Alumni in politics talk elections, careers

By Amelia Davis     10/22/24 11:06pm

In 2010, Annise Parker ’78 stood before a crowd of citizens at the George R. Brown Convention Center. She had just been elected mayor of Houston.

Parker was the first openly gay woman voted to the city’s office, and her election was met with celebration and trepidation alike. On that night in the convention center, she stood to address the crowd in her first speech as mayor. 

“I am very proud to have been elected the first …” Parker paused, “... graduate of Rice University to be mayor  of Houston.” 

---

---

In an interview with the Thresher, Parker said she drew on Rice’s reputation and unifying power to gain common ground with the people of Houston. Though not a politico-producing powerhouse on the level of institutions such as Harvard or Georgetown, several alumni over the years have entered the political sphere. 

Included in that small class of Owls: Josh Earnest ’97, former White House press secretary to Barack Obama — and current university trustee — and Ben Rhodes ‘00, former Deputy National Security Advisor.

Glenn Allen Youngkin ’90, American businessman and politician, has been the governor of Virginia since 2022. Andy Kopplin ’88, former Baker College president, went on to be New Orleans deputy mayor from 2010 to 2016. 

Additionally, Rice has produced alumni working internationally — George Chang ’66, or Chang Tsan-hung, is a Taiwanese politician and independence activist who served as the mayor of Tainan City from 1997 to 2001.

George Prescott Bush ’98 is an American politician and attorney who served as the commissioner of the Texas General Land Office from 2015 to 2023. Despite his family’s legacy in politics, after graduating from Rice, Bush’s interest primarily lay not in running for office, but in teaching and public service. 

Before attending law school, he taught social studies at a public high school in Florida for several years. He described his time in the military as the most fulfilling role he’s had. 

“When I was at Rice, I never even thought about it,” Bush said in an interview with the Thresher. “Looking back on it, I wish I had spent more time in the military. I did serve 10 years as a reservist and had some time overseas, but I think the apex of my career on paper would be serving as land commissioner, a statewide role — I think I’m the only Rice Owl ever to serve in that role.”

Bush feels the values and expectations of political candidates have changed for the worse, he said.

“It used to be the case that your desire to serve — the amount of skill, the amount of wisdom, you would provide other leaders and also your constituents — really counted,” Bush said. “I feel like less so, that is the case. 

“Now it’s about how bombastic you can be, how extreme you can be, in your politics that leads to more success, especially with redistricting and the influence of money in politics and the political primary process, which rewards extremism.” 

Ed Emmett ’71 served as a county judge and is now a current Baker Institute fellow in energy and transportation, returning to the transportation issues which he specialized in, beginning during his time as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

“The irony here is that so many people here know me as county judge, where I didn’t have that much to do with transportation,” Emmett said to the Thresher. “So, coming back to Rice and being able to re-establish myself and what was really my life’s work, except for that little 12 years as county judge, has been a godsend.” 

As with many other Rice students with an interest in a career as a politician, his first steps on that path were running for college presidency. 

“I am the oldest living president of Lovett College,” Emmett said. “I was a freshman running for treasurer. I got elected, and the reason is, I was on the tennis team and the jocks all voted for me. Block voting — I mean, what can you say?”

This success only galvanized his aspirations, he said; beyond the unspoken rules of the college government, in fact.  

“I ran for president [the next year], and I was the first person to run as a rising junior, to be president of a college,” Emmett said. “They said, ‘Wait, you can’t do that. You have to be a senior,’ and I said ‘No, that wasn’t written anywhere,’ and so I got elected as a junior.”

After graduating, he spent a year coaching tennis at a country club, then received a Master of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin to pursue an interest in politics, despite originally planning on law school. 

Throughout a career, as Emmett has experienced, the needs of the people push officials to learn about specific issues, regardless of their formal role. 

“When I first ran for state representative, I knocked on 19,404 doors,” Emmett said. “One of the big issues in the area I lived in, Kingwood, was they wanted an overpass. So I said, ‘Okay, you [vote for] me, I’ll get an overpass.’ Then I won. I had no clue how to get to an overpass.”  

“We lived at a time when, regardless of party, if you became the known expert, whether it was in public education or transportation or redistricting or whatever, other members would listen to you. Now, I don’t think it’s like that so much.” 

He shares this willingness to work across party lines with another Owl familiar to the city of Houston.

Parker served as the 61st mayor of Houston from 2010 until 2016. However, for Parker, politics was not a goal but a result of unrelated jobs. 

“When I went into the workforce, I went to work for an oil company because that was 80% of the Houston economy in 1978 when I graduated,” Parker said. “I was working to support my volunteer habit, and so for the first 10 years after graduating most of my volunteer time went to LGBT organizations, and then the next 10 years most of my volunteer time went to Civic Association and Housing United Way volunteering, those sorts of things.”

To Owls, both those aspiring to follow in her footsteps and those passionate about different careers entirely, Parker said she offers the same advice. 

“The bare minimum of being involved, being a member of a democracy, is voting,”  Parker said. “But I also think that the bare minimum should never be enough for any Rice student … Pick a campaign, pick a candidate, pick an issue and get involved. It is actually, I kid you not, it is easier to elect people who you align with on some issue than it is to get an officeholder to change their mind on something. So get out there.”

---