John Sharp Fondly Remembers Governor Ann Richards

Please Share Your Favorite Memories of Gov. Richards

John has lots of stories about the great friendship he shared with Governor Ann Richards. One of our favorites is about the time, as Governor, she ordered a red ‘hotline’ installed in his office as State Comptroller. When he picked it up, there she was on the other end of the line, explaining that since President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had a hotline, she figured the two of them should have one here in Texas, too. But one time John tried to call her, the line was dead. When he finally got through on a regular line and asked why the hotline wasn't working, she purred: “Darlin’, it ain’t your hotline.”

Years later, when George W. Bush succeeded Ann as Texas Governor, he asked the State Comptroller how he preferred to be addressed. Sharp looked him in the eye and said, “Well, the last governor called me ‘Darlin’.”

Please read Dan Richards' endorsement of John Sharp for U.S. Senate here.