LONE(LY) STAR STATE: After years of clout, Texans see limelight fade in power shift
WASHINGTON — For the past four years, walking into a federal building in the nation’s capital likely meant being greeted by a large, framed photo of a Texan.
There was Rex Tillerson, from Wichita Falls, running the State Department after stepping down as CEO of Exxon Mobil. Former Gov. Rick Perry, now of Round Top, headed the Department of Energy.
Brett Giroir, the former CEO of Texas Medical Health Center, led the government’s coronavirus testing regime as assistant secretary of health. Susan Combs, a West Texas rancher, one-time ro
mance novelist and former Texas comptroller, served as the assistant secretary of the Interior. And so on.
But no more. Presidentelect Joe Biden has not named a single Texan to his Cabinet, leaving Texans in the nation’s capital lonelier than they were four years ago.
“It was nice having friends just about everywhere,” said Larry Myers, a Washington lobbyist who grew up in the Texas Panhandle, said of the past four years. “When you’re dealing with Texans, it’s easier to connect, chances are you have a mutual friend or mutual interest you can build a bridge around.”
Not that the new administration is completely devoid of Texans.
Emmy Ruiz, a 37-yearold political consultant from Austin, will serve as White House director of political strategy and outreach. And with many midand lower-level roles still being filled, lesser-known Texans have time to find their way into the administration.
“It’s a little early yet, and some Texans may end up in deputy roles,” said a member of Biden’s transition team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about appointments. “But it’s not going to be like it was with Trump’s Cabinet.”
The spectacle of Texas power was on full display four years ago when the State Society of Texas held its Black Tie and Boots Ball the night before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a see and be-seen event for any lobbyist or political donor from the Lone Star state – presuming they had the connections to score a ticket to the usually sold-out event.
The mood that year was even more jubilant than usual. Not only was a cavalry of Texas Republicans on their way to Washington, but Houston’s own ZZ Top was playing, as cowboybooted guests mingled around trays of barbecue beef and Tex-Mex.
“It was a great, great party,” recounted Thomas Graham, the owner of an Austin public relations firm. “The thing with Trump, he did not come into office with lots of relationships in government. That benefited Texans because those Texans who were involved were influential.”
Trump would go on to hire Brooke Rollins, Perry’s former policy director in the governor’s office, eventually promoting her to acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council. And Stephen Munisteri, the former head of the Texas Republican Party, served as deputy assistant to the president.
In fact, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank Rollins led for 15 years, became a regular source of Trump appointees. Kathleen Harnett White was nominated to head the Council on Environmental Quality – though Trump withdrew the nomination after protests surrounding Hartnett White’s questioning of climate change. And Bernard McNamee, another fellow at the think tank, was appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
It harkened back to the presidency of George W. Bush, whose proclivity for hiring Texans was so great that airlines added additional flights to Texas from Ronald Reagan National Airport, Graham said. Among the Texans in Bush’s Cabinet were Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.
“Talk to any Texan Republican in their 40s or 50s, and they all seem to have been in D.C. during those eight Bush years,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “You can do a Kevin Bacon (six degrees of separation) game thing tying people together.”
As to why prominent Texas Democrats such as Julian Castro, secretary of housing and urban development during the Obama administration, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, or former gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis — who gained fame by wearing pink running shoes while filibustering abortion restrictions in the Legislature — didn’t find their way into Biden’s administration, the reasons run the gamut, observers say.
After so many decades in Washington as a senator and vice president, Biden has his own circle from which to draw. And with a thin majority in the House, Democrats are reluctant to move members from Republican states where governors can drag out the scheduling of special elections, leaving the seats vacant.
But should Biden appoint more Texans into his administration, expect those Texans already here to welcome them with open arms, said Myers, the lobbyist from the Panhandle.
“Texans in my experience seem to have more pride in their state and put it out front,” he said. “My father said don’t ever ask a man where he’s from. If he’s from Texas, he’ll tell you. And if he’s not, you don’t want to embarrass him.”