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How Ann Richards' Run for Governor Echoes Hillary Clinton’s Fight Against Donald Trump

The parallels between the Clayton Williams and Ann Richards 1990 race and the 2016 presidential race are close.
Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The parallels between the Clayton Williams and Ann Richards 1990 race and the 2016 presidential race are close.

From Texas Standard:

One phrase often heard this year: There's never been a political year like 2016. But that’s not exactly true.Lauren Fox writes for Talking Points Memo, and she says we shouldn't forget about the Texas gubernatorial race of 1990. Twenty-six years ago Republican Clayton Williams and Democrat Ann Richards were up against each other for one of the highest seats in Texas politics. The race was dubbed “Claytie and the Lady.”

Fox is among the first to explore the connection between the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump race. She says she’s been interested in the similarities since reading a book about it a few years ago.

"(I) was always interested in how we, as women, and as watching women politicians running – how they grapple with running against men when some of the men tend to be a little bit more misogynistic or have their certain histories with women,” Fox says. “They say things about women's issues that might be explosive on the campaign trail. And I just was really interested as I started seeing Donald Trump pivoting towards his attacks on Hillary Clinton."

What you'll hear in this segment:

- More about the race between Richards and Williams

- How Williams' misogyny helped Richards win the race

- Some of the similarities between the gubernatorial race and the 2016 presidential race

Copyright 2016 KUT 90.5

Rhonda is the newest member of the KUT News team, joining in late 2013 as producer for KUT's new daily news program, The Texas Standard. Rhonda will forever be known as the answer to the trivia question, “Who was the first full-time hire for The Texas Standard?” She’s an Iowa native who got her start in public radio at WFSU in Tallahassee, while getting her Master's Degree in Library Science at Florida State University. Prior to joining KUT and The Texas Standard, Rhonda was a producer for Wisconsin Public Radio.