Kay Granger

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Kay Granger

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 12th district
In office 1997-present
Preceded by	Pete Geren
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	January 18, 1943 (age 64) Greenville, Texas
Political party	Republican
Spouse	divorced
Religion	Methodist

Kay Granger (born January 18, 1943), a Republican politician from the state of Texas, currently represents the 12th Congressional district (map) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Granger was born in Greenville, Texas, and graduated from Texas Wesleyan University. She was elected to the Fort Worth city council in 1989 and was elected Mayor in 1991. Her tenure as mayor saw a drop in violent crime, although violent crime decreased statewide in Texas and in the country generally during that same period. After the retirement of Congressman Pete Geren in 1996, both the Democratic and Republican parties worked to recruit Granger. Granger made the decision to run as a Republican, much to the dismay of local GOP activists, who critcized Granger as being too liberal.

In 2006, Granger was reelected to serve her sixth term in Congress. She was also elected Conference Vice Chair, a position in the Republican Leadership, in November 2006. She sits on the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense (the first woman, Republican or Democrat to do so), and the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Subcommittees. She also serves as a Deputy Minority Whip.

Granger is the author of the book, What's Right About America, Celebrating Our Nation's Values.

[edit] Ideology

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Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Granger is a member of many groups of moderate or liberal Republicans, such as The Republican Main Street Partnership (which supports Stem Cell Research), The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Choice, and The Wish List (all of which support upholding Roe v. Wade).

In practice, her voting record reflects that she almost always votes in line with her party's leadership in Congress. Her own website posts an article from "Conservative Quarterly" that calls her "a dependable vote for the leadership on most issues."

Her votes on fiscal responsibility are mixed: for example, she voted in 1997 for HR 89, which called on President Clinton to submit a balanced budget to Congress, but she has not voted against any of the budgets proposed by the Bush Administration, despite the fact they contained huge deficits. Inexplicably, Granger's public support of fiscal responsibility seemed to vanish in 2001, about the same time that the Republican House leadership lost interest in balanced federal budgets. While her official Congressional autobiography brags about the fact that she "helped write a historic balanced budget" in 1997 as a member of the House Budget Committee, it seems noteworthy that she has failed to repeat that accomplishment every year since 2000.

While nominally a member of Republican Majority For Choice and Republicans For Choice, in December 2003 she was given a mere 10% rating by NARAL while at the same time receiving an 84% rating by the Christian Coalition of America.

She has also voted several times in favor of an amendment to the United States Constitution to make it a crime to physically desecrate the American flag. While it has passed the House overwhelmingly each time, several Republicans with more conservative voting records than Granger's have opposed it, such as John Shadegg, Pete Hoekstra and Jeff Flake. She also supports the Federal Marriage Amendment.