Representative Kay Granger

Norvell Kay Granger (born January 18, 1943) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas’s 12th congressional district from January 3, 1997, to January 3, 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she was the first Republican woman elected to represent Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives and later became the first Republican woman to chair the House Committee on Appropriations. Over 14 consecutive terms in Congress, Granger participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of her Fort Worth–area constituents and playing a prominent role in federal budget and defense policy.

Granger was born in Greenville, Texas, and grew up in Fort Worth. She graduated from Eastern Hills High School in 1961 and went on to attend Texas Wesleyan University, from which she graduated in 1965. Before entering elective office, she worked as a teacher and later as a businesswoman, experience that informed her approach to local governance and fiscal issues. Her early professional life in education and business provided a foundation for her later public service, particularly in areas related to municipal development and economic growth.

Granger’s political career began at the local level in Fort Worth. She served on the Fort Worth Zoning Commission from 1981 to 1989, where she was involved in land-use planning and urban development during a period of growth for the city. She then won election to the Fort Worth City Council, serving from 1989 to 1991. In 1991, she was elected the first female mayor of Fort Worth, a milestone in the city’s history. As mayor, she served from 1991 until 1995, overseeing city governance, economic development initiatives, and municipal services during her four-year tenure. Her leadership in Fort Worth elevated her profile within both parties and set the stage for her entry into national politics.

In 1996, after Democratic U.S. Representative Pete Geren announced he would retire from Congress, both the Democratic and Republican parties sought to recruit Granger to run for his open seat in Texas’s 12th congressional district. She ultimately ran as a Republican and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives that year, taking office on January 3, 1997. Granger would go on to represent the district through 14 terms, serving until January 3, 2025. Over the course of her congressional career, she became known as a fiscally conservative, defense-oriented lawmaker, while often occupying a more centrist position on certain social issues. The Washington Post described her as socially centrist but fiscally conservative, and in 2013 the National Journal gave her a composite ideological score of 73% conservative and 27% liberal.

Within the House Republican Conference, Granger rose steadily through the ranks. She was elected Conference Vice Chair in 2006, the fourth-ranking leadership position among House Republicans, and also served as a House Deputy Whip. She joined the House Committee on Appropriations and remained a member for 25 years, becoming one of its most senior figures. She served as chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, and sat on the Defense Subcommittee—becoming the first woman to serve on that panel—as well as the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee. Known for her strong support of defense spending, she played a key role in shaping appropriations bills that funded the Pentagon and U.S. foreign operations. During her tenure, she supported more than $50 million in earmarks for infrastructure projects in Fort Worth that benefited the Trinity River Vision Authority, an organization led by her son, which drew scrutiny but also underscored her focus on local development.

Granger’s voting record reflected a generally conservative orientation, particularly on fiscal and national security matters. According to FiveThirtyEight, as of February 2020 she voted with President Donald Trump’s position on legislative issues about 97% of the time, while by October 2021 she voted with President Joe Biden’s position about 11% of the time. She voted several times in favor of a constitutional amendment to make it a crime to physically desecrate the American flag, supported the Federal Marriage Amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, and opposed allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. She was one of four Republicans who did not vote for or against repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gay service members, though she had previously voted against other repeal proposals. In 2017, when asked about President Trump’s decision to ban transgender troops from the military, she said she had “no comment” and did not vote for or against legislation opposing the ban. On foreign and defense policy, she supported an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 to restrict the Pentagon from entering into new contracts with Russia’s state arms broker, Rosoboronexport, and she voted for a resolution supporting Israel following the October 7 attacks.

On abortion, Granger’s position evolved over the course of her career. She had long been considered supportive of abortion rights and Roe v. Wade; her 1996 campaign was promoted by The WISH List, a pro-abortion-rights PAC that also supported her 2008 campaign. She received mixed ratings from abortion-rights organizations, having supported embryonic stem-cell research and voted against banning “chemically induced abortions.” As of 2013, she supported banning abortion after 20 weeks but said the issue was not her top priority. She declined in 2017 to cosponsor a bill to ban abortion after six weeks and voted for several spending bills, including some in 2018, that contained funding for Planned Parenthood. That same year, however, she introduced legislation to ban federal funding for abortion, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman, and in 2019 she signed a letter urging President Trump to “veto any appropriations bill that weakens current pro-life protections.” In 2020 she formally reversed her earlier stance, asserting that she was anti-abortion and signing an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, a shift that was particularly notable given her earlier backing from pro-abortion-rights groups.

Granger’s national political profile extended beyond Congress. On September 25, 2007, she endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary and became national co-chair of the campaign organization Women for Mitt, filling a vacancy left by the death of former Representative Jennifer Dunn. In 2015, she opposed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy, stating that “He definitely should not be considered to speak for our nation as our president.” By 2020, however, she had aligned more closely with Trump, endorsing his reelection bid and receiving his endorsement in her own 2020 congressional campaign. After being diagnosed with COVID-19, Granger was not present in the House for Trump’s second impeachment on January 13, 2021; she was one of four Republicans who did not vote on the impeachment, and she later stated that she opposed impeaching the president.

Granger reached the pinnacle of her committee influence after Republicans regained the House majority in the 2022 elections. In January 2023 she was named chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, becoming the first woman to hold that post and the first Republican woman to chair the committee. As chair, she oversaw the drafting and negotiation of annual appropriations bills and played a central role in debates over federal spending and fiscal priorities. She stepped down from the Appropriations Committee chairship in April 2024, after announcing on March 22, 2024, that she would relinquish the gavel once the Republican Steering Committee selected her successor; the committee chose a replacement on April 10. Her last recorded vote in the House took place on July 24, 2024. She did not seek reelection in 2024, having publicly confirmed on October 30, 2023, that she would retire at the end of the 118th Congress. Republican Craig Goldman was elected on November 5, 2024, to succeed her as the representative for Texas’s 12th congressional district.

In the final phase of her congressional service, Granger’s health and capacity to serve became a subject of public discussion. Following several months of absence from the Capitol after her last recorded vote in July 2024, she returned briefly to Washington in mid-November 2024 for a ceremony honoring her work on the House Appropriations Committee. In December 2024, media reports confirmed that she had been residing in a senior living facility in Fort Worth since July 2024; her son stated that she had “dementia issues.” The revelation prompted public backlash and renewed scrutiny of the question of elderly politicians continuing in office despite advanced age and medical challenges. Granger’s long tenure, from 1997 to 2025, left a significant imprint on Texas politics and on the appropriations process in the U.S. House of Representatives.