With the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that resulted in the redistricting of congressional and legislative voting districts in Texas, and the increased registration of Black voters, Jordan was able to win election as a Democrat to the Texas Senate in 1966. She was the first Black state senator since Walter Moses Burton left office in 1883. She was the first Black state legislator elected to office since Robert Lloyd Smith was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1896. Eschewing a confrontational approach, Jordan quickly developed a reputation as a master of detail and as an effective pragmatist and gained the respect of her thirty White male colleagues. While in the legislature she worked for minimum-wage laws and voter registration and chaired the Labor and Management Relations Committee. In 1969 when the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, Jordan in the Texas Senate and Frances “Sissy” Farenthold in the Texas House cosponsored its successful ratification by the state legislature. They took it one step further, however. They proposed an amendment to the Texas Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women, which Texas voters quickly approved. In 1972 both liberal and conservative state senators unanimously elected her president pro tempore of the Senate. Former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was impressed with Jordan’s leadership, took an interest in her career and opened doors for her with key donors and political leaders that facilitated her rise to higher office.
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