Molly Cook, Texas’ first openly-LGBTQ state senator
Texas now has its first openly LGBTQ state senator, thanks to Molly Cook’s victory Saturday in a special election to fill the seat left empty when John Whitmire stepped down from the Senate after winning last year’s Houston mayoral election.
Cook, a registered nurse with a master’s degree in public health policy from Johns Hopkins University, has earned the seat through the end of the year with her 57 percent-to-43 percent win in Saturday’s special election. She now faces Jarvis Johnson, a Democratic state representative, in a Democratic Primary runoff to see who will hold the senate seat in the 2025-2026 legislative session.
In the March Primary election, Jarvis lead the pack of six candidates with 36 percent of the vote, while Cook placed a distance second with 21 percent. Early voting for May 28 runoff starts on Monday, May 20.
Cook, who came out as bisexual in 2021, is “a sixth generation Texan, born and raised in the Houston area,” according to The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which has endorsed her.
The Victory Fund notes that Cook earned a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin then worked for a year on a general hospital floor before moving back to Houston to become an emergency room nurse.
“After three years of ER nursing, Molly moved to Baltimore to study public health policy at Johns Hopkins University. Armed with her master’s, Molly moved back home to work full time in home health nursing and volunteer for the Beto for Texas campaign,” The Victory Fund’s bio continues. “Since then, Molly returned to the ER and put her education to work organizing for equitable, sustainable transportation in Texas. Her experiences in transportation advocacy showed her the power of local and State level public office. In addition to her work in the ER, public safety, and public health, Molly plays the harp, teaches yoga, and takes care of her senior chihuahua.”
— Tammye Nash
