Kay Granger


Norvell Kay Granger is an American Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas, representing its 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. A former teacher and businesswoman, she is the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House. After serving on the zoning commission of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1991 she was elected as the city's first female mayor, serving two terms to 1995.

Biography and career

Granger was born in Greenville, Texas, and grew up in Fort Worth. She attended local public schools and Eastern Hills High School. She graduated from Texas Wesleyan University.
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After Congressman Pete Geren announced he would retire in 1996, both the Democratic and Republican parties worked to recruit Granger to run for his seat. Republicans were bullish on their chances of winning Texas' 12th congressional district. It had once been represented by Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright, but legislative redistricting after the 1990 census had added areas with more Republican residents.
Granger ran as a Republican. She won handily, taking 56 percent of the vote over Democrat Hugh Parmer, also a former Fort Worth mayor. She was reelected in 1998 and faced serious opposition only in 2000. In 2008, Granger defeated Democratic challenger Tracey Smith with 67 percent of the vote.
In 2006 Granger published a book, What's Right About America, Celebrating Our Nation's Values, reflecting on lessons from prominent figures of United States history.
That year, she was reelected to her sixth term in Congress. She was elected as Conference Vice Chair, the fourth-ranking position among House Republicans, in November 2006. She has previously served as Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations. She also sits on the United States House Committee on Appropriations's Subcommittee on Defense, and the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Subcommittee. She has also served as a House Deputy Whip.
On September 25, 2007, she publicly endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the primary race for the Republican Party presidential nomination. She also took up the position of national co-chair of the campaign organization Women for Mitt, filling a vacancy left by the death of Jennifer Dunn. In a statement to the press following her endorsement, she said that she had heard Romney speak and that "I agreed with everything he said, in the order he said it."
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Republican Institute and Southwestern University. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship foundation.

Congressional committee assignments

She is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee. She is also a member of the Ripon Society, a moderate Republican group. The Washington Post described her as socially centrist, but fiscally conservative. Heritage Action, a conservative PAC, gave her a score of 59% conservative during the 115th Congress and a 57% lifetime score. In 2017, the Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal PAC, gave her a 15% rating. She has an 83% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. In 2013, the National Journal, a non-partisan organization, gave Granger a composite political ideology score of 73% conservative and 27% liberal. As of February 2020, she has voted with President Trump's position on legislative issues about 97% of the time.
Granger had identified as pro-abortion rights. She supported the Roe v. Wade decision. She reversed her position in 2020; she said she is now anti-abortion and signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. She described herself in 2007 on MSNBC as "a pro-choice Republican." The Wall Street Journal reported that she "supports abortion rights in limited cases." Granger's 1996 campaign was promoted by The WISH List, a pro-abortion rights PAC. The WISH List also supported her 2008 campaign. She received mixed ratings from groups that support legal abortion. Granger supported embryonic stem-cell research and voted against banning "chemically induced abortions." She previously voted to fund Planned Parenthood, but recently voted to defund the organization. She introduced legislation banning federal funding for abortion with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman. She supports banning abortion after 20 weeks. In 2013, she said abortion is not her top issue. She declined to cosponsor a bill to ban abortion after six weeks. In 2019, she signed a letter to President Trump urging him to "veto any appropriations bill that weakens current pro-life protections". She was endorsed by Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion movement PAC. She was also endorsed by the Susan B. Anthony List for reelection. Speaking about women in the GOP, Granger said her party has a problem with too few women in Congress.
Granger has voted several times in favor of an amendment to the United States Constitution to make it a crime to physically desecrate the American flag. She supported the Federal Marriage Amendment to define marriage as only permitted between a man and a woman, and she also opposed same-sex couples being able to adopt. She was one of four Republicans in the House who did not vote for or against repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, though she previously voted against other repeal proposals. In 2017, she said that she had "no comment" in response to President Trump's decision to ban transgender troops from the military. She did not vote for or against legislation opposing the ban of transgender troops.
In June 2013, Granger was among the members of Congress who voted to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014. The amendment would continue to restrict the Pentagon from entering into new contracts with Russia's state arms broker, Rosoboronexport. In 2015, Rep. Granger opposed President Trump's candidacy saying, “He definitely should not be considered to speak for our nation as our President.” However, in 2020, she endorsed Trump's reelection and she was endorsed by President Trump.
Granger was part of a group of eight Republicans who spent July 4, 2018 meeting with Russian officials in advance of President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin.
During her tenure, Granger has supported more than $50 million in earmarks to infrastructure projects in Fort Worth that benefited the Trinity River Vision Authority, an organization headed by her son.

Personal life

Granger has three children and five grandchildren. She is a member of The United Methodist Church.

Honors