
Texas has a history of colorful, larger-than-life politicians. Former Gov. Ann Richards, who died Wednesday at age 73, was one of them.
With her trademark quick wit, irreverent personality and helmet-shaped, immovable white hair, Richards became one of the most recognizable Texans across the country, a fundraiser per excellence for the national Democratic Party and an icon in her home state. Ironically, even though she was highly popular, Richards couldn’t get re-elected as governor.
It was her personality, not necessarily her politics, that many fellow Texans loved. She was at once elegant and a good ole girl, a fearless campaigner whose acid tongue cut to the quick, a woman so independent of mind and spirit that some were reminded of the hard-scrabble pioneer women who settled the state.
Still, she was a liberal Democrat in a state that, in 1990, was fast trending Republican. The last governor had been Republican Bill Clements. The Republican in the 1990 governor’s race was West Texas cowboy millionaire Clayton Williams, who spent a fortune on the campaign. Richards worked her tail off, but she had a lot of help from her opponent. It wasn’t so much that she won the race, but rather he gave it away.
That was the guy who shot himself in the foot not once but several times. His most famous faux pas was saying, at a roundup on his ranch for the press, that weather was like rape – you just need to lie back and enjoy it.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he later promised to “head and hoof her and drag her through the dirt.” No wonder that he turned from John Wayne into a caricature of a Texas cattleman. Republican women, even in North Dallas, fled from their candidate and embraced a strong woman, even if they disagreed with her politically.
Young people or others who weren’t around then might ask: How could Ann Richards be so popular, so funny and so loved and lose her re-election campaign to an inexperienced George W. Bush? In the second election, her tart tongue worked against her, and Republican women went home when offered a credible candidate. She also faced not just Bush but the strategy and subrosa campaign of the now famous Karl Rove.
Richards came off as shrill rather than funny when she called George W. Bush “Shrub” and “Junior,” while Bush always treated her with respect, stayed on message and ran a disciplined campaign.
There are a lot of what-ifs to Ann Richards’ political career. What if she had never delivered that famous line at the 1988 Democratic Convention about the first President Bush, i.e., that he was “born with a silver foot in his mouth.” Some say it may have launched W into politics, inspiring him to later challenge her. And what if she had won that second election? She would have derailed the one we now call President.
All of that aside, Richards is to be remembered for making Texas government more inclusive, for bringing in more women and minorities. One of her appointees was Ron Kirk as secretary of state. He later became the first black mayor of Dallas.
Before she was an elected official, Richards was a feminist. Before she had to be more careful about her image, she delighted in entertaining audiences of women by putting on a pig’s snout face mask and delivering her rendition of a male, chauvinistic pig.
Her earlier campaigns, first for Travis County Commissioner and then for State Treasurer, were powered by women, who later served in her administration.
Richards was only the second woman governor of Texas, after Miriam (Ma) Ferguson in the 1930s. She liked to ridicule Ma Ferguson, who opposed bilingual education, by reminding Texans that Ferguson had said: “If the English language was good enough for the Bible, then it’s good enough for the school children of Texas.”
Following her death this week, people remembered her many funny lines and why people liked her even if they didn’t like her politics. Some of the following were posted on dallasblog.com Thursday:
“She was intelligent, gracious, elegant, quick, funny beyond description and a joy to be around. Ann understood that until ALL Texans were part of the debates and helped to craft the solutions, none of us were at our best.”
A former political cartoonist and unabashed conservative wrote: “To be honest, I don’t hold many of the same political views as Ms. Richards but she puts as good a spin on Texas as anyone in the game. She believes in her causes and makes it more fun to be a Texan. She never has any problem being humble when warranted and she is as naturally funny as they come. An unbelievable personality and a good ambassador.”
Ann Richards started her life in politics doing what women did in the 1960s, stuffing envelopes and putting out yard signs in North Dallas. She rose to one of the highest offices in the state in a national landmark election for women and opened the political door for other women, blacks and Hispanics. She never lost her warmth. She never lost her cool.
About the writer:
Carolyn Barta is a senior lecturer in the journalism division and a former political writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. She can be reached at [email protected].