“The election team is great. They were on the ground and helping with water distribution and tree removal.”

Out Smart Magazine: Molly Cook, Texas’ First Out LGBTQ State Senator up for Re-Election on May 28

Sen. Cook was sworn in by Judge Steve Duble at 5:30 p.m. on May 16. Within less than an hour, a rare derecho blew through Houston with torrential rains and straight-line winds up to 100 miles an hour, wreaking havoc on the Heights and downtown, causing power outages to almost one million customers, downing power lines and trees, and causing seven deaths.

“It was a whirlwind first few hours,” Cook says of her first day as a state senator. “Luckily the election team is great. They were on the ground and helping with water distribution and tree removal. And we have the resources now to connect people with state and federal aid.” In fact, Sen. Cook’s team has been seamlessly marrying campaigning with aid work in these days between the May 16 storm and the coming May 28 runoff election.

“I have gratitude for those who have gone before me, like Barbara Jordan” Cook says. “Jordan was the first LGBTQ+ woman in Congress. Particularly when the community is constantly under attack in this state, to be elected from Houston, Harris County, gives me hope. Hope for Houston and for Texas.”