AUSTIN — Dallas County will have seven new faces in the Texas House when the Legislature kicks off in January, after an election in which five incumbents were defeated and two others left for retirement or to seek higher office.

With half of the county’s 14 members freshmen and five of them Democrats who won in traditionally Republican districts, the politics of the new delegation may shift left during the legislative session that starts Jan. 8.

Most of the newly elected lawmakers are focused on safe Democratic issues, such as increasing access to health care, as well as bipartisan efforts to fix the state’s much-maligned public school finance system and trying to tamp down rising property taxes.

But Democrat John Turner and others plan to walk a tighter line, sticking with bipartisan issues but trying not to veer too far off the center-right base of their districts.

Turner is replacing Republican Jason Villalba, who lost his primary race in March to Lisa Luby Ryan, a hard-right conservative who cast the moderate Villalba as a “liberal.”

Turner said he wants to make sure he represents the needs of voters in Villalba’s base who supported a Democrat over Ryan because they were unhappy with the Legislature’s focus on controversial issues like the bathroom bill and sanctuary cities.

“I’m keeping that in mind as I serve,” Turner said. “I don’t interpret this as a huge shift to an extreme position. I think Dallas County is still a centrist area, so I don’t want to interpret this as a mandate to go off to the left or right. It really is a mandate for a problem-solving approach.”

Rhetta Bowers, who defeated Republican Jonathan Boos to replace four-term incumbent Republican Cindy Burkett of Sunnyvale, is also among Democrats trying to strike a moderate tone.

Bowers said keeping the state’s economy strong and the district’s businesses happy will be among her top priorities.

And she won’t be unfamiliar with the ideas espoused by her GOP colleagues. She heard them growing up with a Republican mother.

“As strong a Democrat as I am, I don’t solely see us as red and blue,” she said. “People are humans first, and we truly have to go back to things that are commonalities that we have.”

A week after being elected, Bowers was already flexing her across-the-aisle bona fides. She was one of a few Democrats who stood behind Republican Dennis Bonnen of Angleton as he announced that he had enough support to become the next House speaker. His assurance that public school finance would be a priority helped secure her vote, Bowers said.

Other Democrats who flipped Republican seats have also promised to work with GOP lawmakers.

“I will not be in a partisanship lockhold. I’m willing to work with anyone at any time,” Julie Johnson, who beat staunch conservative Rep. Matt Rinaldi of Irving, said during the campaign.

Democrat Ana-Maria Ramos also flipped a Republican district held by Dallas Rep. Linda Koop, and Terry Meza beat GOP incumbent Rodney Anderson of Grand Prairie in a highly competitive race.

New faces in Democratic districts

The Dallas delegation will also have two freshman Democrats replacing longtime incumbents.

Jessica Gonzalez ousted Roberto Alonzo, who was first elected in 1992, during the March primaries. She faced no Republican opposition in the largely Hispanic West Dallas district and cruised to victory in November.

Gonzalez and fellow freshman Johnson are lesbians whose election helped double the number of openly LGBT lawmakers in the Legislature.

Beyond the major Democratic and bipartisan goals, Gonzalez said she wants to focus on issues like gentrification and affordable housing that affect her district. She also hopes to work on legislation to protect voting rights, calling on her background as a clerk in the Department of Justice’s civil rights division.

In southern Dallas County, Carl Sherman will succeed Helen Giddings, who retired from the Legislature after representing the district for 25 years. Sherman, a former DeSoto mayor, ran on a platform of prioritizing school funding, fighting for criminal justice reform and improving mental health services.

Mundane tasks first

Though the newly elected lawmakers may be itching to get their feet wet in the legislative waters, they’ll have two whirlwind months of logistical and mundane tasks to check off before they're sworn in.

“Pivoting from campaign mode to legislating or to service is not easy,” said Dallas Rep. Rafael Anchia, who has served in the House since 2005. “You’ve been running so hard on your campaign, giving it your all, giving your speech 100 times, and then all of that stops immediately. You have to figure out how to unwind all that and start a new project.”

They’ll have to attend legislative orientation sessions, meet with party leaders and interest groups, hire staff and find a place to live in Austin during the session. That’s all before they can even file a bill.

“You probably have really great ideas you campaigned on that you want to get in the hopper, but new members can’t file bills until you get sworn in,” Anchia said.

Anchia said he advises freshmen to try to hire staff as soon as possible and figure out where they’ll live. The competition for legislative staffers may be even fiercer this year, he added, since Democrats picked up 12 seats. Two newly elected Democratic state senators, who can pay higher salaries than House members, will also be looking for help.

“There may be a run on folks interested in working for Democrats,” said Turner, who is starting to interview potential staffers for his North Dallas district.

Members also have to make decisions about whether to open their district offices during or after the session. Anchia said he tells freshmen to hold off. Those offices will largely sit vacant during the session, and most constituent calls will go directly to Austin.

“Have a grand opening after the session is complete,” he said. “You want that extra $5,000 for the session.”

But freshmen like Bowers, who won in a Republican district, are grappling with that decision.

“We’re not going to be the office that can afford to not have an office in the district,” she said. “We want to make sure we’re accessible and visible in the community.”

Most of the incoming class is sticking to Anchia’s other pieces of advice, such as finding a place to live in Austin.

Gonzalez said she’s moving quickly, for practical matters.

“It’s really expensive over there,” she said.