Israel lost one of its staunchest supporters in the US Congress with the passing this past week of Rep. Kay Granger at the age of 83.
She was a trailblazing Texas Republican who served as the first female mayor of Fort Worth and later spent 14 terms (28 years) in Congress.
Over those 28 years, she was in Congress during the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, and both Trump administrations. She was also the first woman from her party to chair the powerful House Committee on Appropriations.
Earlier, as chair of the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee from 2011 to 2017, Granger controlled the allocation of funding for the US State Department and foreign aid.
In 2016, she took the lead on an Obama-initiated $38 billion, ten-year military aid package for Israel, which she successfully pushed through Congress. The package included 33 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters, actually built in Granger’s Texas district.
A former teacher and small-business owner, Granger served for four years as Fort Worth’s mayor before being elected to Congress in 1996. After becoming the appropriations chairwoman in 2019, she wielded immense influence over federal spending.
She helped steer funds toward Fort Worth-based defense companies such as Lockheed Martin and the helicopter maker Bell Textron, many of which worked with Israeli defense contractors as well.
In 1996, while holding down the mayor’s chair, she ran for an open seat in Congress in a longtime Democratic stronghold covering parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Though Granger had identified as a Republican to the United States Conference of Mayors, the Fort Worth mayoralty is nonpartisan.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties courted her to campaign as their candidate. She decided to run as a Republican and fended off conservative primary critics who called her too moderate.
Her victory with nearly 58 percent of the vote ended the district’s century-long Democratic hold. She was the first Republican woman to represent a Texas district in the House and was reelected 13 times after her initial win.
In addition to spearheading the 2016 landmark $38b. military assistance agreement between the United States and Israel, she consistently advocated for full funding of Israel’s security and defense needs through her role on the House Committee on Appropriations.
A personal encounter with Fort Worth’s mayor
I met Granger at the Texas State Capitol some 25 years ago, as she had evidenced an interest in having Texas establish a state foreign export and direct investment promotion office in Israel, something our company, Atid EDI Ltd., had been doing for other states as well.
We spoke at length about various aspects of such an office, how it could benefit the Texas economy, and why Israel was the best location in the Middle East for such a regional initiative.
While the idea did not garner the state’s support at that time, I was moved by her obvious love and respect for Israel and what Israelis have accomplished here.
Although it is not clear how many times Granger visited Israel, documentation indicates she visited the country at least three times throughout her extensive career in public service.
Her first visit was in the early 1990s, during her tenure as the mayor of Fort Worth. She joined a delegation of municipal chief executives invited by legendary Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek.
Granger returned to Israel in 1998 as part of a high-profile congressional delegation led by then-House speaker Newt Gingrich to celebrate Israel’s 50th anniversary.
Then, in 2009, as a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, she joined a congressional delegation that met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior defense and intelligence officials to discuss regional security.
Due to her long-running roles on the aforementioned House committees, she was frequently hosted by Israeli politicians on additional diplomatic and security missions.
AIPAC posted on X/Twitter, “We are saddened by the passing of Congresswoman Kay Granger, a trailblazer in public service and a steadfast friend of the US-Israel relationship.”
It added that as part of her political career, Granger “championed life‑saving security assistance to Israel for many years, ensuring that our ally had the resources it needed to defend its people. We extend our deepest condolences to her family, loved ones, and the Fort Worth community.”
Regarding her devotion to her home city of Fort Worth, Eric Fox, a former Lockheed Martin Aeronautics senior director of government relations, posted in the Fort Worth Report, “If there is a Mount Rushmore of Fort Worth, Kay Granger is on it.”
Israel, of course, needs all the friends it can get. So, thank you, Kay Granger, and we pray that your soul will occupy a high place in heaven above and that your memory will be blessed.
The writer, a 42-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).