speaker — putting all three of Texas’ most powerful positions in the hands of Democratic women.
Now a new slate of Texas Democratic statewide officials are lining up transition teams to oversee the largest transfer of power in the state’s recent history.
The 90th Legislative Session starts in January, and bill filing opened this week, with members filing bills to curb data centers, legalize abortion among other priorities.
But Republicans still have some leverage with President Donald Trump in office for the next two years and Texas Republicans holding onto their majority in the state Senate.
That means lawmakers from both parties have to think about what they can accomplish together — something neither Republicans nor Democrats have had much practice with in recent years.
Texas Democratic leaders say voters expressed a clear desire to end the partisan brinksmanship — and they’re filling transition teams with Republicans who can help figure out where there’s room for collaboration.
It’s less clear whether Republicans see it the same way.
Trump has talked about how some of his policies went too far, like immigration and the war in Iran, but he also just installed a new chief of staff known for his hardline views on immigration.
Republicans in Congress also replaced U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) with a new leader from the conservative Freedom Caucus — while Texas Republicans are still talking about stripping power from incoming leaders before they take office.
At the local level, leaders in blue cities like San Antonio haven’t had partners in state leadership in so many years, and their minds are blown by the possibilities, like expanding access to healthcare and public transit.
They’re quickly reimagining what they can accomplish with new allies in state leadership and Congress, including a bolder pushback to ICE’s presence in San Antonio, revisiting a city marijuana policy and renewing the push to expand Medicaid.
And in the short term, they’re acting bolder about things like not cooperating with ICE, because Attorney General Ken Paxton is on his way out, and the state’s chief law enforcement officer will soon be a Democrat.
Here is where local leaders are adjusting to a rapidly changing landscape.
1. Stopping an ICE facility on the East Side
After major GOP loses, local leaders are increasingly optimistic about halting a massive new ICE detention center on San Antonio’s East Side.
The federal government was already slowing down on the creation of new detention centers elsewhere in the country before this month’s election.
Because of it’s prime location, however, they’ve forged ahead with plans to convert a nearly 640,000-square-foot warehouse on Southeast Loop 410 into an immigration detention and processing facility capable of holding up to 1,500 people.
ICE originally had planned to open the facility in November, but have since moved their target to this winter.
San Antonio sued the federal government last month alleging that it hadn’t performed the required environmental review for such a project, and Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said that DHS has agreed to go back and take that step.
It’s unclear how long the review might take, but DHS owes an update to Republican U.S. District Judge Jason K. Pulliam by Nov. 30.
Speaking on TPR’s The Source, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) said he’s also pushing a Democrat-controlled Congress to close an ICE detention in nearby Dilley, where 5-year-old Liam Ramos was held.
“It’s tough because, remember, it’s run by a private prison company … and it has been open for many years,” Castro said on Nov. 5. “This administration has gone to court to fight to keep those kids in there as long as they want … so the conditions have gotten worse.”
Republican judges have generally given the Trump administration broad leeway on immigration, and Castro said it has yet to be seen whether Democrats can stop the new San Antonio facility with their new leverage in Congress.
“I think we have a lot better chance now than we did a week ago,” Castro said.
In the days after the election, however, the Brooks Development Authority has also felt empowered to take legal action to stop ICE from opening offices on its campus on the Southeast side. ICE already operates two field offices in the San Antonio area, but the Brooks’ board authorized its lawyers to issue a formal notice of default to the company controlling the office building.
Texas’ largest cities — including Houston, Dallas and San Antonio — are also exploring their options to limit when local police contact federal immigration authorities.
Texas still has laws on the books mandating local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. But with the election of a new Texas Attorney General, Democrat Nathan Johnson, council members no longer see them as a threat.
The plan San Antonio is considering would deprioritize detaining and contacting ICE when people are stopped for a low-level crime that typically wouldn’t result in an arrest.
2. Immigration solutions
Just days after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections, Texans representing heavily Latino districts are calling on Trump and congressional Republicans to negotiate a bipartisan immigration reform agreement before the new Congress takes office in January.
They argued that the election results, particularly the support Democrats received from Latino voters, sent a message about the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.
Democrats say they’re open to continuing cracking down on serious criminals, but pointed to Trump’s interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” as a possible indication that the president is willing to reconsider the broader scope of his immigration crackdown.
Trump’s comments come as he just named Stephen Miller, who is credited for some of the White House’s most stringent immigration policies, as his chief of staff.
On a VotoLatino press call, San Antonio Democrat Johnny Garcia said he’s focused on a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant workers, something that would go beyond what’s current being proposed in bipartisan legislation, according to the San Antonio Current.
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who is poised to become the speaker when the new congress is sworn in, told PBS that he also wants to see amends made for people who were wronged by the Trump administration in the past two years.
“Anyone, whether they are a citizen, whether they were here lawfully, whether they’re DACA recipients, who’ve been treated unfairly and unjustly by the administration, we need to provide remedial assistance to them and undo the damage that’s been done to the country, to law-abiding immigrant families and to the American people over this last 20 months or so,” Jeffries said.
3. CPS Energy exhales after Abbott’s loss
San Antonio city leaders were thrown into a panic last fall when Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to break up municipally-owned utilities like CPS Energy — allowing other providers to come into the San Antonio area and compete for customers.
Though legislation was never introduced, Abbott said his plan would also put an end to the arrangement that’s buoyed San Antonio’s city budget by allowing it to collect 14% of CPS Energy’s revenue in lieu of property taxes.
CPS Energy said the changes would almost definitely result in higher energy rates for customers — and are relieved by the election of a governor who condemned Abbott’s plan on the campaign trail.
Hinojosa praised the municipally owned utility at a campaign rally in San Antonio and said Abbott would take away San Antonio’s city-owned utility and “give it to his donors to guarantee that they can make profits off of the investment that the taxpayers, the citizens of San Antonio, have already made.”
CPS Energy officials did not comment on Abbott’s election night loss, but his nascent plans may be fading after Hinojosa’s win and Republican’s losses in the Texas House. Meanwhile, Hinojosa has laid out her own energy priorities.
According to her website, Hinojosa “will direct the Public Utility Commission to freeze the rates residential customers pay until we have laws to ensure that data centers and other high-load users pay for themselves.”
CPS Energy has not raised rates since 2024, despite plans to increase them every other year beginning in 2021. This year, the utility announced it had enough money to push back a rate increase conversation, despite a budget shortfall due to mild weather and lower demand. CPS Energy has also argued that increasing costs are affecting its bottom line.
Hinojosa’s plans could put future utility rate increases at risk, but CPS Energy said it wants to work with newly elected officials.
“We continually have discussions with our policy makers and will continue to do so as we prepare for the next legislative session, including meeting with new incoming leadership as they work to develop their teams,” CPS officials said in a statement. “As the political landscape evolves, we will continue to strengthen relationships, monitor developments, and advocate for policies that support reliable and affordable energy for our customers.”
State law prohibits utilities from charging different customer classes rates with an “unreasonable difference.” CPS Energy officials have said that’s why they can’t charge large-load customers, like data centers, more than the cost to serve them.
But Hinojosa has criticized large-load customers for not paying enough, as well as Abbott-appointed oversight agents and officials for being too friendly to large businesses. With more Democrats in power, there could be a pathway to changing Texas’ rules for utility rates in the long-term.
4. Fresh optimism about regional passenger rail
Local leaders are excited about reviving a long-held goal to expand passenger rail in car-centric Texas.
Last week incoming Bexar County Judge Ron Nirenberg and Travis County Judge Andy Brown huddled to discuss the possibility of passenger rail between San Antonio and Austin.
Brown had been talking about this with exiting Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, but the region was skipped over for federal funding to study the issue. Now Nirenberg and Brown are optimistic about what they can accomplish with a new Democratic administration in Austin.
Hinojosa and incoming Lt. Gov. Vikki Goodwin both represented the Austin-area in the Texas Legislature.
5. Public education advocates optimistic about Hinojosa
Local school districts still reeling from state funding changes — including the creation of a new $1 billion private school voucher program — are tentatively optimistic about the new Democratic administration.
Hinojosa is a former Austin ISD school board president who has vowed to fire the Texas education commissioner, and said her experiences on the Texas House Education Committee are what fueled her uphill race against Abbott.
Her election comes as many school districts are hurting for money. Even on a night where Democrats swept state-level races, voters in several local school districts shot down much-needed school bonds and requests to increase tax rates.
“While we were disappointed that our local NISD propositions did not pass… With the election of Gov. Gina Hinojosa, and a new state Legislature, we have renewed hope,” said Melina Espiritu-Azocar, president of Northside AFT, the teacher union for Northside ISD, one of San Antonio’s largest public school districts.
Aside from the voucher program, which directs taxpayer money to private schools, Texas GOP leaders have been ramping up school property tax exemptions as a way to keep seniors in their homes, and even promising to do away with school property taxes altogether in the upcoming session.
In a Democrat-controlled Texas House, state Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio) is now poised to take on a bigger role in the path forward.
He told TPR’s The Source on Nov. 5 that Democrats aren’t likely to take away vouchers from families who just received them, but said there’s plenty of bipartisan support for big changes to beef up public education spending.
“Neighborhood schools closing are unpopular everywhere, whether you’re Republican or Democrat,” Bernal said. “Everybody wants their child to be in a good school with a good teacher, and of course, parents believe that teachers should be paid enough to not require a second job.”
Even with Democrats at the helm, North East ISD officials are moving ahead with recommendations to close three elementary schools.
While Superintendent Anthony Jarrett has said a different administration could change things, he said the district still has to be cautious given that new legislation can take a while to pass and take effect. The Texas Senate is still controlled by Republicans.
“I still have the current reality that I’m confronted with, which is our deficit,” Jarrett said during a Nov. 9 meeting. “Is there hope? Yeah. Is there the possibility? Maybe. But I don’t know that. So I’m still holding this bag of ‘What if? ‘ because I just don’t know.”
Low birth rates, demographic changes and ramped up immigration enforcement from the federal government are affecting districts across Texas, which will also shape how education changes in the next few years.
6. Regulating data centers
State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have filed more than a dozen bills aimed at data centers only weeks after the City of San Antonio enacted its own set of new rules.
Public Citizen Texas Director Adrian Shelley said the consumer rights advocacy group already considers the city’s move to require specific use permits, “a large, significant victory.” Now there could be more limits coming at the state level.
Several bills would eliminate sales tax exemptions for certain data centers.
Other bills would make it harder for data center developers to obtain tax abatements and economic development incentives, and House Bills 734 and 696 expand on the laws requiring the public disclosure of such agreements.
7. Medicaid expansion
San Antonio healthcare leaders are expanding their legislative wish lists as state lawmakers file measures aimed at expanding Medicaid in Texas.
“This is probably the best time in the last 20 years for that to happen,” San Antonio Medical Foundation President Richard Perez said.
San Antonio and South Texas are home to high rates of chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and a substantial uninsured population.
Expanding Medicaid “would have a significant impact on individuals in San Antonio and would allow them to access healthcare they’ve never had before,” said Alan Kramer, chief financial officer of Methodist Healthcare Ministries.
But equally important to local healthcare leaders’ goals will be reversing provisions in H.R. 1, what the Trump administration dubbed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which could present barriers in the state’s potential road to expansion.
“We support more coverage, without unintended consequences,” Texas Hospital Association CEO John Hawkins said. “Options need to be studied and understood before finalizing an expansion strategy.”
Local healthcare leaders also mentioned more funding and better reimbursement rates for community health workers and reversing changes to SNAP as major needs.
Council’s wish list
Before the election, San Antonio had already put together a state legislative agenda focused on protecting CPS Energy and securing state funding for Project Marvel.
In the days after the election, Jones has called to reopen that agenda to include removing barriers to voting and reproductive healthcare.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) wants the city to build an economic case for state and federal lawmakers to explore legalization of marijuana.
“I’m thinking a lot about our strategy and pushing San Antonio forward, and some of the opportunities that are available, especially in light of the election on Tuesday,” he said.
Councilmember Phyllis Viagran (D3) told WOAI that she would like to see a revival of the city’s controversial fund to help women access out-of-state abortions.
“Everything is on the table for consideration, including the Reproductive Health Fund,” Viagran told WOAI.
And Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) wants to revive legislative changes to crack down on dangerous dog owners. Abbott vetoed the city’s previous effort, saying the state’s existing laws already support what San Antonio was trying to accomplish.
The City Council’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee will meet Monday to consider changes to its legislative agenda.
