Mo Jenkins is shaking things up as the first trans woman to be a committee director and committee clerk in the Texas Legislature. Currently working for Abel Herrero, the state representative for Texas House District 34, Jenkins is herself now running for state representative. If she wins her primaries, Jenkins will be the first openly trans person to have their name on the ballot, and potentially the first openly trans person to serve in the Texas Legislature. However, working in politics wasn’t Jenkins’ dream. It was her mother’s diagnosis of congestive heart failure that fueled her original career aspirations. “I never wanted to go and work in politics. I didn’t know much about it as a kid,” Jenkins recalls. “I actually wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon to invent new ways to keep hearts alive.”