Democrats win control of the Texas House from Republicans after remaining "cautiously optimistic"

In a CBS News Texas interview with State Representative Christina Morales of Houston, also the Chair of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee, said the Texas Democrats' big victory came as a surprise.

"We are elated. We are stunned," said Morales. She said flipping the Texas house was always their goal, but they remained "cautiously optimistic."

Right now, there are 88 Republicans in the Texas House, 62 Democrats, and starting in January, in the new session, there will be 83 Democrats and 67 Republicans.

Morales said that she attributes the big swap to the economy, education and tariffs.

Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa and Lt. Governor-elect Vikki Goodwin, have talked a lot about increasing funding for public schools and eliminating the school choice voucher program.

While Goodwin will be the President of the Senate, Republicans still have the majority - 19 seats vs. 12 for the Democrats.

Regardless of a continued Republican majority in the Texas Senate, Morales believes that the education plans put forth by Hinojosa and Goodwin are still possible.

"I think that we'll be able to, repeal a lot of the voucher program," said Morales.

"I realize that the Senate is Republican, but they realized, too, that they lost on these issues. In Houston alone, having the state take over our schools was, just a detriment to the Republican Party. I think most people in Houston voted Democrat just because they were so angry about the takeover of our schools...Education was a bigger deal than what we thought, and that was the equalizer on both sides of the aisle."

Joshua Blank, Research Director at the Texas Politics Project at UT, said the blue wave election in Texas is the result of national issues dominating this midterm election.

"It was a nationalized election. Republicans had attached themselves to the president, and this president was underwater in public opinion, and in particular, he was really underwater on the issues that voters said that they cared most about, which was the economy and prices."

Blank said, "for those voters, the choice was very clear. If you voted for Republican candidates, you were voting to continue the president's policies, which includes tariffs, includes a war in Iran. And for a lot of voters, in particular, for some significant share of Republicans, that was just too much to ask."

When asked if Democrats can pursue everything that they campaigned on, or if they need to be careful Blank said that they need to be "really careful."

"There are still a lot of Republican voters out there, and just because some Republicans were willing to cast a bout for Democrats this cycle, it doesn't mean that in a presidential election year, they're going to stay with the Democrats," said Blank.

As a result of the flip, the longest-serving member of the Texas House, 87 year old Senfronia Thompson will likely become the next Speaker of the House. If so, she will become the first woman and first African American to do so.

It will be the first time that three women, Thompson, Goodwin, and Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa will become the top elected officials at the Texas Capitol.