Former Miss Texas seeking a career in politics

Averie Bishop entering politics?

As Miss Texas, Averie Bishop was unusually outspoken about topics usually reserved for politicians. Now she's ready to turn her words into action as a candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.

Bishop, a Filipino American born in the Lone Star state, gave up her crown last June after reigning as the first Asian American winner of the Miss Texas Miss America in the pageant's 85-year history.

Bishop, 26, filed as a Democratic candidate in Texas House District 112, north of Dallas Tuesday. If she survives the Democratic primary, she would face Rep. Angie Chen Button, a Republican who has served the Northeast Dallas district since 2009. 

Neither Button or Bishop issued any immediate statements after the San Antonio Express-News first broke the news of Bishop's intentions. 

To her more than 800,000 TikTok followers, Bishop has posted videos calling for enhanced sex education at Texas schools, criticizing the policies of state leaders following the Uvalde mass shooting and calling for enhanced access to abortions.

Bishop, a former intern for US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, further hinted at her political aspirations in a TikTok video posted Tuesday, saying she'd been "researching running for public office" — which she notes is an expensive undertaking.

"In conclusion, we just need more normal people to run for office: people who have student loans, like myself; people who are living month-to-month, for example; people who are teachers," she says in the video. "We need normal people to run so that we can change the system from within."

As her reign as Miss Texas was coming to a close this Spring, the law grad from Southern Methodist University, became more vocal about her politically progressive leanings and hinted at a possible future in political office.

In an opinion article published by MSNBC, Bishop wrote: "I also know that if our politicians continue to shut out, ignore and oppress marginalized and minority Texans, the state will never become the socio-economic and political powerhouse it wants to become."

Bishop concluded: "I became Miss Texas to advocate for the people of color, immigrants and LGTBQ people who hold up every community from Galveston to Waco. Now more than ever, it is crucial to hold our leaders and institutions accountable. And I think most Texans agree with me."

Texas Republicans, who hold the reins of power in the state legislature and the governorship, gerrymandered the state's political districts after the 202 Census to favor GOP candidates and divided districts that held a majority Democratic advantage. That was the case in District 112 where Button in 2022 successfully beat back a challenge from Democrat.

Traditionally, Miss Texas does a publicity stunt that involves skinning snakes. Bishop  waded into the snake pits at the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup,and performed the snake-skinning but she declined to mark her bloody handprint on the wall as previous Miss Texas winners have done.

By wading into politics, particularly as a person of color in Texas, she will have to find a way to skin a different breed of snake.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Miss Texas has a message for Texas' Republican governor

AVERIE BISHOP

Averie Bishop used her Miss Texas platform to advocate for diversity and inclusion.

After giving up her crown as Miss Texas, it didn't take long for the Filipino American beauty queen Averie Bishop took her first steps into the political arena by criticizing Texas' conservative  leaders.

Days after crowning her successor, Ellie Breaux as Miss Texas 2023, Bishop aimed her message of diversity right at Texas Governor Greg Abbott who has campaigned against communities of color and through the Republican-controlled state legislature, make it harder for voters to cast their ballots.

In an opinion article published by MSNBC, Bishop wrote: "I also know that if our politicians continue to shut out, ignore and oppress marginalized and minority Texans, the state will never become the socio-economic and political powerhouse it wants to become."

During Bishop's  reign as Miss Texas last year, she consistently pushed her platform, "Y’all Means All” in all her appearances.

She was the first Asian American to win the title in the 85-year history of this scholarship competition. The winner represented the Lone Star state in the Miss America scholarship competition.

As a college student at Southern Methodist University, she saw the demographic changes in Texas as it became a majority-minority state, where no one ethnic group was in the majority. "I started seeing a new side of my state, a Texas that is home to one of the country’s largest South Asian communities, a thriving Black music industry, generations of Latinx and Chicano cultures, and some of the best Vietnamese food this side of the Pacific." she continued.

"And yet, so many of the leaders of my state are living in denial. Rather than celebrating this diversity and the ways it makes us stronger, they are trying to smother it."

During her year as Miss Texas she has spoken on race, abortion, immigration, voting, same-sex marriage, school shootings and comprehensive sex education, all of which leaned progressive and against the views of the Republican lawmakers, including Abbott.

In June as Bishop was preparing to end her year as Miss Texas, Abbott signed laws banning diversity offices and training at state universities, “sexually explicit” books at public schools, drag shows and gender-affirming care for youths.

In a recent article published in the Washington Post, Bishop, who graduated from Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University, school plans to join a law office to launch her career. At some point, Bishop told the Post, she might run for elective office.

In her MSNBC oped, the 27-year old Bishop concluded: "I became Miss Texas to advocate for the people of color, immigrants and LGTBQ people who hold up every community from Galveston to Waco. Now more than ever, it is crucial to hold our leaders and institutions accountable. And I think most Texans agree with me."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Miss USA inspires other Filipino American pageant winner representing Texas in the Miss America contest

Filipino American Averie Bishop will represent Texas in the Miss America pageant.

With more than a passing interest, another young Filipino American woman watched  R'Bonney Gabriel crowned as Miss USA Oct. 3. Averie Bishop hopes to repeat Gabriel's feat in the Miss America contest.

“Now that I have become the thing that I dreamed of becoming, other young girls, other women from the Filipino community, from the AAPI community can look at me, look at R’Bonney, and think to themselves, I can do it too,” said Bishop, who won the Miss Texas American last June.

It is the first time that a state picked two Filipino American women to represent the state at the United States' two major beauty pageants in the same year.

RELATED: Filipino American wins Miss USA title.

Bishop, 25, is an SMU graduate who also studied law. She was crowned on June 28, and will represent Texas in the coming 85th Miss America pageant to be held in Uncasville, Connecticut in December.

Her motto for her run for Miss Texas was “Y'all Means All,” which emphasizes diversity and inclusion. "Texas can look like me, and it can look like you," Bishop said. 

“I was quite literally the only student that looks like the way that I did for almost, I'd say, a decade,” Bishop told NBC. “I convinced myself that I wasn't allowed to speak my voice, that I wasn't allowed to dream or pursue the things I wanted to pursue.”

As Miss Texas, she told Insider that she plans to use her platform to promote diversity and inclusion initiatives. She has more 65,000-plus followers on Instagram and 809,000-plus followers on TikTok.

With her mother, Bishop manages a nonprofit called the Tulong Foundation that provides scholarships and mentorship to girls in Southeast Asia to help them pursue an education. It currently sponsors more than 45 children in the Philippines.

Another trait that Bishop shares with Miss USA R'Bonney Gabriel is her upfront  opinions on controversial issues usually avoided by pageant winners.

The selection of both Bishop and Gabriel in their respective beauty pageants is symbolic of the changes that is occurring in Texas, a state where minority populations make up more than 50% of the state's population.

In recent years, Texas' conservative lawmakers, who still retain political power, have been passing controversial laws, including some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country, anti-abortion laws, book bans and the redrawing of legislative districts that took power away from minority voters.

In one Tik Tok video, Bishop applauds the bipartisanship behind President Biden's infrastructure plan in the "Build Back Better" bill. In another, she tells her mother's immigration story.

Many of Averie Bishop's Tik Tok videos were taped in the SMU law librrary.

Bishop said she won Miss Texas America before a politically-conservative judges panel. During initial meetings with the Miss Texas America board, Bishop was expecting resistance. Instead, she found that they trusted her.

" Her training in law school helped Bishop navigate the difficult interviews, she said. In law school, Bishop worked in a legal clinic where she represented children and victims of domestic abuse where she worked with people who may not "have never seen a person of color their entire life," Bishop told Insider.

During her reign as Miss Texas, she will be visiting the state's public schools where she intends to deliver her message of diversity. "Many of us have grown up in silos without ever having walked out of our small town to consider different perspectives. When we bring other perspectives in, we become a more fruitful, more colorful and more vibrant community together."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.