Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County is delighted to host Granbury ISD board member Melanie Graft Thursday, April 14. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the beautiful Myrtle Wilks Community Center, 1498 West I 20, Cisco. All are welcome.

Melanie will share her experience as a member of the Granbury school board working to rid school libraries of books she and many parents deemed inappropriate for students. State officials also have called for libraries to be limited to age-appropriate material.

Granbury resident Melanie Graft is a soft-spoken mother of three and self-proclaimed “country girl.” As a precinct chair for Hood County GOP and a member of the Hood County Library Advisory Board (LAB), Graft is an active member of the Granbury community in a variety of capacities—with political activism as her niche.

Graft and her husband moved in 2004 from Euless to the town just southwest of Fort Worth, where they now live with their 17-year-old and 14-year-old sons and 11-year-old daughter. “We didn’t like the landscape,” Graft said of living in the DFW metroplex. “I’m more of a country girl … I like wide-open spaces.” She noted the town has since grown over the years, however, making those wide-open spaces they once sought harder to come by.

While Graft calls Texas home, her father’s military career took their family to California, and when he retired from the Marines to Wisconsin. When she was younger, most of her childhood was spent in Milwaukee and the small town of Cedarburg. As an adult, Graft became a flight attendant and met her husband, a pilot.

It’s also likely Graft never thought she’d be as active in politics as she is today. But that changed four years ago during a library visit when her then-4-year-old daughter picked up This Day in June, a book about a gay pride celebration that includes an illustration of two men kissing along with “facts about LGBT history and culture.”

Graft explained that she didn’t feel the book was age-appropriate after her daughter started asking her questions about the illustrations in the book. She took her concerns to the librarian on duty who then, unexpectedly, relayed those concerns to the LAB and Commissioners Court. Before Graft knew it, the situation escalated into what was made to look like a highly politicized battle. Graft was met with pushback from the library board and her concerns were falsely labeled as an attack against the LGBT community by local media. “I objected not because I’m anti-gay,” said Graft, “but rather because I’m the parent and the public library doesn’t have the right to make parenting decisions for me.”

That’s when she says “a small spark became a flame.”

Graft began seeking opportunities to get involved in local government. She joined the LAB (which she notes was not an easy task), became a precinct chair for Hood County GOP, and volunteers with the local party by block walking, helping with events, and serving in various roles during elections. She is also a Texas Torchbearer and was recognized at Empower Texans’ Conservative Leaders Gala in 2018. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of Elections for the Hood County Republican Executive Committee and won GISD Trustee seat 3 on the School Board on November 2, 2020.

While much of her time is spent fighting political battles and volunteering for the local Republican Party, Graft also enjoys serving at her church and spends several days a week homeschooling their three children as part of a co-op program with a local private school. Her hobbies include traveling, running, yoga, and hiking.

When asked why she devotes time and energy to political activism, she responds without hesitation: “I’m fighting for [my children’s] future …for the economy, freedom of speech. I want to be a role model for them … so when I’m long gone, they won’t be afraid to speak up.”

She says the hardest part of political engagement is getting started. “It is going to take getting out of our comfort zones and becoming active to be the change we want to see … if not for ourselves, we do it for our children and all the generations that come after.”

Doors open at 6:00; come early and mingle.