Gonzalez Shatters Glass Ceiling

Its usually the most unlikely person that ends up making history. An older black woman in the South who refuses to “know her place” and move to the back of the bus. A skinny middle-aged Hindu who leads a peaceful revolt against the British Empire. Or a young Chinese man staring down a tank.

The most unlikely people making change happen.

And now...a college professor who is at heart a country girl from Clint has shattered a huge glass ceiling in El Paso County.

No woman has ever been elected to a major valley seat before. Alicia Chacon was elected County Judge, but that was a countywide seat. A valley-only seat has never been occupied by a woman. That is until now.

Mary Gonzalez was elected to represent House District 75 over her two opponents Tony San Roman and Hector Enriquez.

She won the race by the book. She had a well-funded successful ground game. She had a team of consultants around her helping her out. But give credit where credit is due. None of that could've happened without a quality candidate. And make no mistake about it, spending one day on the campaign trail shadowing her it was immediately apparent that she was calling the shots.

And Gonzalez did a lot of stuff on her own. Remember, she wasn't always a well-funded candidate. There were times the twenty-something questioned her decision to leave a successful career in education to run. There were times where she doubted herself. There were times on the campaign trail that her message was disorganized, when she was winging it alone, when she missed things she should've attended, and when her performance wasn't all that great.

But in a testament to perseverance, she hung in there. She had to suffer personal attacks about her sexuality, which I guess shows that even though a glass ceiling was shattered, women still have to deal with things their male colleagues don't have to.

Early in the campaign I questioned her motives. I called her a carpet-bagger. I questioned her connection to voters. I complained about her not living her adult life in the district.

And I was wrong.

She proved me wrong.

She proved a lot of people wrong.

Her life is about to change. She is going to be pulled in a lot of directions and people are going to want a lot out of her. They are going to want her to be a lot of things...some of which are things she just isn't.

The challenge for Gonzalez is to stay connected to who she is. The oldest of 11 children from Clint who lost their home in a fire, had to find places to shower, and yet somehow managed to stay on track in school, graduate and go off to pursue higher education.

Her district has a lot of needs. More so than most of the other districts in the County. Gonzalez needs to remember the people that elected her. She needs to remember the community that shaped her. She needs to remember that the most important phone calls her office will get aren't going to be the ones from Austin lobbyists. They are going to be the ones from her district.