The Purse Bearer A Novel of Love, Lust and Texas Politics

This novel explores the underbelly of the almost always politically incorrect world of politics and campaigning in Texas in the 1980s. Rose Marie “Red” Ryder made a name for herself by becoming the first female state comptroller of Texas and she is now running to become the first woman U.S. senator from the Lone Star State. Ryder’s campaign team is a potluck of misfits and miscreants: a has-been evangelist’s son who once ran a string of mobile massage parlors, veterans of the civil rights struggles, Austin lesbian activists, old-school political operatives with sterling motives and shady morals, and then there is Wily T. Foxx. Until he joined the campaign, almost entirely by accident, Wily’s passion in life had been cock fighting. Now he is literally the candidate's “purse bearer,” a combination bodyguard/campaign worker, privy to all of the political intrigue found on the campaign trail. In a state where the dead can rise and walk to the polls, ballot boxes can grow fat in counties with more cattle than people, and the votes of common folk can be disqualified on a whim, this lively and insightful novel captures the absurd and timeless qualities of running for political office.

Joe Holley is the politics editor and “Native Texan” columnist for the Houston Chronicle. He written for several newspapers and magazines, including Columbia Journalism Review, the San Antonio Express-News, Texas Monthly, the Texas Observer, and the Washington Post. He is the author of My Mother’s Keeper and Slingin’ Sam: The Life and Times of the Greatest Quarterback Ever to Play the Game. He lives in Houston, Texas.