Friend to Lead Bipartisan Policy Center
Margaret Spellings is returning to the Beltway after almost 10 years of calling Highland Park home.
She is leaving her role as CEO of Texas 2036, a think tank using data to advance the state’s prosperity through the bicentennial and beyond, to become CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).
“It is a consequential and much-needed place for ideas, solutions, and action,” she said in a news release.
Margaret relocated to Dallas from the Washington, D.C., area in 2013 when her former boss tapped her to lead his George W. Bush Presidential Center. There, she launched the Presidential Leaders Scholarship Program, a one-of-a-kind effort born out of the first-ever partnership of multiple Presidential Centers.
As neither a statesman nor politician, I feel ill-equipped to provide a quote about Margaret in her new role, but I will.
We first met soon after she moved next door to a beautifully updated 1927 Tudor that oozes with charm.
After a day of yard work, my husband relaxed in our Japanese garden backyard.
“I think the president is next door!” he said breathlessly as he ran into the kitchen.
“Which one?” I replied, thinking he might have had a heat stroke.
Coincidentally, my little dog Dixie expressed her need for a potty break, so we went out front.
Sure enough, two Chevy Suburbans with dark tinted windows were backed into her driveway, mere feet from my front door.
Slowly, the dark, ominous front and rear passenger side windows of Suburban 1 lowered.
“Nice shirt,” said one of the three dark-suited agents.
I was wearing a Reagan-Bush ’84 T-shirt I’d gotten from St. Bernard’s a few weeks before.
“Oh, this? Ha. It’s just a coincidence that I’m wearing this. Truly, I’ve been doing yard work all day.”
“Yes, ma’am.” They didn’t buy it; I could tell.
“No, really. It’s a thing. Stores are selling these shirts, and I got one for my son and one for me.”
“OK.” Maybe they were satisfied.
I told them I was proud to wear it but “would never buy a Bush-Quayle T-shirt.”
Way too much laughter came out of Suburban 1. The dark glasses were off, and the agents looked genuinely amused.
I visualized backyard barbecues with Margaret, 43, Laura, and their cute security detail, so I chatted them up a bit more.
“So, my husband and I live next door. With kids. Good kids. We’re not criminals or anything like that.”
Shades back on, conversation pretty much over.
“But you probably already knew that about us, didn’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Windows up.
That evening, Margaret rolled her trash can to the curb and mentioned, with some awe, the frequent pickups here in Highland Park.
“We’re a very tidy community,” I replied.
My dear friend has a gift for getting consequential programs and policies activated without leaving scorched earth behind her.
She is a brilliant woman with a fabulous sense of humor; thoughtful, realistic, and others-focused; a wonderful mother, sister, and friend.
I wish her all the best in D.C.
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While you’re at it, follow Bipartisan Policy Center and know that a fellow Texan, our own Parklebrity, Margaret Spellings, is leading the charge.
