Queen of Thorns: Ann Richards and the Counter-Revolution

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Chapter One​

While Ann Richards had shared her wit with Democrats across the country at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, her keynote speech was not enough to get Dukakis elected. When the results came in on Election Night in 1988, Ann made a decision to move forward and continue her work. As a result, while the bitter taste of President George H. W. Bush’s election was still in her mouth, on Saturday, November 11th, 1988, Ann Richards, Texas State Treasurer, announced her intention to run for Governor of Texas. As no one else had yet declared an intention to run for the Democratic nomination, all eyes turned on the sharp-tongued Ann and she began her campaign in earnest. Though many were not yet thinking about an election two years away, the immediate impact was felt right away in Texas politics.

Texas State Representative Rick Perry campaigned for Al Gore in the 1988 Texas Primary, only to see Texas split between Dukakis and Jesse Jackson. Following the Election, Perry had been mulling over whether to switch his party affiliation to Republican and run for statewide office. With Ann’s early announcement, he had a change of heart, preferring instead to seek to succeed her as the Texas State Treasurer and attain her blessing in doing so. As a result, Perry met with Richards later that month. As a member of the so-called “Pit Bulls” of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, a group of Representatives committed to austere budgets, Perry and Richards had worked together before. Addressing his concerns about the future of the Democratic Party to Ann, as well as his intention to run for statewide office, Perry picked Richards’s brain and received a serving of her wit on a platter. While the details of their conversation were lost to history, Perry later noted Ann convinced him to run for her seat as a Democrat and run the Treasury Department and continue the work she had done as Treasurer.

Shortly after her meeting with Rick Perry, Ann had another very important meeting with Lt. Governor William P. Hobby Jr., after learning that Hobby was wavering on whether or not to seek an unprecedented sixth term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Having served in statewide office alongside him for many years, Ann was adamant that she wanted his experience as Lieutenant Governor to aid her in her first term as Governor, should she win. There meeting would soon bring fruit, when Hobby declared his intention to run for one last term in office after Governor Bill Clements decided not to run for a third term, stating that the Lieutenant Governor wanted to provide some form of continuity for Texas in the next duly-elected Governor’s term.

Following her meetings with Perry and Hobby, Ann began a cross-state tour, determined to meet with as many constituents as possible during her election campaign. Richards held her first campaign rally in her hometown of Waco, Texas. With just over 400 women and college students in attendance, Ann promised to govern as a sensible progressive, who would revise the Texan economy, noting her experience as the Texas State Treasurer, and, expand the place of women in the workplace. Further, Ann spoke directly to the Hispanic Texans in the crowd, speaking in Spanish and talking about expanding the English As A Second Language program, while interweaving her speech with anecdotes from when she was a schoolteacher in Austin about the importance of education. The press described her first rally as a modest success, detailing the enthusiasm the crowd displayed when Ann fed them her notorious wit. From Waco, Richards would continue to make several more campaign stops at the smaller towns doting the region, famously giving an impromptu speech in front of the Czech Stop kolache store in West, Texas, while waiting in line to make a purchase. Even though numerous people in line offered to let her advance in front of them, Richards famously stating, “I haven’t gotten to where I am by cutting corners and I ain’t about to start now,” before continuing to remain in line for the fifteen minutes it took for her to reach the front of the queue and place her order. With her kolaches in tow, Ann proceeded to a local police station, where she handed out the kolaches to the officers and talked at length about how a vote for Ann would be a vote for police security and a vote against cop-killer bullets. While these latter impromptu rallies around Waco would not garner press followings directly, word of mouth quickly spread, leading to articles in the local news outlets before spreading to the larger outlets in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and, Houston.

 

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Chapter Two​

Another Man For Ann

With two years of campaigning ahead of her, Ann was determined to pull out all the stops in what appeared to be a never-ending journey toward the Dome. While campaigning in Austin, Ann had the fortune to be contacted by none other than Willie Nelson, who expressed a deep interested in seeing Ann elected the first true female Governor of Texas. The outlaw country star convinced Ann to let him perform at several campaign rallies in an effort to truly get the ball rolling. Even though no other Democrats had thrown their hats in the ring yet, Ann knew the importance of these early months and agreed to host several concert rallies with Nelson in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, and Lubbock.

Dubbed as the “Another Man for Ann” tour, these six rallies were held in January, kicking off 1989 with a renewed sense of fervor in both Ann and in her increasing amount of followers. At each rally, the Richards campaign would sell shirts, buttons and bumper stickers emblazoned with ‘Another Man For Ann,’ which would typically sell out once Nelson appeared on stage donning his own. The early alliance between Ann and Nelson enabled Ann to quickly form a base of core supporters that include blue-collar workers, students, and teachers. Yet, she knew that this would not be enough to clinch the Democratic nomination. To this end, she began formulating a plan of outreach to both the Latino and African-American communities.

Ann Richards and Willie Nelson at an 'Another Man For Ann' Rally​

Following her rally in San Antonio, Ann met with Latino activists and community leaders, promising them that the New Texas she envisioned would have ample opportunities for all Texans and that she would work tirelessly to lift up the Hispanic population of Texas and appoint Tejanos to positions of power in her government. Ann’s Texas drawl remained when she spoke Spanish but the crowds still adored her for trying and for building outreach to the their community. An impromptu rally was held at El Mercado in San Antonio with former Mayor Henry Cisneros as mariachi music played in the background, setting the scene for a political alliance that would help entrench the Texas Latino population in the Texas Democratic Party for years to come.

Cisneros, wearing his own Another Man for Ann shirt, stated that Ann was the only person who could help expand homeownership for Latinos across Texas and revitalize dying urban centers in Latino communities, issues that were very near and dear to his heart and that he had been committed to during his tenure as Mayor of San Antonio. Behind the scenes, Ann was adamant in thanking Cisneros and asked him to help her campaign in other cities, as well as many of the rural Latino communities in the Rio Grande Valley. Cisneros readily agreed. Whether or not Ann promised Cisneros positions or influence is not known, but Cisneros would remain attached to Ann going into the future, helping her with outreach to the Tejano and Mexican-American communities as she marched on her path toward the Primary.