Ann Richards
Dorothy Ann Richards was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. A Democrat, she first came to national attention as the Texas State Treasurer, when she gave the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards was the second female governor of Texas, and was frequently noted in the media for her outspoken feminism and her one-liners.
Born in McLennan County, Texas, Richards became a schoolteacher after graduating from Baylor University. She won election to the Travis County Commissioners' Court in 1976, and took office as Texas State Treasurer in 1983. She delivered a nominating speech for Walter Mondale at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, and the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
Richards won the 1990 Texas gubernatorial election, defeating Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox in a Democratic primary run-off election and businessman Clayton Williams in the general election. She was defeated in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election by George W. Bush. She remained active in public life until her death in 2006. She is currently the most recent Democrat to serve as Texas governor.
Early life
Richards was born in Lakeview, in McLennan County, Texas, the only child of Robert Cecil Willis and Mildred Iona "Ona" Warren. Robert Cecil Willis was a pharmaceutical salesman who served in World War II and Mildred Iona Warren was a homemaker. Both of Richards' parents were Texas natives. Richards grew up in Waco, and the family briefly lived in San Diego, before moving back to Texas at the start of Richards's high school years. At this time, she dropped her first name and went by her middle name. She participated in Girls State, a mock-government assembly. She also was the Texas delegate in Washington, D.C. at the Girls Nation event, where she found her passion for politics. She graduated from Waco High School in 1950. She attended Baylor University on a debate team scholarship, and earned a bachelor's degree. After marrying her high school sweetheart David "Dave" Richards, she moved to Austin, where she earned a teaching certificate from the University of Texas. David and Ann Richards had four children: Cecile, Daniel, Clarke, and Ellen. Her first cousin once removed was the art historian Gary Tinterow. Cecile was born on July 15, 1957. She is the former president of Planned Parenthood. Cecile died of glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer that is incurable and has a survival rate of 12 to 18 months, on January 20th, 2025.Richards taught social studies and history at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin from 1955 to 1956. She campaigned for Texas liberals and progressives, such as Henry B. Gonzalez, Ralph Yarborough, and future U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes.
Political career
State Treasurer
After incumbent Texas State Treasurer Warren G. Harding became mired in legal troubles in 1982, Richards won the Democratic nomination for that post. Winning election against a Republican opponent in November that year, Richards became the first woman elected to statewide office in more than fifty years. In 1986, she was re-elected treasurer without opposition. Richards was a popular and proactive treasurer who worked to maximize the return of Texas state investments. At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, Richards delivered one of the nominating speeches for nominee Walter Mondale, and she campaigned actively for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket in Texas, even though President Ronald Reagan enjoyed great popularity in her state.1988 Democratic National Convention
Richards' keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention put her in the national spotlight. The speech was highly critical of the Reagan Administration and then–Vice President George H. W. Bush. Her address was notable for several remarks: "I'm delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like", "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth", "Two women in 160 years is about par for the course. But if you give us a chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels", and "When we pay billions for planes that won't fly, billions for tanks that won't fire, and billions for systems that won't work, that old dog won't hunt. And you don't have to be from Waco to know that when the Pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn't make America strong, that it's a bum deal". In the presidential debate that year between Republican George Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis, Bush referenced Richards's uncivil comments about him during her speech on his way to winning the White House.The speech set the tone for Richards' political future. In 1989, with co-author Peter Knobler, she wrote her autobiography, Straight from the Heart: My Life in Politics and Other Places.
Governor (1991–1995)
In 1990, Texas' Republican governor, Bill Clements, decided not to run for re-election to a third nonconsecutive term. Richards painted herself as a sensible progressive and won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Attorney General Jim Mattox of Dallas and former governor Mark White of Houston. Mattox ran a particularly abrasive campaign against Richards, accusing her of having had drug problems beyond alcoholism. The Republicans nominated colorful and eccentric multi-millionaire rancher Clayton Williams, of Fort Stockton and Midland. Republican political activist Susan Weddington of San Antonio, a Williams supporter, placed a black wreath that read "Death to the Family" at the door of Richards's campaign headquarters in Austin. After a series of gaffes by Williams, Richards narrowly won on November 6, 1990, with 49% of the vote to Williams' 47%. Libertarian Party nominee Jeff Daiell drew 3.3 percent in an effort that included television spots and considerable personal campaigning. Richards was inaugurated governor the following January.Richards became the second woman to hold Texas's top office, since Miriam "Ma" Ferguson. Her chief of staff was Mary Beth Rogers.
In 1994, Richards ran for re-election against Republican George W. Bush. Despite outspending his campaign by 23%, she was defeated, with 45.88% of the vote to Bush's 53.48% while Libertarian Keary Ehlers received 0.64%. The Richards campaign had hoped for a misstep from the relatively inexperienced Republican nominee, but none appeared, while Richards created many of her own, including calling Bush "some jerk", "shrub" and "that young Bush boy".
Tenure as Governor
As governor, Richards reformed the Texas prison system, establishing a substance abuse program for inmates, reducing the number of violent offenders released, and increasing prison space to deal with a growing prison population. She backed proposals to reduce the sale of semi-automatic firearms and "cop-killer" bullets in the state.The Texas Lottery was also instituted during her governorship—advocated as a means of supplementing school finances; Richards purchased the first lottery ticket on May 29, 1992, in Oak Hill, near Austin.
School finance remained one of the key issues of Richards' governorship and of those succeeding hers; the famous Robin Hood plan was launched in the 1992–1993 biennium and attempted to make school funding more equitable across school districts. Richards also sought to decentralize control over education policy to districts and individual campuses; she instituted "site-based management" to this end.
One of her first goals was to focus on education. To do so, she held a "school assembly" on January 19, 1991, where she met with students as well as teachers from all over Texas to hear directly from the source what needed to change in the school systems. She found this to be important because these are the people who were directly affected by the education system at the time. She found education to be extremely important and this was clear during her time in office.
In 1993, Richards signed into law the re-codified Texas Penal Code which included anti-homosexual Section 21.06, the state's "Homosexual Conduct" law which states: " A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex. An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.". In 1990, Richards had campaigned in Houston to repeal the law. But, as governor, her signature criminalized same-sex sexual relations in Texas. However, according to Bryan Wildenthal, the Associate Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Richards sent a proposed criminal code revision that eliminated the sodomy ban to the Texas Legistlature, but was overidden. She reluctantly signed the ban into law because vetoing it meant denying other "progressive improvements" in the code, while the ban was likely going to be passed at a different point.
Post-governorship
Richards was defeated in the 1994 Republican landslide that also unseated New York governor Mario Cuomo and brought a Republican majority to the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Richards and Cuomo appeared in a series of humorous television commercials for the snack food Doritos shortly afterward, in which they discussed the "sweeping changes" occurring. The changes they are discussing turn out to be the new Doritos packaging.Beginning in 2001, Richards was a senior advisor to the communications firm Public Strategies, Inc. in Austin and New York. From 1995 to 2001, Richards was also a senior advisor with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, a Washington, D.C.–based international law firm. Richards sat on the boards of the Aspen Institute, JCPenney, and T.I.G. Holdings.
One of her daughters, Cecile Richards, became president of Planned Parenthood in 2006. Ann Richards demonstrated interest in social causes such as equality, abortion, and women's rights.
She was a tireless campaigner for Democratic candidates throughout the United States. In the 2004 presidential election, Richards endorsed Howard Dean for the Democratic nomination, and campaigned on his behalf. Richards later stumped for Democratic nominee John Kerry, highlighting the issues of health care and women's rights. Some political pundits mentioned her as a potential running mate to Kerry; however, she did not make his list of top finalists, and he selected North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Richards said that she was "not interested" in a political comeback.