Women seek to regain power
Candidates hope to reverse 20-year slump in Texas
AUSTIN — In 1990, women ruled Texas. Half of the state’s biggest cities were run by female mayors. Straight-shooting Ann Richards commandeered the governor’s office. And the number of women in the Legislature began to climb to an all-time high.
The nation took notice as women in charge in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas laid the groundwork for other female politicians, predicting that scores more would be catapulted into office.
“We all expected that to continue, and, surprisingly, that hasn’t continued,” said Congresswoman Kay Granger, who in 1991 was the first woman elected mayor in Fort Worth.
Today, only one woman serves in statewide office.
Just one major Texas city has a woman at the helm.
And the number of women sent to Washington, D.C., and Austin to represent Texans has hit a 15-year low.
That all could change in November. This year, 105 Texas women are in the final sprint for elected office. If successful, they could reclaim their largest share of political power since 2008, when 50 elected women served in state government and Congress.
Pundits have branded 2018 as the “year of the woman.” Hot off the divisive 2016 presidential election, perhaps kindled by the #metoo movement’s backlash against men who misuse their power, women across the country are opting to run for election in record numbers.
Here, they include MJ Hegar, a decorated Air Force pilot from Central Texas running for Congress
whose viral campaign ad focuses on the doors that have been closed to her. And former Air Force intelligence officer Gina Ortiz Jones would be the first congresswoman from San Antonio if she defeats incumbent Republican Rep. Will Hurd.
Other candidates include Democrats Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar from opposite ends of the state who are favored to become the first Texas Latinas elected to Congress, as well as Lupe Valdez, a former Dallas County sheriff running for governor who is openly lesbian.
“Voters are ready for change and women are perceived as being more capable of bringing change because we’re seen as more outside — which I guess is the only upside to being so under-represented,” said Kimberly Caldwell, program director for Annie’s List, which supports progressive female candidates in Texas. “It’s hard to understate the opportunity that we have to not only change the Texas Legislature, but the stories we tell ourselves about Texas and who we are and who we elect.”
Democrats take lead
Granger says she saw the male-female disparity in Congress in a new light when she was sent to Iraq to coach women there on how to run for office. It was after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime and Iraq had just minted a quota system requiring women make up at least 25 percent of seats in national parliament, restoring the influence of women in the first Arab country to have a female minister.
Women held barely 16 percent of the seats in the U.S. Congress that year. It was 2005.
“I remember thinking, ‘What an odd situation this is,’ ” the Republican congresswoman said. “I knew that we would have more, but we haven’t had more.”
Today, about one in five members of Congress is a woman. There are just three women and 35 men in the Texas congressional delegation, and that number has stayed virtually flat for two decades.
Change is on the horizon. Twenty women are running for congressional seats this November. Among them are Garcia, a state senator from Houston, and Escobar, the El Paso county judge. Both are Democrats in politically safe districts who are expected to boost the number of Texas congresswomen to five. That number has been stuck at three since 1997. Three other Texas women are seen as strong candidates with a chance to win.
Democratic female candidates are leading the charge. Democratic women outnumber Republican women running for every level of office — from the congressional and governor’s races to state Houses of Representatives, both nationally and in Texas.
Women still make up a minority of candidates here, about 26 percent of the total pool: 30 percent of Texas legislative candidates, 19 percent of statewide candidates and 18 percent of Texas congressional candidates.
Nationally, women consistently make up about 22 percent of congressional candidates, a number that has been remarkably stubborn for several reasons.
But it’s not because women don’t win. Studies have shown women are just as likely to win elected office as men, once they’ve declared their candidacy.
Longtime ambition gap
Lois Kolkhorst was 34 years old with an 11-monthold daughter when she launched her campaign for a seat in the Texas House in 1999.
The Brenham Republican weathered some mommy-shaming from her opponent, who immediately asked her, “What are you going to do about that baby?”
She later became one of the few Texas politician to ever give birth while in elected office.
After 18 years in the Legislature, where she is now a state senator and committee chairwoman, she feels like she’s still an underdog in a profession that has needed more women for decades.
“You don’t have to come from a certain mold. You just have to listen to that nagging voice inside of you that says I can do this job better,” said Kolkhorst. “That’s what you really need to be studying, what that inner soul is telling you.”
Unlike many women, Kolkhorst never doubted that she could have a career in politics. She was student body president at Brenham High School, and the talk around her middle-class family’s dinner table in east-central Texas often involved politics. She also organized neighborhood pickup basketball games — studies have shown that women who were exposed to politics and involved in sports as children are those most likely to be politically active.
Around 23 percent of women said they have considered a bid for office, compared to 38 percent of men, according to a 2017 study. The survey of 2,000 people revealed an ambition gap that has remained remarkably stable for decades despite cultural shifts, including the 2016 presidential election, said Jennifer Lawless, an author and researcher who teaches politics at the University of Virginia.
With a series of studies dating back to 2001, Lawless’ work shows the 15point gap in ambition is well in place before women begin their first careers. Women in college, educated women in stable jobs and women with careers in law, business, education and political activism were all less likely than men to have considered running for political office, according to Lawless’ research.
“What we’ve learned over the last 20 years is no political event, no candidate or elected official and no natural disaster — whether it be 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina — is enough to close the gender gap in political ambition,” Lawless said.
Women now make up 50.3 percent of the Texas population, but just 20.4 percent of the Texas Legislature.
The number of women elected to the Legislature began to skyrocket after Anne Richards became governor in 1989. It was during that race that her opponent, businessman Clayton Williams, joked to reporters that foggy weather ruining his cattle roundup was akin to a rape. “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it,” he said.
Two years later, Anita Hill would accuse U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, inspiring a wave of female candidates who would flock to Congress for the first “Year of the Woman.”
Decline after 2008
It was also around that time that the number of women in the 181-member Texas Legislature began to spike. The female share of the Legislature grew from 19 members when Richards took office to 44 seats two decades later in 2008.
A downward spiral for elected women quickly followed. Nearly half the chamber’s female Democrats lost their House races in 2010, decimating decades of gains. The number of Republican women has fallen, too. Today, the ranks of women in the Texas Legislature is akin to 1995 levels — 23 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
Best case scenario for Republican women is to hold on to their eight House seats in this year’s election. Democrats are hoping women will pick up eight seats.
The state Senate is more stable. Women now make up 25 percent of that chamber, most of them Republicans.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, is one of two Democratic women in the Senate and the second-longest serving member. She remembers running her first election in 1992 and hearing an elderly man say a woman was supposed to stay home and clean house.
“I’m going to mop them up in November,” she remembers retorting. “When I ran in 1986, women had to prove that we were smart enough and strong enough. … Today, the priority issue is, are the women candidates likable? Just like the men candidates.”