Born in Houston, Molly Cook is a sixth generation Texan who earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a graduate degree from the John Hopkins University Schools of Nursing and Public Health.
Throughout her journey from childhood to the emergency room and, ultimately, the Texas Capitol, her commitment to health and public welfare has never been shaken.
Senator Cook remembers being driven to serve at a young age, where the idea of becoming a nurse first set in for her.
“I’ll be honest, I hated math class,” Cook says. “So, I spent a lot of time during math class in the nurse’s office.”
One experience in particular stood out to Cook and inspired her to go down the career path she would choose later in life.
“I remember her coming back in [the office] with this trash bag full of blood and clothes,” she says. “I was lying there and I thought that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and I want to be able to do that and be able to respond to emergencies when I am older.”
Cook says she would learn that her childhood image of what a nurse does was not an entirely accurate picture of the job and that socio-economic status was a driving role in the types of people she would ultimately serve.
“I was so frustrated by what I saw, especially working nights in the E.R.,” she says. “People aren’t sick because they are making bad decisions or deficient in some way. They are sick because they are poor.”
It was this realization, according to Cook, that sparked her transition into the political realm where she thought she could make more fundamental changes.
“I wanted to go upstream and ended up in public policy,” she says.
When long-time Senator John Whitmire announced that he would be running for Mayor of Houston, Cook says she saw her opportunity.
In the 2024 Democratic primary election for Whitmire’s now vacant seat, Cook came in second with 20.6% of the vote among six candidates. In first place was former member of the Texas House of Representative Jarvis Johnson. In a May runoff, Cook defeated Johnson by a mere 62 votes. Then in November of 2024, Cook defeated the Republican candidate Joseph Trahan by getting 61.9% of the vote, securing the seat.
Cook has wasted no time and has applied her unique lens and experience to her first session in the Texas legislature.
“Every bill to us is a health bill,” she says. “We want a thriving economy but to the end that people are healthy and well.”
According to Cook, Texans’ ability to access health care is a major concern for not just her district but also the entire state.
“People in my community are having trouble accessing health care,” she says. “And people in rural communities are also having trouble accessing health care.”
In March, Cook announced her “Nurse, First” Legislative Agenda & District Priorities. The agenda applied a public health approach and focused on several policy pillars—access to health care, safe homes and infrastructure, clean environment, opportunity, belonging and connection, and healthy and fair systems.
“People need safe homes and infrastructure,” Cook says. “They need a safe place to lay their head and they need a safe way to get around a clean environment. Clean air, water, and soil.”
According to Cook, “One of the biggest indicators of whether poverty turns into crime is if someone has a safe place to lay their head.”
While she recognized that Texans ask a lot of their public school and school teachers, she says that it was critical to start immersing the public school culture in ways to improve health and save lives.
“Schools have a lot on their plate, but we want to make sure that kids receive hands-on training in CPR, for example,” Cook says.
Cook remembers several tragedies from her time as a nurse and says that you never know when that life-saving skill might be needed.
“If they’d had good bystander CPR, they could have walked out of the hospital.”
Another major youth health issue that Cook has focused on this legislative session is vaping in Texas schools. She believes the prevalence and easy access to these products has led to some dangerous circumstances in Texas.
“We’re really frustrated that you look at a map, and there’s smoke shops next to every single elementary school in almost the entire state,” Cook says.
“I wish I could show you a picture right now of a kids’ playground in Texas with the cutest, most beautiful mural and then you can see the umbrellas and smoke wafting over,” she continues. “There’s a smoke shop right next to an elementary school.”
Cook proposed a series of legislation that would bring vaping products in parody with other vices that are intended for adults only, like alcohol.
“This suite of packages is basically bringing them up to par with alcohol,” Cook says. “Whatever passes, it’s all going to be an improvement.”
Looking into the future, Cook envisions an expansion of health education in Texas schools to include literacy in other health-related skills.
“We can always do more public health education and always do more harm reduction,” she says.