In a blowout that stretched from coast to coast and turned the entire country waaaaay bluer, Texas was among the states that went bluest of all.
The Lone Star State has gifted us with a Democratic governor for the first time since the widely beloved Ann Richards — may she rest in peace — served from 1991 to 1995.
Gina Hinojosa is the first Democrat since Richards was elected all the way back then, an unseemly number of decades ago.
Gina Hinojosa isn’t just the first Democratic Party governor of Texas in a while. She’s the first Latina governor of Texas, ever! But that’s not all. Texas just saw a blowout that was absolutely historic, a generational realignment, a way to make new Texas Elon Musk cry.
Check out the front page of the Texas Tribune as of Tuesday night!
Texas now has a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, senator, attorney general, and comptroller. Oh no they forgot the Railroad Commissioner and the entire state supreme court! (Republicans also lost more than 20 seats and control of the state House.)
You might be surprised to see Texas change its mind so dramatically, but the truth is, it’s been blue before. Texas goes big — and these victories would never have been possible without what came before.
Ann Richards wasn’t just the governor of Texas. She started out as a schoolteacher, teaching social studies and history at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin before raising her family. She also spent much of her time volunteering for political campaigns and causes, especially those that had to do with civil rights and economic justice.
Oh how she and Molly Ivins used to cut up. Here’s one:
At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin’ and greetin’ at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock’s personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, ‘Bob, my boy, how are you?”
Bullock said, “Judge, I’d like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer.”
The judge peered up at me and said, “How yew, little lady?”
Bullock, “And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department.” Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie’s palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. “And who is this lovely lady?”
Ann beamed and replied, “I am Mrs. Miles.”
Here’s a video where Molly Ivins tells the story of Ann Richards doing a dick joke!
In short, Richards was a bleeding-heart, do-gooder, hilarious wokeist — where have we seen someone like that before, oh, it’s ALL OF US! — and Texas absolutely loved her. She started her political career as a county commissioner; she ran after her equally politically engaged husband turned down the opportunity. From commissioner, she became state treasurer, and from there she was elected governor.
But Ann Richards really got nationally famous after her 1988 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, in which she got up there, in heels and pearls, and absolutely skewered the Republican Party. She even went after George W. Bush, years before it was cool!
Listen to those cheers!
There will probably be a lot of think pieces that appear in biased news organizations over the next few weeks about how this is an aberration, that Texas has always been a conservative state, or that Texans are inherently right-wing, or that Texas values are fascist, or that power-grabbing misogynists are what Texans really want, or that this is a blip or an aberration. Those have always been lies.
Texas is now blue. Gina Hinojosa — who did the work, who stepped up and ran as a sacrificial lamb when nobody else would, who is making the state safe for public schools and kids again — is its governor-elect. Long live Texas!
I never could've dreamed this would happen. And it's great to see the history behind this moment too. I like to think Richards and Ivins are looking down and smiling upon this moment.
As someone who grew up in Texas in the '80s and '90s, this warms my heart so much. I was in high school for Richards' term, and once I could vote I always went Democratic, despite being from a long line of Republicans. She and Ivins showed me the way. (May they both rest in peace after, as Evan said so eloquently last night, rising from the grave to punch Abbott and Paxton in the dick.)
Giddy up! Let's go, Texas!