Houston’s Lizzie Pannill Fletcher will join other Texas women in Congress.
They were on ballots for half of state’s seats in U.S. House
AUSTIN — State Sen. Sylvia Garcia of Houston and El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar led the pack of women dominating in Tuesday’s election, snagging two congressional wins in what many have coined the “year of the woman.”
Garcia and Escobar were locks to clinch easy wins in their Democratic races for the U.S. House. Other Texas women running for Congress, including Lizzie Fletcher in Houston, were in races that were too close to call Tuesday evening amid a slow rollout of vote totals.
Texas’ congressional delegation has been entrenched with men. No more than three Texas women have served in the U.S. House at one time for most of the past 20 years.
This year, 18 of Texas’ 36 congressional districts had women on the ballot — all but two of them Democrats.
Women have commanded greater political attention this year as more have run for office. But they still make up a minority of candidates here — 26 percent of the total pool. Thirty percent of Texas legislative candidates were women this year, as were 19 percent of statewide candidates and 18 percent of Texas congressional candidates.
Nationally, women consistently make up 22 percent of congressional candidates, a number that has been remarkably stubborn.
Eighty-four women currently serve in the 435-member U.S. House. The number of women could go up as high as 103. The current makeup is 61 Democrats and 23 Republicans.
A total of 105 Texas women ran in the general election, taking on incumbents such as Gov. Greg Abbott and sitting congressmen, as well as vying for open seats.
Before Tuesday’s election, the number of women Texans sent to Austin and Washington, D.C., was at a 15-year-low. A high of 50 women were elected to serve in state government and Congress in 2008. Women then began slipping in the next election, losing seats in the Texas House for four elections in a row.
“I think early voting numbers show just how hard the women running have worked to earn voters’ interest and their vote,” said Kimberly Caldwell, program director of Annie’s List, a group supporting 37 Texas women running for statewide and legislative office. She pointed to several races in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas where women claimed commanding leads.
Retired Lt. Col. Kim Olson was the only woman running statewide to inch toward a victory. She slightly trailed embattled Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in early Tuesday night results, showing the highest support from voters statewide.
Lupe Valdez, a former Dallas County Sheriff taking on Gov. Greg Abbott, failed to gain a foothold. The Associated Press called the governor’s race for the incumbent Republican early in the evening.
Texas was once known as a place that had several women in powerful positions in the state. In the early 1990s, half the state’s largest cities were run by women, along with Gov. Ann Richards serving as governor. The number of women in Texas politics climbed for the next two decades, but it fell over the past 10 years.
Democrats hailed the election as a historic win for sending two Latinas to Congress for the first time in Texas history.
“We recognize that the impact of these strong Latinas on the future of Texas will not only be measured by pieces of legislation — Congresswoman-elect Sylvia Garcia’s and Congress woman elect Veronica Escobar’s very presence in our nation’s halls of power will pave the road for generations of young Latinas to come,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.