Texas voters elect first LGBTQ+ state senator — Who is Molly Cook?

Emergency room nurse Molly Cook will make history as Texas' first openly LGBTQ+ state senator after winning a special election to occupy the post during the remaining months of recently elected Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

Cook, a Democrat, got 57% of the vote, beating state Rep. Jarvis Johnson for the seat, according to The Texas Tribune.

A sixth-generation Texan born and raised in the Houston area who came out as bisexual in 2021, Cook has said her regular contact with emergency room patients, including many women with pregnancy complications, as well as her grassroots activism background, would bring a fresh-eyed perspective to the Texas Senate.

This view has the potential to create significant change within the upper chamber, the Texas LGBTQ+ community has said. "The Senate is where our community faces the most hostility and desperately needs representation," emphasized an editorial in Out Smart Magazine.

This historical election coincides with the recentdecision by Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to disregard Joe Biden administration's new federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.

"You (Biden) have rewritten Title IX to compel schools to treat boys as if they were girls and to acknowledge every student's self-declared gender identity. This heavy-handed attempt to impose a leftist ideology onto Title IX exceeds your authority as President," he states in a public letter released in the final days of April.

Texas has also been in the center of the public conversation as one of the first states to pass abortion bans since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Abortion is banned in almost all circumstances in the state, and private citizens can sue abortion providers and those who assist patients seeking an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.

"I'm used to working against the odds, staving off pestilence, plague and death with our bare hands and modern science," Cook said, as cited by Texas Standard. "I really can't think of life experience that prepares you more for walking into that Capitol."

During her campaign, the young politician promised that as a lawmaker she would prioritize gun control measures, Medicaid expansion and abortion access.

She has also gone public with the fact that she had an abortion in 2014.

Cook, who had previoulsy challenged Whitmire for the Senate seat in 2022, gathered endorsements, largely from progressive groups and politicians such as the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, Texas Organizing Project, and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund.

In the latter organization's website, a short bio adds that besides her healthcare work and her advocacy activism, the 32-year-old lawmaker plays the harp, used to teach yoga, and takes care of her senior chihuahua.

This is the first time Senate District 15, encompassing pivotal Houston neighborhoods known for their liberal leaning, is represented by someone other than Whitmire, who held the seat since 1983.

However, she has secured only the temporary position until the year's end, coinciding with the conclusion of Whitmire's term. She will contend against Johnson once more in a highly anticipated Democratic primary runoff on May 28th, deciding who will get a full term commencing January 2025.