Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in nearly 30 years since Ann Richards was elected governor in 1994.
But an improbable bulwark has emerged against conservative excesses in a ruby red state that's experiencing a seismic demographic shift.
Averie Bishop, who last year won the Miss Texas competition, is using her platform to advocate for progressive causes, and her messages appear to be resonating, The Washington Post reports.
“To be seen, that’s the first step in making a lot of change,” Bishop said.
Bishop, 26, grew up in McKinney, a Dallas suburb with a population of around 190,000 and was the only Asian student in her classes at public schools in nearby Prosper.
The daughter of a Filipino mom who worked as a maid and a conservative white dad who was a bus driver attended the conservative Southern Methodist University and returned there for law school.
“I grew up in a really small town,” Bishop told The Post.
“I didn’t really see anybody who looked like me. … I used to look in the mirror and think that my flat nose and my eyes were really ugly and I would be really shy and embarrassed about my background.”
Bishop interned for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) and also at a New York law firm.
Molly Hennessy-Fiske writes for The Post that Bishop “courted controversy from the start. During competitions, she said, pageant moms complained about her posts favoring Planned Parenthood or including Beyoncé songs with curse words.”
Speaking truth to power is not a traditional role for pageant winners, especially in the Lone Star state Jan Mitchell, executive director of the Miss Texas Scholarship Organization told The Post.
“Young women, they’re just different now. They’re more outspoken,” she said. “That’s our goal: That we have girls who express themselves.”
Bishop’s reign as Miss Texas will end this weekend when a new pageant winner is crowned.
But Bishop plans to run for the state legislature in the next few years.
“We are literally pushed to our wits’ end,” Bishop said of young Texans.
“We are equipped and ready and just waiting for the time for these individuals to be challenged.”
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