Kay Granger

Norvell Kay Granger (Mullendore; born January 18, 1943) is an American Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 12th congressional district since 1997.

She became chair of the United States House Committee on Appropriations in 2023.

A former teacher and businesswoman, Granger is the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House.

Heritage Action, a conservative PAC, gave her a score of 59% conservative during the 115th Congress and a 57% lifetime score.

She attended local public schools and graduated from Eastern Hills High School in 1961.

She graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965.

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% of the vote against Democratic nominee Hugh Parmer, also a former Fort Worth mayor.

After serving on the zoning commission of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1991 she was elected the city's first female mayor; she served two terms.

Granger was born in Greenville, Texas, and grew up in Fort Worth.

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.

Granger's abortion reversal was especially significant given the fact that her 1996 campaign had been promoted by The WISH List, a pro-abortion rights PAC.

She was reelected in 1998 and faced serious opposition only in 2000.

In 2006 Granger published What's Right About America, Celebrating Our Nation's Values, a book reflecting on lessons from prominent figures of U.S. history.

That year, she was reelected to her sixth term in Congress, and was elected Conference Vice Chair, the fourth-ranking position among House Republicans.

She previously served as chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations.

She also sat on the United States House Committee on Appropriations's Subcommittee on Defense (the first woman to do so), and the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Subcommittee.

She has also served as a House Deputy Whip.

On September 25, 2007, Granger endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary.

She also took 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 "I agreed with everything he said, in the order he said it."

She is a member of the International Republican Institute's and Southwestern University's board of directors.

She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the board of trustees for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship foundation.

Granger is the first Republican woman to sit on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations, and became chair after Republicans won the House majority in the 2022 elections.

She is the third consecutive woman to chair the committee, and the first Republican woman to do so.

Granger is a member of the Ripon Society, a moderate Republican group.

The Washington Post described her as socially centrist, but fiscally conservative.

In 2008, Granger defeated Democratic nominee Tracey Smith with 67% of the vote.

The WISH List also supported her 2008 campaign.

Republicans were bullish on their chances of winning Texas's 12th congressional district.

In 2013, the National Journal, a nonpartisan organization, gave Granger a composite political ideology score of 73% conservative and 27% liberal.

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.

According to FiveThirtyEight, as of February 2020, she had voted with President Trump's position on legislative issues about 97% of the time.

As of October 2021, she had voted with President Biden's position on legislative issues about 11% of the time.

Granger was not present at Trump's second impeachment, on January 13, 2021, due to being diagnosed with COVID-19, and was one of four Republicans who did not vote, but said she opposed impeachment.

On October 31, 2023, it was reported that she would not run for re-election in 2024.

Granger formerly supported abortion rights and Roe v. Wade.

She reversed her position in 2020, asserting that she is now anti-abortion and signing an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe.