What Would Cleopatra Do? by Elizabeth Foley & Beth Coates

Author:Elizabeth Foley & Beth Coates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

Ann Richards

AND

SHOOTING FROM THE HIP

1933–2006

It’s clear that what the world really needs now is a politician to cut through all that liberal elitism, someone who can shoot from the hip, speak plainly, and communicate directly to the people who feel the most disenfranchised . . . wait, what? Oh. But what if that person was a woman, and a badass feminist mother at that? In these dark days of fake news, corporate speak, the vagaries of e-mail, and (mis-) communication in only 280 characters, awesome Ann Richards was the original straight-talking politician, and she’s there to show us another way. Mother of four, film buff, and possessor of the sharpest tongue in the South, Ann was larger than life, and reigned with a distinctive shock of white, insane hair (sound familiar?). We salute her.

Born in McLennan County, Texas, Ann Richards was the only child of Robert and Mildred Willis. She grew up in Waco and attended the local high school. Handy with an argument from the get-go, she won a debate team scholarship at Baylor University, earning a bachelor’s degree before moving to Austin, Texas, and marrying her high school sweetheart, Dave Richards, with whom she had four children.

Ann worked at Fulmore Junior High School teaching history and social studies for a year, but she soon felt the pull of politics and began to campaign for Texan liberals. She wore her feminist colors on her sleeve and knew full well what women could bring to politics. “After all,” she said, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” Boom. Over the years she dedicated more and more time to politics, and by 1970 she had helped elect liberal Democrats like Sarah Weddington and Wilhelmina Delco to the Texas Legislature, and instigated training sessions on campaigning techniques to help women boss it like the men.

But as her political star ascended, Ann turned to the bottle, her marriage to Dave began to falter, and in 1980 she entered treatment for alcoholism. Ann knew that her ability to cut through the BS gave her the edge over her opponents, and she said later that her biggest fear about recovery was that she’d lose her sharpshooting personality if she stopped drinking. Happily, no edge was blunted, and Ann went back into the fray—though, less happily, her marriage didn’t survive.

In 1982 Ann was nominated for Texas state treasurer and became the first woman to hold statewide office in more than fifty years. In 1990 she won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a hard contest against Jim Mattox and Mark White. Her Republican opponent was multimillionaire rancher Clayton Williams Jr., and theirs was a famously bitter fight, dubbed in the press “Claytie versus the Lady.” Clay joked about rape during his campaign (suggesting women should just “relax and enjoy it”), was reluctant to release his tax returns, and refused to shake hands with Ann (again—does any of this sound remotely familiar?). Richards won by a small margin, 49 to 47 percent, and was inaugurated governor of Texas the following January.

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