Inside Texas Politics — Full Interview with Lt. Governor-elect Vikki Goodwin

[0:00] Lieutenant Governor-elect, congratulations on the huge win here. [0:03] Dan Patrick said that you won fair and square. [0:07] I'm curious, though, at what point on Tuesday night did you know this was actually going to happen? [0:13] We felt really good after the early vote turnout numbers came in. [0:18] So fairly early in the evening, we were feeling really good about it. [0:23] I always like to wait until it's called, but it didn't get called until about 1 in the morning. [0:28] But we were feeling good with the early returns. [0:30] This race, everything that I heard was always considered to be a long shot on your end. [0:36] Did you go into it thinking that you really had a chance to win this against the powerful and come up with a lot of money? [0:44] I did, you know, and I experienced the same exact thing in 2018. [0:48] And I would tell people in 2018 there was a huge backlash to Trump, huge turnout that midterm election. [0:55] And I felt like the same thing was going to happen in 2026. [0:58] I truly did feel like we had a great shot at this as I traveled around the state, talking to people. [1:04] I've had eight years to go around the state and learn what people are caring about. [1:10] You know, all around the state, rural, urban, they care about their public schools. [1:14] They have seen hospitals closed down and a lack of health care. [1:19] We've seen the same problems that have been building over the years. [1:23] And the Republicans kept focusing on culture war issues instead of really focusing on what impacts people in their daily lives. [1:30] So I did see a real opportunity here. [1:34] Did the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick call to concede? [1:38] He did not. [1:40] Surprised about that? [1:42] Same thing happened in 2018. [1:43] When I won in 2018, I did not get a call from my opponent. [1:48] Republicans in the Texas Senate have already been meeting, looking for ways to limit the power of the position here of Lieutenant Governor's job. [1:57] Have you spoken to any Senate Republicans since your win? [2:00] I have. [2:01] And I've reached out to quite a few of them today. [2:03] And I will continue to do so because I want to have a Senate that's very different than what it was under Dan Patrick. [2:10] I want to make sure they understand they're there to represent their districts. [2:14] And the people of Texas all over the state sent a message through this election. [2:19] They said, we don't like the way current leadership is taking us. [2:22] And so we want you to focus on our public schools, on our health care system, on water, data centers. [2:28] They sent a loud message, and I want to make sure that senators are paying attention to that. [2:35] What were the conversations like when you were speaking to your soon-to-be Senate colleagues? [2:41] I mean, they were collegial, so I am hopeful that we can build relationships and really work collaboratively. [2:49] You know, we now have a House that has a Democratic majority. [2:54] We soon will have a Democratic speaker. [2:56] We soon have a Democratic governor and a Democratic lieutenant governor. [3:02] So hopefully they will want to work collaboratively and not gum things up in the Senate. [3:09] And what does your gut tell you? [3:10] You've been around in politics for a minute now. [3:12] What does your gut tell you on this thing? [3:13] Do you think the Senate Republicans got a message from voters on Tuesday night? [3:17] Or do you think that they might try to make a move to limit your power? [3:22] Hopefully they got a message from voters. [3:24] You know, some of those races, even a few Senate races, came in very close, and there will be more Senate seats up for election in 2028. [3:33] I, again, hope that they're listening to what the voters said across the state, seeing Democrats win in the U.S. Senate race, the governor's race, lieutenant governor's race. [3:42] That should send a message. [3:44] I want to ask you about your old chamber, the House of Representatives there. [3:48] Sinfronia Thompson is already rumored to have been putting her hat into the ring to run for speaker. [3:54] If that happens, if she, you know, does that and the House elects her as speaker, that would be the first time in Texas history, to my knowledge, that the big three, the speaker of the House, the lieutenant governor, and the governor are all women. [4:12] Have you thought about that yet? [4:14] Yes, it's been brought up to me today. [4:16] So wouldn't that be fabulous? [4:17] I mean, I think women have a different perspective, and we do work more collaboratively many times, and I've had a chance to work with both Gina and Sinfronia Thompson. [4:29] So I think we already have those relationships built. [4:32] I think it would be a wonderful situation. [4:35] Let's go back to the Senate here for a moment. [4:37] The lieutenant governor obviously appoints the committee chairs in the Texas Senate there. [4:42] There are 15 standing committees, and I'm curious, are you going to appoint any Republicans to lead any of the standing committees? [4:51] That is certainly a possibility. [4:55] Go ahead. [4:57] I plan to have conversations with all the senators, find out what their background, their expertise, what they want to do for their districts in the state of Texas, and make, you know, wise decisions based on what they want to get accomplished. [5:10] I've heard from a number of business leaders since the election, perhaps you have as well, who worry that the state's business-friendly environment might be at risk now with Democrats in charge of the state. [5:24] Is the Texas miracle going to be in jeopardy? [5:29] I mean, I'm a business owner myself, and I certainly don't want to make it an unfriendly state to business, but I would say that the lieutenant governor basically eliminated one industry, the hemp industry. [5:41] And so I think we should have smart regulation. [5:45] And while the governor and lieutenant governor have talked for years about the Texas miracle, many working families don't feel like they're a part of that Texas miracle. [5:54] We should be business-friendly, but we need to be worker-friendly, too. [5:58] And explain that. [5:59] What would that look like? [6:01] I mean, you're going to have, you know, business owners watching this like yourself. [6:05] You're also going to have employees watching this, too. [6:07] What should they expect from the lieutenant governor? [6:09] Well, you know, for example, the data center sales tax exemptions that have been going on since 2013, they may come to an end. [6:18] I think the data centers don't need that exemption. [6:21] We gave out a billion dollars worth of sales tax exemptions in 2025, and that will increase going forward. [6:27] I think it's time to end that. [6:29] You know, we should make industry pay for the infrastructure that they need. [6:33] And that's a concern when the data centers need so much water and energy, and infrastructure has to be built for that. [6:40] We shouldn't be pushing the cost of that infrastructure onto homeowners. [6:44] We saw Corpus Christi almost run out of water because of the need to fulfill a contract with ExxonMobil. [6:49] Well, I think Exxon or large companies, large industry, should pay for the infrastructure that they need when they need to bring water to produce the products that they're making. [6:59] I want to ask you a few lightning round questions here. [7:03] I'm curious where you are on these. [7:05] First up, will Democrats repeal school vouchers next session? [7:10] We'll certainly try. [7:13] And would that be a full repeal then of the entire money that's outlaid right now? [7:18] Because as we renew next session, right? [7:20] Yeah, that's another example. [7:22] We're sending a billion dollars right now. [7:24] The proposal was to expand that to $2 billion. [7:27] And at the same time, we're asking our school districts to cut corners. [7:34] They're really struggling and underfunded. [7:38] We see that in our teacher pay. [7:40] And we see that in the fact that many teachers are leaving the profession. [7:44] So vouchers are not universally popular in the state. [7:48] And I think that we should bring it to an end. [7:51] How about a THC bag? [7:52] I'm not in favor of a THC ban. [7:56] Do you see it going away? [8:00] I think that we should have the Department of State Health Services unwind the rules that they put in place because that's legislative. [8:08] They changed the law through those rules. [8:10] And they don't have the authority to do that. [8:13] How about casino gambling in the state? [8:16] I'm ambivalent on gambling. [8:18] I would be willing to put it up to a vote of Texans. [8:20] And then when it comes to school property taxes, what should voters expect from Democrats? [8:28] Because no one wants an income tax. [8:32] Sales tax is out of the question. [8:33] Raising sales tax, I believe I've heard from a lot of folks. [8:36] There's kind of a challenge on how to provide relief to voters who say we've got to have some type of relief for this affordability issues. [8:46] So, you know, in our last session, we underspent our budget by $4 billion. [8:52] That could have gone to public education. [8:55] We could have increased the basic allotment or the state's share. [8:58] What we see oftentimes is the state is paying less for things like public education. [9:03] And that means that our local school districts have to increase property taxes. [9:08] Same thing for cities and counties. [9:09] If the state is paying less for road maintenance and things like that, the local governments have to pick up the slack. [9:16] And so I think the state can be a better partner. [9:19] I've asked about a handful of issues here, but talking policy, top two legislative priorities, day one, January 19th, what do you want to do? [9:28] Increase school funding and work on creating a health care system that works for all Texans. [9:35] Message to Texas voters right now who might be surprised about your win. [9:39] And what's the Texas Senate going to look like under your leadership? [9:43] The Texas Senate is going to serve the people of Texas. [9:46] I hope that the senators will pay attention to what the issues were on the campaign trail. [9:51] We kept hearing about affordability, people feeling like they are stretched in with the cost of groceries and gas and child care and health care going up every year. [9:59] And their salary is not keeping up with that. [10:02] So I hope that that seemed to be the number one issue. [10:05] I hope that senators will really put their heads to fixing that issue. [10:10] Lieutenant Governor-elect, congratulations to you. [10:12] Thank you.