Texas History | Government & Legislation | Texas Fun Facts
Texas Called Her “Ma.” History Called Her Governor Twice.
More than a century ago, Miriam A. Ferguson became the first woman elected governor of Texas. Her return to office years later gave her something few political figures possess: two numbered places in the state’s history.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas has a way of giving its political figures nicknames that outlive their campaigns, their controversies and sometimes even their accomplishments.
For Miriam Amanda Ferguson, that nickname was “Ma.”
It was a simple, familiar name for a woman who would make history in a state where the constitutional prohibition against denying the vote on account of sex was only a few years old.
But there was nothing ordinary about the place she would occupy in Texas government.
Walk through the state’s official gubernatorial portrait gallery, and Ferguson appears not once, but twice.
There she is as the 29th governor of Texas.
And there she is again as the 32nd.
One woman. Two numbered governorships. A political career that refused to end with its first departure from the Governor’s Mansion.
Behind those two entries is a distinctly Texas story of political loyalty, family, controversy, defeat and an unlikely return.
Before Texas called her governor
Miriam Ferguson was born in Bell County, Texas, in 1875. Long before she entered the Governor’s Mansion, her life was closely connected to that of her husband, James Edward “Jim” Ferguson.
Jim Ferguson served as governor from 1915 until the impeachment proceedings that ended his administration in 1917 and barred his return to the office.
His political career, however, did not end with his removal.
The Fergusons retained a substantial following among Texans who continued to support the former governor despite the controversy surrounding his administration.
When Jim Ferguson could not return to the governor’s office himself, Miriam became the candidate.
Her entry into statewide politics was inseparable from her husband’s political circumstances. Yet the election would place her name, not his, on the ballot and ultimately in the state’s official history.
In 1924, Texas voters elected Miriam Ferguson governor.
She became the first woman elected to the office in Texas.
It was an extraordinary development in a state where women’s political participation had undergone profound changes within a single generation.
The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, had prohibited denying the right to vote on account of sex. Four years later, Texas elected a woman to its highest executive office. Discriminatory voting laws nevertheless continued to prevent many women, particularly Black women, from exercising that right.
That milestone did not erase the controversies surrounding the Ferguson political organization. Nor did it mean women had achieved equal political influence throughout Texas.
But it placed a woman at the head of state government for the first time.
And her name was Miriam A. Ferguson.
The 29th governor of Texas
Ferguson took office on January 20, 1925.
Her administration carried the influence of the political partnership that had brought her to office, and Jim Ferguson remained a prominent figure in the political life surrounding her governorship.
Critics questioned how much authority she exercised independently of her husband. Supporters continued to regard the Fergusons as champions of their political interests.
Those competing views followed her throughout her time in office.
Her administration also became associated with controversy over the use of executive clemency, particularly the number of pardons issued during her governorship.
The disputes surrounding her administration were serious, and they remain part of the historical record.
Yet they exist alongside another undeniable fact: Texas voters had elected a woman governor in 1924.
Her first term ended January 17, 1927.
For many politicians, leaving office after one term marks the conclusion of a chapter that will never be reopened.
For Miriam Ferguson, it was only the beginning of a long interruption.
The years between
Ferguson’s first attempt to win another term came while she was still governor. In 1926, she lost the Democratic nomination to Dan Moody.
After leaving office, she sought the nomination again in 1930, but lost the runoff to Ross Sterling.
Neither defeat ended her political ambitions.
The years passed. Other governors served. Texas politics changed.
Still, the Ferguson name retained enough political strength to make another campaign possible.
In 1932, Miriam Ferguson sought the governorship again.
This time, she won.
Her victory brought her back to an office she had left six years earlier, making her one of the comparatively few Texas governors to serve nonconsecutive terms.
On January 17, 1933, she began her second administration.
The woman who had entered the history books as Texas’s 29th governor was now its 32nd.
And that is where the unusual arithmetic of Texas history begins.
How one person became two numbered governors
The numbering of Texas governors follows the sequence of governorships, rather than counting every individual only once.
When a governor leaves office and another person takes the position, the sequence advances.
If a former governor later returns for a nonconsecutive term, that return occupies a new place in the lineup.
For Miriam Ferguson, the result was two separate entries in the official Capitol portrait gallery.
Her first administration ran from January 20, 1925, to January 17, 1927.
Her second began January 17, 1933, and ended January 15, 1935.
Between those administrations, Texas had been governed by others.
The Texas State Preservation Board consequently identifies her as both the 29th and 32nd governor.
It is a small historical detail, but one that reveals something larger about how public office is recorded.
History does not always move in a straight line. Sometimes it circles back to someone voters have already sent home.
In Ferguson’s case, the return was substantial enough to earn a second numbered place in the state’s official record.
A complicated legacy behind a familiar nickname
There is a temptation to turn Miriam Ferguson’s life into a simple story of perseverance.
A woman enters politics, makes history, loses office and returns years later.
Those facts are true.
But the complete story is more complicated.
Her rise was closely tied to her husband’s political career and the circumstances of his removal from office. Her administrations generated significant criticism, and questions about the political influence surrounding her governorship cannot be separated from an honest account of her time in power.
At the same time, her election was a genuine milestone for women in Texas politics.
Both realities belong in the story.
Ferguson was neither merely a symbolic figure nor someone whose political career can be understood apart from the Ferguson family’s larger history.
She was an elected governor whose tenure reflected the political alliances, conflicts and expectations of her era.
Her nickname may have made her seem familiar to voters. The office she held carried responsibilities far greater than any nickname.
And the historical record preserves both her achievement and the controversies that accompanied it.
Two portraits, one remarkable chapter
There is something quietly memorable about imagining a visitor examining the names of Texas governors and discovering Miriam Ferguson listed twice.
At first glance, it might seem like a mistake.
The same name appears under two different numbers, separated by several years.
But those entries tell a story that a single portrait could not.
They tell of a woman elected at a time when female governors were extraordinary. They tell of a political family whose influence survived scandal and defeat. And they tell of Texas voters returning a former governor to office after years away.
Ferguson’s second term ended January 15, 1935.
Her political ambitions, however, did not end there. In 1940, she made another attempt to regain the governorship, but the campaign was unsuccessful.
She never returned to the Governor’s Mansion.
Yet her two places in the official lineup remain.
More than a century after her first election, the historical significance of those entries has not disappeared.
Texas called her “Ma,” a nickname that made her sound like someone the state already knew.
But the records give her a more formal distinction.
Miriam A. Ferguson: the 29th governor of Texas.
Miriam A. Ferguson: the 32nd governor of Texas.
One woman whose name the state recorded twice, because the voters of Texas sent her back.
And perhaps that is what makes this particular Texas Fun Fact worth remembering.
History is not always neat, and the people who make it are rarely simple.
Sometimes, even the numbering tells a story.
Sources
Texas State Preservation Board — Texas Governors and Presidents Portrait Gallery. Official entries identifying Miriam A. Ferguson as the 29th and 32nd governor of Texas, including dates of service.
https://tspb.texas.gov/prop/tc/tc-collection/governors/index.html
Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Votes for Women!, “Aftermath,” page 2. Historical background concerning Miriam Ferguson’s election and women’s political participation.
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/suffrage/aftermath/page2.html
Texas State Library and Archives Commission — The Politics of Personality, Parts 1 and 2. Historical background on the Ferguson administrations, political influence, electoral campaigns and controversies.
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/personality/index.html
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/personality/page2.html
Texas State Cemetery — Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson. Biographical record, election history and historical context.
https://cemetery.texas.gov/locate-a-plot/plotholder/miriam-amanda-wallace-ferguson
National Archives — Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920). Amendment text, ratification and limits of its implementation.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment
Verified through October 23, 2026.
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