We partnered with HEB this Women’s History Month to highlight ’31 Days, 31 Women’ and today we are celebrating Ann Richards, Governor of Texas from 1991-1995. Richards left her mark, appointing more women and minorities to official positions—including the first women and African-Americans in the Texas Rangers—than any of her predecessors had.
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Richards also worked to improve the prison system, and vetoed bills that would have allowed concealed carry of handguns and damaged the environment. (She’s also mother to Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards and three other children.) In 1988, as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, she famously said of Republican Nominee George Bush: “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.” In addition to her work in public office, she helped raised awareness about alcoholism by being public about her own treatment in 1980.
