Teneshia Hudspeth’s rise to become the first African-American Harris County Clerk and Chief Election Official marks a historic milestone in Texas government. Today, she oversees special, primary and general elections for the county with a diverse population of more than 4.9 million.
Born and raised in Austin, Hudspeth moved to Houston in 1999 to attend Texas Southern University, where she majored in communications. She is also a graduate of Leadership Houston and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.
It was during her junior year, while interning for Congressman Chet Edwards in Washington, D.C., when she was “bit by the political bug.” The experience, coupled with her interest in voting rights and a Mickey Leland Congressional internship, propelled her toward a career in public service.
Role as a County Clerk
In 2005, Hudspeth joined the former County Clerk, Beverly Kaufman’s office as an administrative assistant. Over the next 15 years, Hudspeth served under four county clerks while rising through the ranks.
“These years were actually spent in the elections division, learning all the nuts and bolts of how elections really worked,” she said. “Being someone who knows how the office ticks is definitely not just a labor of love for me. It is a passion and a calling.”
In 2020, a historic election year, Hudspeth was elected County Clerk after running against her boss, Stan Stanart who was the former County Clerk and under whom she had worked for seven years, and became the youngest to hold this role. Today, she is the only Black woman serving as a county clerk in any of Texas’ 254 counties.
“I had no clue that I could be the County Clerk one day, as county government looked very different; it was very white, male-dominated,” Hudspeth said.
Her leadership is shaped by years of hands-on experience in elections and records and work in civic organizations, equipping her to lead Harris County through its challenging election cycles.
“A lot of the work was being a community person, going out and sharing the importance of the [voting] process for all communities,” she said. “Especially the African American community, there was a history of suppression when it came to the voting process and in some ways it still exists today.”
Building civic trust
Hudspeth believes that building trust with voters through transparency is key to winning elections. This includes knocking on people’s doors and educating them about the election process.
“Especially with the political climate today, instilling trust is important because there is so much negative rhetoric that is played out each and every day, especially on social media,” she said. “I run as a Democrat but serve with a nonpartisan spirit.”
Maintaining public records and vital statistics is a necessity in the quieter, often overlooked functions of the County Clerk’s office. Since taking office, Hudspeth said she has spearheaded modernization efforts, digitizing historical records and improving signage and accessibility in the downtown courthouse.
Still, much of the public’s focus remains on elections. Hudspeth welcomes that scrutiny and sees it as an opportunity to educate the public about the complex and labor-intensive process of election management.
“I don’t get a lot of sleep in some seasons of life,” she said. “My hope is that as we continue forward, hold everyone accountable in the political process…it’s just not about one person. It is about the community and who we serve.”
Hudspeth’s commitment to civic trust has translated into community-focused events like the back-to-school birth certificate drive, held on a Saturday every July or August. This drive allows parents to obtain birth certificates needed for school registration and school supplies.
Hudspeth’s upbringing inspired the program. Her mother was a single parent who worked multiple jobs and could not always access government services during business hours.
The legacy Hudspeth wants
Hudspeth pointed out that running elections goes beyond ballots. She is particularly concerned about her office’s deliverables, which do not match the funding it receives.
“There’s a lot of work in production that we have to put out on a regular basis, and it puts extreme demands on us. I do this in my sleep, because I can never turn it off sometimes,” she said. “There has to be more awareness around just how much work goes into running elections and how time after time we continue to be underfunded and underpaid for the work that we do.”
Despite the challenges, Hudspeth looks to the future with hope.
“I want people to remember me for being proactive, bold and unapologetic, being respectful to all folks in the voting process, regardless of their political stance, background, or ideologies,” she said. “I want to be held up as ‘she might not have been my bestie or I might not have liked her, but boy did she do her job well.’”
