Queer Things to Do in Houston This Weekend, September 5 – 8
Out Smart: Queer Things to Do in Houston This Weekend, September 5 – 8
Houston Pride Forum
Equality Texas hosts a Pride Forum centered on LGBTQ voter resources. The event will include a panel discussion featuring openly LGBTQ elected officials including State Senator Molly Cook and soon-to-be State Representative Lauren Ashley Simmons. The Montrose Center. 6:30 p.m.
“We just did this, electing the youngest person to the Texas state Senate, Molly Cook.”
The 74: From Trauma to Turnout: Inside David Hogg’s $8M Bid to Elect Young Progressives
This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence. You can sign up for its newsletters here.
In a video posted to YouTube, 24-year-old school shooting survivor David Hogg points to a whiteboard and outlines a five-step plan to reshape America.
Ever since Hogg survived the 2018 Valentine’s Day shooting at his Parkland, Florida, high school, which killed 17 of his classmates and educators, he’s become a national leader in the push for gun control and a formidable up-and-comer in Democratic politics. His latest effort is Leaders We Deserve, a political action committee formed in 2023 that has raised nearly $8.5 million in the past year to elect Gen Z and millennial progressives to state and national office.
The PAC aims to find young Democrats running for office, flood their campaigns with cash, offer strategic advice, provide a team of volunteers and work with the candidates to build a winning platform.
The strategy, Hogg explains in the YouTube advertisement designed to attract donors, has already met with success in Texas: “We just did this, electing the youngest person to the Texas state Senate, Molly Cook,” the state’s first openly LGBTQ+ senator. Leading up to the May election, Hogg’s PAC bolstered Cook’s campaign with $300,000 in financial backing, money used to blanket her district with mailings and digital ads.
“With Molly, we found in our poll that she was behind by 2%, so we came in and we found that she was ahead by 5 after we informed voters about her background,” Hogg says, adding that his team knocked on the doors of more than 1,000 potential voters. “We got her on MSNBC as well and worked with her on her messaging and the result is that she ended up winning by 62 votes.”
Molly Cook became the first openly LGBTQ+ state senator in Texas, winning her election with support from Leaders We Deserve. The PAC has relied largely on digital ads, including on Instagram and Google, to bolster support for young progressive candidates. (Source: Instagram screenshot)
As Hogg works to “elect a ton more Mollys around the country,” an analysis by The 74 of Federal Election Commission filings and the PAC’s digital ads offers insight into how he has leveraged the trauma and lessons learned from surviving one of America’s deadliest school shootings to build out a well-connected, generously funded operation to influence elections.
The urgency of his key issue remains unabated: Two students and two teachers were killed and at least nine others injured Wednesday in a shooting at a Georgia high school. During a presidential campaign stop Wednesday afternoon in New Hampshire, Vice President Kamala Harris called the shooting outside Atlanta “a senseless tragedy, on top of so many senseless tragedies.”
“It’s just outrageous that everyday in our country — in the United States of America — that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It’s senseless,” Harris said. “We’ve got to stop it.”
Leaders We Deserve has pumped millions of dollars — and resources from Democratic power players — into the campaigns of young candidates who support progressive causes like gun control, reproductive rights and protecting public school funding. Its efforts going into November will almost certainly be strengthened by Harris’s presence atop the ticket, an event that has energized young voters.
Joining forces with Hogg, a recent Harvard graduate, is Kevin Lata, the former campaign manager of U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida who, at 27, is the first member of Gen Z to serve in Congress. Hogg and Lata didn’t respond to interview requests.
“As a generation, we’ve collectively been told to run, hide and fight over and over during active shooting drills, and our generation has learned that along with our ABCs,” Hogg says in one ad. “I think it’s time that we repurpose the meaning of that. We need to start running for office. We need to stop hiding from the responsibility that we have to protect future generations.”
Cook has received the largest share of direct campaign cash from Leaders We Deserve, according to the PAC’s most recent federal financial disclosures, which cover the period from June 2023 to the end of July 2024. In that time, the group has helped finance the campaigns of 16 candidates, primarily at the state level, including in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Florida and Ohio.
Funding has gone to the Georgia House race of a seventh-grade math teacher in Atlanta, a former Miss Texas vying for a state House seat on a gun control platform, a 28-year-old in Pennsylvania whose run for the state House is centered on combating school budget cuts, and a 28-year-old mother running for a House seat in Tennessee after the state denied her access to an abortion.
The Leaders We Deserve PAC has made direct contributions to young progressive candidates across the country, with the largest share going to Molly Cook, the first openly LGBTQ+ state senator in Texas. (Graphic by Eamonn Fitzmaurice of The 74/campaign websites)
‘Pain into purpose’
Though young candidates are underrepresented in public office across the country, and they tend to face steeper financial barriers than those from older generations, FEC data — and Hogg’s five-step plan — show the PAC offers more than money to its endorsed candidates. It has ties to some of the major players in Democratic campaign operations.
Its 59-person advisory board encompasses education leaders, gun control proponents, youth activists and two former law enforcement officers — Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone — who defended the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. Democratic politicians, half of them 35 or younger, make up the largest share of advisors.
Among the more seasoned advisors is Arne Duncan, the former education secretary for President Barack Obama. Duncan now has his own group — Chicago CRED — which provides job training and other resources in a bid to stem gun violence in his hometown.
Duncan told The 74 that he and Hogg communicate regularly to discuss their shared goal of thwarting gun violence. Duncan said that his “generation has failed” to confront the issue in a meaningful way, leaving young people — including the ones Hogg is working to elect — to devise solutions.
“I hate the leadership that David has had to provide on this issue. I hate the trauma that he and his classmates and his school and his community have been through,” Duncan said. “But I so appreciate him turning that pain into purpose and really fighting to change things.”
Hogg— who co-founded the gun control group March for Our Lives in the Parkland shooting’s immediate aftermath and has campaigned in previous elections for candidates who support new gun laws— has garnered financial support for his political committee from marquee donors. The bulk of donations — more than $4.3 million — come from undisclosed individuals contributing less than $200, but the largest single contribution of $300,000 is from Ron Conway. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist and gun control proponent served on the advisory board of Sandy Hook Promise, which has sought to reduce campus gun violence in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school.
Other prominent donors include reproductive rights activist Phoebe Gates, the daughter of Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who gave $75,000, and actress Kate Capshaw and her husband, the director Steven Spielberg, who donated a combined $25,000.
That support, federal election data shows, has translated into significant spending, with nearly $3 million going to advertising via text messaging, digital ads and campaign mailers. Nearly $1 million — the PAC’s second-largest expense — was used to purchase lists with the contact information of potential voters.
The PAC’s expenditures also reflect the web of influential players working behind the scenes. Leaders We Deserve paid nearly $130,000 in legal fees to the Elias Law Group, the firm of Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, who helped Harris vet vice presidential candidates and is now assisting with the party’s vote recount strategy for November. Other top payments were to prominent political fundraisers and strategists, including The Hooligans Agency, a firm credited with using Hollywood tactics to make viral political ads.
The Leaders We Deserve advisory board includes leading gun control proponents such as Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Newtown Action Alliance Co-Founder Po Murray and former Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (Graphic by Eamonn Fitzmaurice of The 74/Leaders We Deserve website)
PACs like Leaders We Deserve have faced criticism for injecting smaller races with big money from interest groups and out-of-state donors. Leaders We Deserve has found its greatest success raising money from donors in California, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York, federal data shows. The group hasn’t contributed to candidates in any of those states.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and a Leaders We Deserve advisory board member, said the PAC offers Hogg a strategic advantage.
“He did this in a way so that he wasn’t constrained by party,” Weingarten said. “He understands and knits together policy and politics.”
‘A big barrier’
Even with its list of established connections, Leaders We Deserve faces headwinds in driving change.
Young people are “vastly underrepresented on the ballot” and run for public office at much lower rates than older adults, according to a 2022 white paper from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning Engagement, or CIRCLE, a nonpartisan youth-focused research organization at Tufts University.
As of 2021, millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 — made up a quarter of the voting population yet represented just 7% of lawmakers in Congress. Researchers found that financial insecurity and structural inequities — not apathy — were behind the divide.
While more than 20% of young adults 18 to 25 said they would consider seeking public office — and an increasing number of them have followed through in the past decade — the encouragement they receive varies widely by race and gender. Younger candidates are more diverse than those from older generations, but while Black and Latino youth are more likely than their white counterparts to consider an election bid, they are less likely to actually run.
The data drives home why groups like Leaders We Deserve are critical to improving civic engagement among young people, said Sara Suzuki, a senior researcher at CIRCLE.
“That gap between interest and actually running can be filled by organizations like Leaders We Deserve and other organizations across the spectrum because financial support is a big barrier,” Suzuki said, adding that the PAC’s explicit encouragement of young candidates could lead more of them to enter politics.
Advertising, including mailings and digital ads, is the top expenditure for Leaders We Deserve as the group seeks to bolster support for young progressives. (Graphic by Eamonn Fitzmaurice of The 74/Federal Election Commission)
Getting the necessary votes is another story. Suzuki said it’s plausible that a candidate’s age is one of the factors that young people consider at the ballot box, but that they are primarily driven by specific issues rather than individual candidates or parties.
“They really vote as a way to make change happen on issues that they care about,” she said, “and those issues tend to be economic issues like cost of living, climate change is a big youth issue, gun violence and abortion.”
‘Leaders for 2050’
School shooting survivor David Hogg, who launched Leaders We Deserve to elect young progressives to public office, attends the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago. (Getty)
The PAC’s first endorsement went to the congressional campaign of Sarah McBride, a Democratic state senator in Delaware since 2021 who has been credited for helping shape President Biden’s views on transgender rights. If elected, the 34-year-old would be the first openly transgender member of Congress.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their community, whether you are walking alone at night or going to school during the day,” McBride notes on her campaign website. “The truth is, when it comes to guns, our country has lost its common sense.”
The PAC’s “first elected candidate,” according to Hogg, was Nadarius Clark, the youngest member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Clark got $100,000 in support and beat his Republican opponent by 800 votes in 2023. Leaders We Deserve and the ideologically aligned nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety were Clark’s top campaign contributors, state records show.
The PAC stands to see another victory this fall in Georgia, where Bryce Berry — the 22-year-old Atlanta middle school math teacher — faces an incumbent who switched from Democrat to Republican last year in order to support private school vouchers. The heavily Democratic district has never elected a Republican to the state House.
Leaders We Deserve has also been handed defeats, including its failure last fall to help elect a 26-year-old transgender woman to the Alabama House of Representatives. The PAC spent $124,325 on the race, one that Hogg acknowledged would be tough.
But the group is looking well beyond 2024’s high-stakes election cycle, a strategy that Duncan, the former education secretary, said is critical to the Democratic Party’s future. The state lawmakers elected today, he said, are one step closer to becoming the national leaders of tomorrow.
“That’s what David’s play is about,” Duncan said. “It’s not about, ‘We’re going to change the entire world tomorrow,’ but it’s, ‘Can we plant a whole bunch of amazing seeds, nurture them, develop them, support them and see what happens.’”
It’s a political mindset that the group hopes will propel progressive leaders beyond their Republican rivals.
“While MAGA plans for 2025,” one of the PACs ads states in reference to Trump’s ties to the ultra-conservative playbook to remake the federal government, “we’re building leaders for 2050.”
Houston Democrats to Mike Miles: We will not 'get out of the way'
Chron: Houston Democrats to Mike Miles: We will not 'get out of the way'
After much-maligned Houston Independent School District (HISD) superintendent Mike Miles told lawmakers to "lead, follow, or get out of the way," a group of Texas Democrats fired back: No.
The strongly worded correspondence began after a group of Democrats called for an investigation into Miles' financial dealings after multiple reports found discrepancies in the relationship between Miles and his former charter school network, Third Future Schools. Miles sent lawmakers a letter asking that they focus on the positives of his reign under the HISD state takeover and even took to LinkedIn to defend his leadership and character. Democrats including State House Rep. Gene Wu and newly elected State Senator Molly Cook sent a shorter letter back.
"We have no plans to 'get out of the way,'" Wu wrote in a post on X sharing the letter, which said that the lawmakers "have a duty to scrutinize problematic and potentially illegal activity occurring in our communities and at our schools."
"This is a duty we take seriously, and one which we do not intend to disregard," the letter continued.
When a Spectrum TV report earlier this year alleged that Miles had continued to receive payment from Third Future Schools while HISD superintendent, Miles and the district delayed in responding to the rumors. In a long-winded post on LinkedIn this week, Miles said he would "no longer let serious attacks on my character and integrity go unanswered."
In the spring of 2023, the Texas Education Agency declared it would be taking over the state's largest school district until school ratings improved, installing Miles as superintendent. In the past year, thousands of students and teachers have left the district, but preliminary school ratings from the state do indicate higher academic outcomes. The takeover has outraged students, lawmakers, and parents, hundreds of whom have taken to protesting staff layoffs and cuts under the new district regime.
HISD is also currently seeking a $4.4 billion bond for district improvements, mainly building renovations, although its future hangs in the balance. If approved, it would be the largest bond in state history.
The Young Texan Politicians You Should Be Following
Houstonia: The Young Texan Politicians You Should Be Following
This year is one for the books in US politics. From the contentious—and very eventful—presidential election to the make-it-or-break-it senatorial races, the stakes couldn’t be higher. While the national spotlight often focuses on the race for the White House, down-ballot politics is where a lot of interesting stories unfold, especially in Texas.
A fledgling crop of politicians are vying for Texans’ votes with new and often differing ideas for the future of the Lone Star State, tackling big issues like education, health care, and voter rights. These aren’t just the usual suspects; they’re a mix of seasoned pros and fresh faces, each bringing some young energy to the political scene.
As we head into this election cycle, here are the Texas politicians to watch.
State Sen. Molly Cook
Democrat, 33, Texas Senate District 15
Running for reelection
This state senator also moonlights as an ER nurse, a job that has influenced her political stances. Sen. Cook, who got elected through a special election after state senator John Whitmire became Houston’s mayor, brings a unique perspective to the legislature, focusing on policies that address the social determinants of health and improve public health outcomes.
She is known for her grassroots activism, having advocated on behalf of community groups opposing the I-45 highway expansion project. As the first openly bisexual member of the state senate, Cook is also a strong proponent for statewide LGBTQ+ rights. She will be defending her seat in November against Republican challenger Joseph Trahan.
Abortion on the Ballot
Progress Texas: Happy Hour 163: Abortion on the Ballot [Podcast]
Our ongoing series of conversations on the trampling of reproductive freedom in Texas - and what it's going to take to regain those rights - continues. In this fourth installment, we're proud to welcome Texas State Senator Molly Cook who has made history as our state's first openly LGBTQ Senator, Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes who makes her first appearance on our podcast feed, and Democratic State House nominee and former Miss Texas Averie Bishop, running against a GOP incumbent - all three on Texas ballots this fall! Voting for candidates who will fight back for abortion access in Texas is extremely vital - enjoy another great conversation on how we're going to get those rights back, permanently.
“What determines whether or not you win is how determined your voters are.”
Fast Company: Gen Z’s Vision and the Future of America [Video]
“The way I see it, we’re not always gonna be able to control everything that happens inside that capitol. But I can control what happens outside the capitol and in our district.”
Houstonia: New Texas Senator Molly Cook Is All about ‘Treating’ Voters
Molly Cook walked into Empire Café on a Friday afternoon, her favorite local spot in Houston, her demeanor still upbeat even after the day she’d had. Fresh off a shift in the ER, she arrived in her scrubs, a backpack slung over one shoulder, her bright, colorful tattoos peeking out from her upper left arm.
Cook’s journey from the emergency room to the Texas Senate is as dynamic as her ink. The 33-year-old’s path to becoming a health care professional began when she was just 12, in a place most children dread: the school nurse’s office, somewhere she frequented to escape the monotony of class.
“I hated seventh grade,” Cook says. “The nurse was my pastor’s wife. So, I would go down there with a heating pad, instead of being in class.”
A chance encounter with the goriness of the job ignited a flame in her that would go unquenched for years. “One time I saw [the nurse] have to respond because a kid cracked his head open on the playground, and she came back in carrying this trash bag with blood and clothes in it,” Cook says with a gleam in her eyes. “I just thought it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life and I thought I want to be the person who knows what to do when there’s an emergency.”
This early fascination with emergency response followed her through her formative years. Cook followed her passion, but it wasn’t a straightforward path. She initially pursued music performance at the University of Texas at Austin, playing the harp as she had done since she was 7. Despite her love for the instrument, something felt off.
“I loved the work of performing but you just ended up spending like six hours a day alone in a practice room and that was just not right for me,” Cook says. After some soul-searching, she switched to nursing, a decision she describes as one of the best she ever made.
Nursing, for Cook, was not just a career but a calling. It allowed her to fulfill her desire to help people in their most vulnerable moments. But as she worked in the ER, she saw firsthand the social determinants of health affecting her patients’ lives. This realization sparked another passion: public health policy.
“The first person who inspired me to think about politics was a preceptor in my last semester of nursing school,” Cook says. “She had gone to the state legislature and got the laws changed. It was the first clue that nursing could be politics.”
This law, which counted a sick child’s illness as an excused absence for their high-schooler parent, showed Cook the power of policy to make tangible differences in people’s lives. She says this policy change allowed many young parents to graduate on time.
The realization planted the seed that nursing could intersect with politics and offer a broader platform to enact change, leading her to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she earned a Master’s in Public Health and Nursing in 2018, focusing on policy. She volunteered on political campaigns, interned in policy roles, and advocated at the Maryland General Assembly.
Cook’s transition from health care to politics wasn’t immediate, nor was it without challenges. She didn’t grow up in a politically active household, but each step in her journey led her closer to her new path.
“My parents vote in every presidential election but beyond that, it just wasn’t top of mind,” Cook says. “In 2014, I had moved from Austin to Houston and gotten my job here in town and I remember writing postcards to my senators about health-related issues I cared about. Each time you start to take that peek behind the curtain it grows a little bit inside your heart.”
After moving back to Houston in 2018, Cook’s passion for policy and community organizing only intensified. That same year, she volunteered 40 hours a week for Beto O’Rourke’s senate campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz while working full-time as a nurse. “Knocked on doors in Montgomery County for Beto,” she says, joking that she felt like she could do anything after that. “Organizing, owning the space, recruiting and maintaining volunteers running door knocks, door knocking myself, running the phone bank—all that was great experience.”
Cook’s hands-on approach and her willingness to dive into the grassroots level of campaigning paid off. She built a solid foundation of experience and a network of supporters that would later become instrumental in her political journey. The transition from the ER to the political arena felt innate to her. “To me, it seemed very natural. Instead of having one patient at a time, you just have 950,000 or 20 million patients,” she says.
Her passion for community organizing came to the forefront when she spearheaded efforts against the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) I-45 expansion. The project, which threatens to displace communities and cause environmental harm, became a rallying point for Cook. She mobilized residents, organized protests, and tirelessly advocated against the expansion, highlighting the detrimental impact it would have on neighborhoods.
“It’s very frustrating that despite the fact freeways kill people, cost a ton of money, and make traffic worse, we are still expanding freeways. Even though we’ve been organizing for years and spreading the word and knocking on doors, it feels like the needle hasn’t moved even though I think it actually has,” Cook says.
Cook’s campaign against the I-45 expansion is one she wants to carry into office. She says she has hope, even for a state with little-to-no public transit planning.
“Currently TxDOT is constitutionally mandated to spend about 92 to 98 percent of pertinent revenue on freeways, roadways, or roadway-adjacent projects and we need to untie TxDOT engineers’ hands,” she says. “They need to be able to spend state dollars on public transportation, biking, walking, and ADA-accessible infrastructure.”
It wasn’t until 2022, four years after she began organizing, that she entered the political fray herself. Cook ran against then–Texas senator John Whitmire, who had held the seat since 1983, in the Democratic primary. Challenging a seasoned incumbent was no small feat. Though she lost by 17 percentage points, she came the closest any of Whitmire’s opponents ever had, and the campaign was crucial in building her political profile and gaining valuable experience.
When Whitmire became the mayor of Houston this year, Cook ran again for the seat he vacated. In a highly competitive and talked-about special election, she faced off against state representative Jarvis Johnson and other challengers, getting 20.6 percent of the vote to his 36.2. The intense race culminated in a narrow runoff where she won by only 62 votes. Cook believes her grassroots campaign, bolstered by her community organizing credentials and health care background, resonated with voters. She is serving the remainder of Whitmire’s term, which ends in January 2025, and will be on the ballot again this November.
As the state senator for Senate District 15, Cook carries her activism and ER experience into her legislative work. She is driven by the same urgency and empathy that guided her nursing career. Her top priorities include expanding Medicaid, protecting public education, ensuring environmental justice, and advocating for gun safety and abortion rights. Her personal experiences, such as her procedural abortion in 2014, deeply inform her commitment to reproductive rights and health care access. She emphasizes the importance of staying rooted in data, lived experiences, and community needs to guide her policy decisions.
“The way I see it, we’re not always gonna be able to control everything that happens inside that capitol. But I can control what happens outside the capitol and in our district,” Cook says. “Inside the capitol, I’m going to be a nurse first. Every single move that I have made, all of the work that I have done, and every decision that I’ll make inside that capitol is based on what I see on a daily basis and the way that I want to care of my patients that I’m not able to.”
Despite the challenges of working in a predominantly conservative legislature, Cook remains optimistic about finding common ground. Her experience collaborating with Republicans on a housing reform bill as an activist last session demonstrates her willingness to work across the aisle for the betterment of her constituents.
And as the first openly bisexual member of the Texas Senate, Cook aims to be a symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community, advocating for their rights and serving as a safe space within the legislature.
“It’s exciting to be able to be a vessel of that power, determination, and resilience. It’s exciting to get to symbolize the hope that we all have together and I can’t wait to go and be a safe space for our community and do my absolute best for us,” Cook says.
Cook’s vision extends beyond the immediate legislative goals. She emphasizes the importance of organizing and voter turnout in Senate District 15, believing that community engagement is key to enacting meaningful change. While she’s not sure politics will remain in her future, she says her ultimate goal before she dies is to become a hospice nurse, a specialty she finds profoundly meaningful. For now, though, her focus remains on serving her constituents and making a lasting impact in the Texas Senate.
“I just want to be useful, and that's always been the case.”
Houston Press: Putting the B in LGBTQ: Molly Cook has the recipe for success
Correction 6-3-24: Molly Cook has never been divorced or married. The Houston Press regrets this error.
June is the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, often regarded as the tipping point in the modern gay rights movement and earning its recognition as Pride Month. Houston Press met with members of the LGBTQ community to learn more about their experiences belonging to this group. These are their stories.
Less than 100 votes. That was the slimmest of slim margins that clenched Molly Cook’s seat in the Texas Senate in the most recent election to fill Senator-turned-Houston-Mayor John Whitmire’s prior role. As small as that margin may seem, it is a great way to summarize Cook’s attitude … always rooting for the underdog, never willing to settle for less, and completely aware that it is the community she serves who put her the newly available position.
The policy maker ran a campaign that showcased why she cared so much about the Houston community: She’s a divorced woman who speaks openly about her thoughts on and experiences with abortion. She’s also candid about the fact that she is bisexual.
“I chose to run a really authentic campaign,” she said. “I had run in 2022 as well, so I had a feel for our district … a feel for who I was as a candidate and a feel for what it means to be authentic. I chose to share my abortion story; I chose to be out and proud; and for me, that is just who I am anyway. I'm just not a super-reserved person. I'm pretty extroverted and pretty proud of who I am and not ashamed.”
Her comfort in her own skin probably stems from her upbringing when she recognized that she did not quite agree with the popular opinion that it was a negative thing to be a part of the LGBTQ community.
“I was obsessed with Will and Grace as kid, and I watched it a lot. I just remember sitting alone in front of the TV set in the living room, all the lights are out, and I [recall that] I just did not understand why it's a bad thing to be gay,” she said. “I ended up in a private Christian school for a couple of years, and I sort of argued with some of the school leadership about how there was really nothing specific in scripture that made sense to me to say that being homosexual was a bad thing, or that it was like punishable by going to Hell or something really extreme.”
While Cook wrestled with her own belonging to what she saw as a “culture of hate” and not being able to reconcile how one person loving another person could be wrong, she found her respite in an unlikely place that would eventually influence her career: the school nurse’s office.
“I was in seventh grade. I hated school, so I spent every moment I could in the nurse's office because the nurse was my pastor's wife, so I've known her since I was four years old and loved her dearly,” Cook said. “I would go down there as much as possible and eat saltine crackers and drink Sprite and get out of class. One time when I was down there, I was lying on the cot, I remember she had to respond because a kid cracked his head open on the playground, and she came back into the clinic holding a trash bag with clothes and blood in it."
That, as Cook describes, was the coolest thing she ever witnessed. From there, her fate was sealed. From class skipper to budding nurse, the plans were set into motion.
“That love of healing and caring, that love of people, the desire to keep a cool head during emergencies and be trained and to respond to emergencies, it was planned at age 12, and it never went away,” she said.
Onward she went into healthcare, starting with a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins University, and she went into a career as an emergency room nurse.
“Working about three years in the emergency department before I went back to school [for my master’s degree] was very radicalizing. You see a lot of suffering, you see a lot of poverty. You see how well people can weather disease and crisis when they do have resources, or when there is a safety net available to them,” she said. “But in reality, we have built environments where it is impossible to choose to be healthy. As a nurse, I couldn't give someone a ride to dialysis. I couldn't clean up a bug infestation or make their air less toxic, but as a legislator, I will have the opportunity to address those root causes.”
That kind of thinking is what eased her transition from nursing to community organization and now as a Texas Senator.
“To me, it felt like a very natural next step. It's an extension of my nursing practice, and instead of having one patient at a time at the bedside, it's 950,000 patients at a time, or 28 million patients at a time. Nursing is exactly what will drive my public service,” Cook said.
In the end, Cook is just looking to use her experience as a way to help the community.
“I just want to be useful, and that's always been the case. I didn't want to run for some ego project or to be able to check off a box,” she said. “All that I want to be is useful, and I feel like I can be very useful in an extremely tough chamber as a nurse, as an out LGBTQ+ community member,I think those are going to be really important viewpoints and additions to the conversation in that extremely tough chamber.”
Residents, advocates voice frustration at Metro decision to shelve University BRT project
Dozens of residents, community advocates and elected officials spoke out Thursday against the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County’s decision to indefinitely shelve the voter-approved bus rapid transit project known as the University BRT.
A week after Metro announced the decision to pause the 25-mile bus rapid transit project, more than 50 speakers signed up for public comment during Thursday’s monthly board meeting, a majority of which came to speak about the BRT line.
“We are the fourth-largest city in the wealthiest nation in human history, and yet it seems like we can not build modern public transit infrastructure,” said resident Galen Lytle. “Does this not embarrass the members of the board the way it embarasses me?”
Speakers throughout the public comment period said they felt shame, anger and frustration while urging the board to reconsider pausing a central piece of the voter-approved MetroNext plan.
Among the speakers were a few current and former elected officials, including Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, Houston At-Large City Councilmember Letitia Plummer, former council member and mayoral candidate Robert Gallegos, and a representative from state Sen. Molly Cook’s office. All spoke in favor of the University line and the associated plans that had come with the project.
“We were not a part of this process,” Plummer said. “We know that you’re independent. We know that you can make the decisions you want to make. But, as a courtesy, I am pleading with every single one of you. Please take an opportunity to talk to us.”
Scrutiny on BRT
MetroNext was the driving force behind a $3.5 billion bond election approved with 68 percent of the vote in 2019.
However, bus rapid transit projects have come under intense scrutiny since Mayor John Whitmire took office and appointed new chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock. Their goal is finding new riders, with an increased focus on public safety and so-called microtransit.
During Metro’s strategic planning committee meeting last Tuesday, Metro Chief Financial Officer George Fotinos outlined potential financial issues stemming from rising costs and falling fare revenue he said would make it difficult to pursue other projects while the University line moved forward.
His explanation did not appear to change the minds of many of the speakers.
“It is true, we do want the board to use our taxpayer dollars responsibly,” East Downtown resident Mitchel Walker said. “But we also do believe that rapid transit is a responsible use of that money.”
Bus rapid transit is designed to have a higher capacity than a normal bus route, and often utilizes dedicated lines. The idea is to provide the flexibility of buses with the reliability of trains.
Walker was one of a number of speakers who urged Metro to consider building a scaled-down version of the University line as a proof-of-concept to show how BRT could serve transit needs along the proposed route. Other speakers said they hoped a scaled-down version would help offset any financial concerns as the agency gradually built out the line one segment at a time.
Supporters spoke to a need for an east-west connection in Houston’s public transit landscape, and the integral part it would play in building a robust transit infrastructure. They dismissed concerns about lagging ridership on Metro’s current BRT, the Silver Line, saying that the ridership would improve when that line was connected to other transit lines.
“You don’t have (a rapid transit system) now. You have a bunch of buses,” said physician Stephen Longmire. “Most people don’t consider them a viable form of transit.”
Several speakers made a point of telling Metro Chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock and the rest of the board they were Houston residents.
Those clarifications came after Brock responded to Eastwood resident Tina Brady’s remarks in favor of pausing the University BRT project. Brady said voters approved public transportation improvements, not the BRT line specifically, and urged the board to ignore voices affiliated with advocacy groups, such as transit equity nonprofit LINK Houston.
“It’s really nice to hear from actual residents. Thank you,” Brock said.
Opponents praise pause
Brady was not alone in her opposition to the University BRT line, as a few other speakers expressed gratitude to the board for pausing the project. Their reasons ranged from issues with the right-of-way the line would take up in certain segments to fiscal responsibility to taxpayers.
“I will not stand back and watch you cut up my neighborhood,” said Third Ward resident Michael Watkins. “Run that bus line through your neighborhood and on your yard.”
Speakers also asked board members to state their position on the University BRT line moving forward. Only Alexandra del Moral Mealer, who was appointed to the board earlier this year by the 14-smaller cities in Metro’s service area, took the opportunity, saying she opposed the project.
Mealer pointed to needs in public safety as one reason, saying she was excited to pause the project to focus on the fundamentals of providing transit before considering expansion.
Brock did address the speakers, thanking them for providing feedback. She did not state her position on the BRT lines beyond committing to revisiting the project during next year’s budget cycle.
“Everything we do will tie to ridership,” Brock said, pointing out a need for an enhanced communication and ridership strategy. “We can review this project again next year to see if it is more viable once we have that ridership strategy in place.”
Transit advocate Robin Holzer resisted that idea.
“You have a ridership strategy,” Holzer said. “We called it MetroNext.”
"I'm definitely grateful to the folks who have gone before me and made all of this possible."
On an all-new episode of This Week in Texas, Houston firefighters finally have a contract, but at what cost?
ABC13 looks at the numbers and sits down with Texas' newest history-making politician, State Senator Molly Cook.
"I'm definitely grateful to the folks who have gone before me and made all of this possible," Cook said.
She talks about breaking barriers and her legislative priorities.
Plus, a breakdown of the Biden Administration's executive orders on immigration with our panel of political insiders and a discussion with two Ukrainian pastors who visited Texas to share their stories of persecution amidst their homeland's war with Russia.
It's a midsummer edition of This Week in Texas.
"I want to knock on every single door in this state and let people know how much money is on the table."
ABC13: Molly Cook, the Senate's newest trailblazer
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Molly Cook is Texas' newest history-making politician.
When she won a special election in May, she became the first woman to represent Senate District 15, the seat Houston Mayor John Whitmire held for 40 years. She also became the first out member of the LGBTQ community to serve in the Texas Senate. But Cook does not necessarily see herself as a trailblazer.
"If I am, then I'm also following trails that others have blazed before me," Cook told ABC13, "so I don't think that there's any accomplishment as a woman, as a LGBTQ+ member of the community that I can attribute just to myself. I'm definitely grateful to the folks who have gone before me and made all of this possible."
She IS the first out member of the LGBTQ community in the Texas Senate and the first woman to represent Senate District 15.
"I have a very strong sense of responsibility for the health and safety of the world around me anyway," Cook said. "And so it's just a real honor to be able to symbolize the kind of progress that we're really making here in Houston, Harris County."
After winning the special election, which earned her the seat for Whitmire's unfinished term, Cook then narrowly defeated State Representative Jarvis Johnson for the Democratic nomination. Though she faces Republican Joseph Trahan in November, Senate District 15 is drawn with a Democratic majority.
Among her top priorities, expanding Medicare.
"I want to knock on every single door in this state and let people know how much money is on the table," Cook said. "Let them know their hospitals could reopen, they could be attracting fantastic specialists to their communities."
Cook is an emergency room nurse. She has a Master's Degree in public health from Johns Hopkins and is the only Democrat medical professional in the Senate.
She says she plans to be a voice for those who have not had representation before, but she also knows in a legislature in which Republicans hold power, it's not an easy task.
"I think that'll be a delicate balance," Cook said. "And the most important thing is to just be really transparent with the district."
Then again, it's never easy for a trailblazer.
Houston area officials to speak at Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso
Houston Public Media: Houston area officials to speak at Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso
Day 2 of the Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso is underway.
The convention kicked off Thursday night and continues through Saturday morning. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and newly elected Senator Molly Cook will be among the local officials in attendance.
Texas Senator Carol Alvarado says the energy is high and democrats are motivated and united against the Republican party policies she calls, "draconian policies" when discussing the hottest topic at the debate: women's rights.
"It is not just about whether you are pro-choice or pro-life or your personal position on abortion, it is about the simple fact that in Texas we have taken away that liberty and freedom for women,” Alvarado said. “It is very hypocritical when you have Republicans who beat their chest and they say they want less government, but they turn around and pass policies, I call it, draconian policies on women's health.”
Other topics on the table include immigration, gun reform and public school funding.
Alvarado says the Democrats are also gearing up to support statewide candidate, U.S. Congressman, Colin Allred, who aims to defeat Senator Ted Cruz, in the November election.
“I think he would take care of the issues that are important to Texas. He has defended policies that the Biden administration has put forth,” Alvarado said.
She says Abbott has claimed he is gaining ground in support of the voucher program because he only needed a couple more seats, which he says he has.
"There are going to be horrible extreme policies that Republicans will push and pass, because they have the numbers, and the governor will sign it. Our only recourse is going to be in court." Alvarado said.
The convention ends Saturday morning.
“Senator Molly Cook’s win last night in the primary runoff was not just a win for her campaign, but a win for our entire community.”
Out Smart: Molly Cook Makes History as the First Openly LGBTQ Texas Senator
Molly Cook, a 32-year-old emergency room nurse and community organizer, has made history as the first openly LGBTQ member of the Texas Senate. A sixth-generation Texan, Cook’s achievement marks a significant milestone for representation in the Texas Legislature.
“Today, we get to celebrate our fantastic, well-deserved, historic win,” Sen. Cook said the morning of May 29 after securing her Democratic primary win in Texas State District 15, a seat that has been blue for decades. “Winning a Texas Senate seat is a big deal, and it tastes extra-sweet because it is borne of sheer grit, determination, and teamwork. We have organized for years, stayed true to our values, and built momentum that extends beyond this election. Thank you to the team, donors, voters, and volunteers. Let’s take a moment to root ourselves in gratitude and bask in our community—and let’s get to work.”
Cook is the incumbent senator after having won the special election on May 4 to fill the remainder of John Whitmire’s term. The long-time senator resigned in December of 2023 after winning the Houston Mayor’s seat. Now that Sen. Cook is the Democratic candidate for the November general election, she will most likely spend the next four years in Austin.
A native Houstonian with a bachelor’s degree from UT in Austin and a graduate degree in nursing and public health from Johns Hopkins University, she plays the harp, practices yoga, and has a senior Chihuahua. And she’s a grassroots specialist.
“Today, we get to celebrate our fantastic, well-deserved, historic win. Winning a Texas Senate seat is a big deal, and it tastes extra-sweet because it is borne of sheer grit, determination, and teamwork.”
— Senator Molly Cook
Cook volunteered with Fair for Houston, a group that helped pass Prop. B to restructure the Houston-Galveston Area Council Board, and also worked on Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign. She joined Stop TxDOT I-45 (a grassroots organization promoting equitable, sustainable transportation in Houston, Harris County, and Texas) to fight TxDOT’s planned expansion of I-45. Her many responsibilities as a volunteer included implementing communication and advocacy strategies, developing volunteer management systems, coordinating phone banks and door-knocking, disseminating information to the public, advocating through interviews with the media, running the bi-weekly general meetings, training and on-boarding new members, and event planning. She also frequently delivered public comments before Houston City Council, Harris County Commissioner’s Court, the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the Texas Transportation Commission, and the Texas Legislature.
“My favorite part of working with Stop TxDOT 1-45 was the opportunity to grow relationships with community members, advocacy organizations, and elected officials,” she says.
That experience served her well when she ran for the senate seat the first time against Whitmire, who had already announced his run for mayor of Houston, in 2022. She lost that race by 58 percent to 42 percent—the biggest opponent Whitmire had faced in decades. When the open seat came up for the Democratic primary election on March 5 of this year, she placed second in a six-candidate field to State Representative Jarvis Johnson with 21 percent of the vote to his 36 percent. Jarvis blamed low voter turnout for his loss in the special election.
Houston’s spring storm season has not slowed her down. After being sworn in by Judge Steve Duble at 5:30 p.m. on May 16 to fill Whitmire’s unexpired term, a rare derecho blew through Houston with torrential rains and straight-line winds up to 100 miles per hour, wreaking havoc on the Heights and downtown, causing power outages to almost a million customers, downing power lines and trees, and causing seven deaths.
“It was a whirlwind first few hours,” Cook said of her first day as a state senator.
And on the afternoon of the Democratic runoff, another freak thunderstorm blew in, shutting down power to hundreds of thousands and closing one election site early. She still won the race, drawing 50.2 percent of the vote to Johnson’s 49.8 percent. But with a low turnout of just 18,782 voters, she won by less than 80 votes. Still, it was an historic win for the LGBTQ community.
“Senator Molly Cook’s win last night in the primary runoff was not just a win for her campaign, but a win for our entire community,” said Austin Davis Ruiz, president of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus. “She first made herstory earlier this month by becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the Texas Senate, and we know she is going to be a champion for all communities in Austin. In a time when we’re seeing increased attacks on the LGBTQ+ community—specifically, on the trans community—this win is a reaffirmation that LGBTQ+ Texans matter; that we are powerful. As a community, we will continue fighting against draconian laws that seek to limit our rights and that seek to legislate us from existence. But let us be clear: we are not going anywhere. We want to congratulate Senator Cook on a hard-fought campaign, and we look forward to supporting her re-election campaign come November.”
Texas leader calls for a federal investigation into HISD takeover
LMTonline: Texas leader calls for a federal investigation into HISD takeover
U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-Houston) and other Houston leaders are calling for a federal investigation into Houston ISD, Texas' largest school district, as it reaches its first year under state-appointed management.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Education's Secretary Miguel Cardona, Green said he would like the state department to conduct a "thorough independent investigation" that stems from allegations against Superintendent Mike Miles, alleging he diverted funds to his former charter school network, Third Future Schools.
"Although it has been reported that various state agencies, such as the Texas Education Agency, have acknowledged their awareness of this transfer and intend to investigate, I believe that the Department of Justice or the Department of Education conducting a thorough independent investigation is warranted to ensure transparency and accountability as well as restore public confidence," Green wrote.
Green's federal request comes amidst a slew of district-wide protests, during which Houston community members have organized against HISD leadership decisions like mass layoffs, department budget cuts, and forcing principals to resign who were previously awarded by HISD for being the "the very best things that the district’s leadership has to offer."
"Amidst slashed budgets, layoffs, and a takeover by the state of HISD, the residents of Houston and Texas deserve to know whether funds meant to educate our children are instead being used to cover the deficits of schools in another state," Green wrote.
Earlier this month, Spectrum News reported that Miles was funneling Texas tax dollars to his charter school network in Colorado. Miles has denied the allegations and described the reporting as "baseless." In the weeks since, several Houston leaders and the Houston Federation of Teachers, the school district's largest teachers union, have called for Miles to step down from his state-appointed position.
In addition to Green, other Texas leaders, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), State Sen. Molly Cook (D-Houston), and several Texas House lawmakers, have called for action.
Molly Cook marks a historic milestone as she becomes Texas's first openly LGBTQ+ State Senator
Progress Texas: Deep In The Heart of Pride: A Celebration of Pride Month in Texas
On June 28, 1969, The Stonewall Inn, a pub in Greenwich Village, was raided by the New York Police Department. When the police turned aggressive, the LGBTQ+ patrons of Stonewall and other lesbian and gay establishments in the neighborhood rioted for more than six days. Every year in June, during Pride Month, the Stonewall uprisings are remembered as a turning point in the gay liberation struggle.
Pride month is a time to look to the past—to draw pride and inspiration from revolutionary LGBTQ+ ancestors, like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and channel their defiance into the present. Right now we are experiencing multiple attacks on LGBTQ+ Texans from extreme MAGA Republicans in the state. From criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare, to banning books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and limiting the educational curriculum on sex and gender identity.
This Pride month let's reflect on how far we have come and celebrate what we are fighting for in the future. LGBTQ+ representation in Texas politics is on the rise as Molly Cook marks a historic milestone as she becomes Texas's first openly LGBTQ+ State Senator. Julie Johnson is paving her way to victory to become Texas's first openly LGBTQ+ member of Congress from Texas and the South. Additionally, Lauren Ashley Simmons is replacing anti-LGBTQ incumbent Shawn Thierry in the Texas House. These historic wins in the state underscore a change in the political landscape, reflecting the growing diversity within the state's political sphere.
“I think it’s really important to keep in mind that incremental change and revolutionary change are not mutually exclusive.”
Advocate: Texas's first LGBTQ+ state senator, Molly Cook, wins primary for full term
Molly Cook, the first out member of the LGBTQ+ community to be a Texas state senator, has won her primary runoff, poising her for a full Senate term.
Cook, who is bisexual, won a special election May 4 in Senate District 15 to fill the remainder of Sen. John Whitmire’s term after he resigned to become mayor of Houston. That goes until the end of the year. But to win the Democratic nomination for a full term, she had to run against Jarvis Johnson, currently a state representative. She and Johnson were the top two finishers in the March 5 Democratic primary in District 15, but no candidate won a majority, leading to the runoff.
Now she’s won the runoff, held Tuesday, and is favored to win in November against Republican Joseph L. Trahan, as the Houston district is heavily Democratic and has a large LGBTQ+ population; it includes the gayborhood of Montrose. With most of the vote counted, Cook was leading Johnson by 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent. Senators are elected for four-year terms and are not subject to term limits.
After her win in the special election but before the primary runoff, Cook had posted on Facebook, “Our team is not missing a beat or taking anything for granted. I am grateful to live my life in service to the health and safety of my neighbors.”
Cook is an emergency room nurse and a veteran community organizer. At 32, she is the youngest current senator, and she is the only Democratic medical professional in the Senate. She has vowed to work for LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and improvements to health care, public transportation, and public education. She has spoken about having had an abortion in Texas in 2014 — eight years before the fall ofRoe v. Wade allowed the state to enact one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the nation.
In an interview with The Advocate before the runoff, she said it’s possible for progressive legislators to make change even in deeply conservative Texas. “I think it’s really important to keep in mind that incremental change and revolutionary change are not mutually exclusive,” she said, promising to work for both.
In a Wednesday press release after her runoff win, she said, “Today, we get to celebrate our fantastic, well-deserved, historic win. Winning a Texas Senate seat is a big deal, and it tastes extra sweet because it is born of sheer grit, determination, and teamwork. We have organized for years, stayed true to our values, and built momentum that extends beyond this election. Thank you to the team, voters, volunteers, and donors. Let’s take a moment to root ourselves in gratitude and bask in our community, and let’s get to work.”
Houston area officials call for end of Texas Education Agency’s takeover of Houston ISD
Speaking from the steps of the Houston chapter of the NAACP in the Third Ward Thursday morning, a gauntlet of people demanded an end to the occupation of the Houston Independent School District by the Texas Education Agency and its appointed Superintendent F. Mike Miles.
Speakers included NAACP Chapter President James Dixon, Congressman Al Green, newly elected State Senator Molly Cook, Houston Federation of Teachers President Jacqueline Anderson and Johnny Mata of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. All railed against the takeover of HISD by the state and the non-elected installation of Mike Miles.
Each speaker filed their own complaint against Miles. From dismissals of award-winning school principals and teachers to the closure of school libraries and subsequent layoffs of librarians and custodians, a litany of allegations of chaos and fallout from Miles’s actions. All focused on stopping Miles’s latest scheme: a five-billion-dollar bond issue for the district.
Congressman Green has called for an independent federal investigation into Mike Miles and the Texas Education Agency's takeover of HISD. He said the funneling of Texas education money to a pair of voucher-funded charter schools in Colorado warrants the investigation. Miles founded Third Future Schools and was a paid consultant for the charter school system last year.
"This is enough probable cause in the court of public opinion for me to seek an opportunity for the Justice Department and the Department of Education to investigate this and find out what is happening to our tax dollars," Green proclaimed.
As HISD struggles to close a $450-million deficit by the reductions in workforce and closure of education and support programs, Green says Third Future Schools of Texas, a charter school network, sent money to its cash-strapped Colorado schools from a general fund, which includes money from Texas.
Green is furious at the idea of Texas money being shipped out of state to help a struggling pair of charter schools in Colorado—which were founded and run by Miles until he was tapped by Governor Greg Abbott to run HISD. Green says the takeover is just another way Abbott is trying to force school vouchers on the public:
"There have been efforts to voucherize our schools and our school systems. We have resisted that; the courts have resisted that," Green said. "But the governor in the state of Texas is persisting with that. If we allow the voucher system to succeed, we will lose the public school system that has benefited this society."
Green quoted from history telling the crowd that vouchers were created in 1956 in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education. Nobel Laureate Economist Milton Friedman proposed defunding public education and giving the money to parents as a voucher to send their kids to charter schools as a way of keeping school segregation going.
As a finishing statement, each speaker offered a slogan that served as a rallying cry repeated by the enthusiastic crowd gathered to discuss and support the HISD independence movement.
Green's words during his time at the lectern certainly set the scene for the press event: "Currently we have government of, by, and for the Governor. So, Governor, you have made your choice. We will make our choice. You are not going to be Governor forever and we will make sure how you have treated Harris County, Houston, Texas in the future."
“We have organized for years, stayed true to our values, and built momentum that extends beyond this election.”
KSAT: Molly Cook holds on to Houston-based Texas Senate seat in Democratic primary runoff
State Sen. Molly Cook appears to have narrowly defeated state Rep. Jarvis Johnson in the Senate District 15 primary runoff for the second time this month, setting the stage for her to hold on to Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s longtime seat in the upper chamber.
Cook led Johnson by 74 votes, with all precincts reporting according to unofficial results — well within the margin for a recount. The total also does not count late-arriving mail-in ballots.
Cook’s victory marked the second time she has defeated Johnson this month. Cook beat Johnson 57% to 43% on May 4 in a special election triggered when Whitmire resigned to step into the mayor’s office at the start of the year. She was sworn in on May 16 to serve out the term, through the end of the year. Now, Cook will appear on the November ballot for a chance to win a full term representing a diverse cut of Harris County.
Cook declared victory Wednesday afternoon in a statement that called back to her road to the Senate. She first ran for the seat in 2022, when she attempted a primary challenge against Whitmire.
“Winning a Texas Senate seat is a big deal, and it tastes extra sweet because it is born of sheer grit, determination, and teamwork,” Cook said. “We have organized for years, stayed true to our values, and built momentum that extends beyond this election.”
Johnson has not conceded, citing the outstanding mail-in and provisional ballots. In a statement on Wednesday, he said he was in conversations with his legal and political teams.
“Because the margin in this race is so small, we need to ensure that each and every ballot is included in the final count,” Johnson said. “Our goal is not to further delay the official results, we are allowing the behind-the-scenes process to run its course.”
Cook is the first person other than Whitmire to hold the seat since 1983. She is an emergency room nurse and community organizer who is the first openly LGBTQ+ member to serve in the Texas Senate.
On the campaign trail, Cook and Johnson expressed few ideological differences, with each promoting progressive platforms from supporting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights to boosting public school funding. However, the two differed on how they would approach serving in the minority party.
Republicans currently hold 19 of 31 seats in the Senate, enough to control the chamber.
Johnson stressed the need to work with the majority to shape Republican-led legislation to a point that is more agreeable to Democrats. Meanwhile, Cook has said she plans to use her seat as a platform to take on Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Senate.
Like the runoff, the special election earlier this month was a head-to-head matchup. Johnson appeared to be the frontrunner in the special election, having taken 36% of the vote to Cook’s 21% in the March 5 primary.
Following their special election loss, Johnson’s team explained that the campaign failed to turn out its base. Johnson’s campaign manager, Chris Watson, said the campaign did not spend its resources to combat what he called “misinformation” from Cook’s allies.
Johnson’s team said they were preserving their resources for this race, which queues up the candidate who will likely win a full term.
“We did not expend our resources,” Watson said. “We think our opponent did spend her resources wholly because this is a race you wouldn’t want to lose three times in a row, so I think it was more important for her than for us at this point.”
Cook, the relative newcomer, flipped the fundraising lead in the race after the March 5 round of the primary.
She outpaced Johnson’s fundraising largely thanks to contributions from Leaders We Deserve, a D.C.-based PAC co-founded by activist David Hogg to elect young, progressive lawmakers nationwide. The PAC spent $200,000 on Cook ahead of the special election and an additional $110,000 between the special and primary runoff elections.
Leaders We Deserve will also support former Miss Texas Averie Bishop in the House District 112 general election against state Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Richardson, one of Democrats’ best opportunities for a flip in the House in November.
Johnson leaned on his experience during the race. Johnson served on the Houston City Council from 2006 to 2012 and succeeded former Mayor Sylvester Turner in the Texas House of Representatives.
Cook says her regular contact with emergency room patients — from those with pregnancy complications to victims of the 2021 winter storm — and her background in grassroots organizing would bring a much-needed fresh perspective to the upper chamber. She has also sought to position herself to Johnson’s left, attacking him for supporting certain Republican-backed legislation. Johnson said he has at times voted for GOP bills he opposes because, in return for his support, Republicans allowed him and other Democrats to amend the bills to make them more palatable.
The district, home to a diverse cross-section of nearly a million Harris County residents, carries major political weight for Democrats. Shaped like an upside-down horseshoe, it covers some of Houston’s biggest liberal strongholds — including Montrose, the Heights and Acres Homes — and blue-trending neighborhoods that are key to Democrats’ aspirations to flipping Texas, such as Bellaire and suburban pockets of northwest and northeast Harris County.
“I’m going to show up for every single vote, and then I’m going to turn around and work as hard as I can outside the Capitol to turn out every Democratic voter in this district so that we can get the fascists and the extremists out of office in Texas and move the needle on the values that we cherish,” Cook said during a debate last month.
Cook will run against Republican Joseph L. Trahan in November. However, the district is a safe Democratic seat, giving Cook the advantage.
Johnson will serve out the remainder of his term in House District 139, where Democrats elected Johnson’s ex-wife, Charlene Ward Johnson, as their nominee for November. Ward Johnson, a Houston Community College Board member, is currently unopposed in the general election.
“Today we get to celebrate our fantastic, well-deserved, historic win,”
The Texan: Molly Cook Declares Victory in Primary Runoff to Replace John Whitmire in Texas Senate
Although the race has not yet been officially called, Molly Cook seems poised to narrowly win the Democratic nomination to represent the Texas Senate District (SD) 15 seat vacated by John Whitmire when he was elected mayor of Houston last November.
According to unofficial election results posted by Harris County, Cook has won 50.2 percent of the vote over her opponent state Rep. Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston), holding on to a slim 74-vote lead in the Democratic primary runoff election for the Houston-area Senate district.
Cook defeated Johnson in a special election to fill Whitmire’s unexpired term earlier this month, taking 57 percent of the just over 16,000 cast, but also had to win the Democratic primary election to continue to represent the district beginning in 2025.
While Harris County continues to count mail-in ballots, Cook has declared victory in the race.
“Today we get to celebrate our fantastic, well-deserved, historic win,” said Cook in a statement to The Texan. “Winning a Texas Senate seat is a big deal, and it tastes extra sweet because it is born of sheer grit, determination, and teamwork.”
An emergency room nurse, Cook campaigned on her experience as a woman who has had an abortion, says she will be the first “out member of the LGBTQ+ community to ever serve in the Texas Senate,” and notes she will be the only Democratic medical professional.
With the Democratic nomination now in hand, Cook must still win her general election contest in November, in which she will face Republican nominee Joseph Trahan to represent the reliably Democratic district. SD 15 carries a Texas Partisan Index rating of D-63%.
Cook previously ran against Whitmire for SD 15 in 2022 and took 42 percent of the Democratic primary vote and gained notoriety as an opponent of plans to relocate and widen portions of the Interstate 45 freeway in Houston over environmental and civil rights concerns. She has a long history of activism within the community and campaigns for increased access to abortion, LGBT rights, and opposition to both school choice initiatives and expansion of public charter schools.
Jacki Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, celebrated Cook’s apparent win saying, “We know that Senator Molly Cook will be a strong supporter of public education and represent us well.”
Johnson previously served as a Houston City Council member from 2006 to 2012 before winning a special election to succeed former state representative-turned-Houston mayor Sylvester Turner in Texas House District (HD) 139.
Texas Sens. Boris Miles (D-Houston) and Royce West (D-Dallas) along with 17 state House Democrats were supporting Johnson, who also drew the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle, but in the end, big-name backers were not enough to put Johnson over the top.
In preparation for the special and primary elections, Cook put together an aggressive team committed to old-fashioned person-to-person campaigning with the goal of improving Democratic turnout. Cook has vowed to expand her victory to help fellow Democrats to increase representation in the Texas House as well.
When Harris County officials completed the initial vote count after the 2022 general election, in the race for the 180th District Court candidate Tami Pierce led incumbent Judge DaSean Jones by 465 votes. But as the county continued to count mail-in ballots, at one point seeking a court order to extend the counting past the statutory deadline, Pierce’s lead evaporated.
The final tally placed Jones ahead by 449 votes, but Pierce filed a legal election contest in January 2023 and earlier this month a visiting judge determined that more than 1,400 ballots had been illegally counted.
Other Houston-area Democrats winning primary runoff elections include Charlene Ward Johnson, who defeated Angie Thibodeaux to replace Rep. Johnson in HD 139. Ward Johnson is a trustee of the Houston Community College Board (HCC) and the ex-wife of Rep. Johnson.
In nearby HD 146, Lauren Ashley Simmons defeated incumbent Rep. Shawn Thierry for the Democratic Party nomination.
“I think it’s very important that regular people have access to the Capitol”
Texas Observer: Houston Underdogs Beat Established Democrats in House, Senate Runoffs
Both Lauren Ashley Simmons, who trounced four-term incumbent Shawn Thierry to win the House District 146 race by 29 percentage points, and Molly Cook, who narrowly beat House Representative Jarvis Johnson in the Senate District 15 race by 74 votes, drew upon the community they helped organize to turn out votes leading up to yesterday’s runoff election. It paid off.
Both Simmons and Cook see their wins as blueprints for not only how progressive upstarts can beat established Democrats, but how Democrats can energize a broader and lethargic base to flip seats across the state.
Cook previously told the Observer that her race is “the kind of organizing that we need to see in our state to move the needle on issues, and also eventually to flip these statewide seats, which are going to be the key to expanding Medicaid, protecting public education, getting multimodal transportation, getting back the rights to abortion, getting safer gun laws, whatever it is.”
Molly Cook defied expectations winning the Senate seat against Jarvis Johnson, who has served as state House Representative for eight years and as Houston city council member for six years years before that. In 2022, Cook had challenged Whitmire for the Senate District 15 seat and lost by 16 percentage points, but the race helped her gain name recognition. In this year’s six-way primary race, Cook trailed Johnson by 15 percentage points but beat Johnson by 14 percentage points in a special election to fill Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s old seat for the rest of his term this year. It was the boost that Cook needed to slip ahead of Johnson last night.
Before entering into Texas politics, Cook worked as an emergency nurse and community organizer fighting against freeway expansion. Going door to door, Cook helped organize community members to join the Stop TxDOT I-45 Coalition to protest the displacement and pollution that the state transportation department’s expansion of I-45 would bring to their neighborhoods. She is also the first openly gay state senator and had garnered significant support from LGBTQ+ activists during the race.
“When I filed to run for office, I filed with a volunteer base that showed up for me because I had spent years already showing up for them, earning their trust, and demonstrating my values,” Cook previously told the Observer.
There weren’t many differences between Cook’s and Johnson’s platform. Both had support from labor unions and other liberal organizations. But both said the differences came down to their background and how they approached lawmaking in a state Senate dominated by hardline conservatives.
During the race, Cook and Johnson exchanged blows calling each other out for taking large checks from special interest donors and out-of-state PACs.
“The big money and big lies will continue pouring into our district leading up to the runoff election. … This seat can not be bought, it must be earned,” Johnson said in a statement after losing the special election earlier this month.
Johnson was referring to a $300,000 donation that Cook received from the Leaders We Deserve PAC, started by student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and gun-reform activist David Hogg, who created the PAC to support young progressive leaders. Most donations that Cook received after the primary, 94 percent, were small donations under $500.
Cook has shot back at Johnson for taking money from Republican billionaires who support school privatization. Johnson’s largest donor was the Charter Schools Now PAC, funded by the likes of the Walton family and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings, which contributed nearly $92,000 to his campaign. Johnson also received large contributions from charter PAC Legacy 44, Houston’s business lobby, and the pro-casino Texas Sands PAC. In contrast to Cook, half of Johnson’s campaign funds came from small donors contributing less than $500.
When Cook criticized Johnson for supporting certain GOP legislation, Johnson responded that this was necessary to pass amendments supported by Democrats. “You’ve got to learn how to be strategic and how to get things done,” Johnson previously told the Texas Tribune.
Cook, on the other hand, told the Observer that she believes in the idea of “co-governance,” or going back to her constituents before making decisions on legislation.
“I don’t think this is just negotiations behind closed doors between elected officials,” Cook previously told the Observer. “I think it’s very important that regular people have access to the Capitol, and that leadership and legislators do everything that they can to make that a reality—to bring the Capitol to their doorstep and also to bring the people to the Capitol.”