Texas. Governor (1914-1917 : Ferguson)

Miriam Amanda Ferguson served two terms as governor of Texas, from January 20, 1925 to January 17, 1927 and January 17, 1933 to January 15, 1935. Miriam Amanda Wallace was born in Bell County in 1875. She attended Salado College and Baylor Female College. In 1899 she married James E. Ferguson, with whom she had two daughters. Her political involvement was minor during her husband's terms in office (1915-1917). But in 1924, after Pa Ferguson was denied a place on the ballot, Ma Ferguson announced her own candidacy. Her campaign, under the slogan Two governors for the price of one, was fiscally conservative, anti-Klan, anti-prohibition, and aimed at the vindication of James Ferguson's reputation. Ferguson was the first woman to be elected state governor, but the second woman governor to be inaugurated (after Wyoming's Nellie T. Ross) in the United States. Her first administration was noted for the unusually large number of pardons granted (averaging one hundred per month), the prohibiting of wearing masks in public (aimed at the Ku Klux Klan), and the frequent charges that she was open to graft and corruption. In 1926 she was defeated in the primary by Dan Moody, and in 1930 she was defeated in the run-off primary by Ross Sterling.

In 1932, promising to reduce taxes, Ferguson defeated Governor Ross Sterling in the run-off primary and the Republican candidate in the general election. Her proposal for a corporate income tax failed in the legislature, but her practice of granting liberal pardons continued. Ferguson remained in political semi-retirement until 1940 when she attempted to unseat Governor Lee O'Daniel. She was widowed in 1944, and died in 1961.