The Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton presidential showdown takes me back to the first political campaign I worked on: the 1990 Texas governor’s race between Ann Richards and Clayton Williams. I was a press secretary for Richards. The campaign was electrifying — and it offers a lot of lessons on how a tough, savvy woman can beat a rich, blustering man.

Like Clinton, in her early days Ann Richards had an impressive public service resumé. She'd already served two terms as a Travis County commissioner and was finishing her second term as an obscure Texas state treasurer when she gave a passionate and hilarious keynote speech to the 1988 National Democratic Convention. Suddenly, she was a household name.

After a brutal Democratic gubernatorial primary, Ann faced Williams, a West Texas ranching and oil tycoon who, like Trump, used his personal fortune to sail through his Republican primary. Williams was running as the ultimate government outsider and a “successful” businessman.

The race was dubbed “Claytie vs. The Lady.” In the end, that was an apt description: Ann remained the unflappable “lady” while Claytie attacked her with Trump-like barroom insults. He outspent her two-to-one. But while he fumed, she closed a 27-plus point deficit and won a very close race.

That victory shouldn't have been possible. "The Republican tide in Texas was already surging," Mary Beth Rogers, the smart-as-a-whip Richards general election campaign manager, writes in her new book Turning Texas Blue.

“But to our credit, we actually had a strategy,” Rogers notes. The Richards team “got pretty good at forcing the arrogant, undisciplined candidate to make mistakes.”

AND BOY howdy, Claytie made them.

I was the twentysomething "fax queen" of the press office. (Fax machines were cutting-edge technology in 1990!) On many days, being there felt like riding a bucking bronco. In the morning, we were staying on, but by afternoon we had usually fallen off. But every day we got back on the horse, fired up the fax machine, launched offensives and counterattacks, and held on.

One of Williams’ “forced” mistakes came after Richards and the media called on Williams to answer questions about allegations that his bank was forcing high-risk car buyers to obtain unnecessary life insurance as a condition for their loans.

Unsavory at best, it brought the attention of federal and state regulators. And if that wasn’t enough to curl an L.A. screenwriter’s hair, the insurance salesman was under investigation for laundering drug money!

I was traveling with Treasurer Richards the day that both she and Claytie were to appear at a Dallas luncheon. The joint appearance, unusual in itself, was already drawing media attention.

The media had been hounding Williams with questions about his bank. Rather than graciously greeting his opponent (as, it was said, “like a gentleman”), Williams called Ann a "liar" and refused to shake her hand.

Williams' Texas-size fit made the papers, and it also created dramatic news video. I, a former reporter/producer, urged stations across the state to run it on their evening newscasts — which they did.

LIKE CLINTON’S campaign against Trump, ours also had the personal income tax issue. Like Clinton, Richards released her tax returns early in the race. When we challenged Clayton to do the same, he refused, saying “it would take a Mack Truck to haul them.”

We dispatched a two-ton Mack Truck to his campaign headquarters to help him out.

Like Trump, Williams never turned over his tax records. And only three days before the election, when Richards was five points behind in the polls, Williams did the inexplicable. On a last campaign whistle-stop tour, with traveling Texas Capitol press on board, Williams admitted that, due to tough times in the oil patch, he hadn't paid any taxes four years earlier.

Claytie's final foot-in-mouth line meant the last days of the campaign were ours. Richards, her surrogates and throngs of dedicated volunteers across the state reminded folks that while millionaire Williams could afford a private jet, he couldn't afford to pay his taxes.

Are you paying attention, Clinton campaign? Like Williams, Trump has his business record to defend, including four bankruptcies and good ol' Trump U., now the target of three lawsuits.

And Trump’s lack of transparency with regard to his income taxes are also haunting him on the trail. Like Williams, Trump also didn’t pay federal income taxes for a time in the '70s. Could both men share the same CPA?

THE MOST effective strategy we employed was to let the rooster crow. The more Clayton talked, the more people saw him for who he was, and that did not work not in his favor.

Consider these two classic Claytie lines:

Foggy weather, he said, was like rape: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it."

Or, talking about Richards — the Lady! — “I will head and hoof her and drag her through the dirt.”

These zingers helped our team produce the devastating TV ad, “Clayton Williams in his own words.” Our tag line: "Governor Williams?”

The Clinton camp will have ample opportunity to use a similar strategy. Perhaps more than anything Hillary Clinton can say, Trump's own missteps could move moderate Republican women and some men to her column.

ALL OF that aside, political talking heads will say Ann Richards had more personality than most people — and most especially more than the “robotic” public policy wonk Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But I believe over the next five months, we will come to know a different Hillary Clinton. I have met her: She is very capable of making a personal connection with voters.

I also detect a change in the media narrative, too. Recently New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister wrote, “I watched [Hillary] do the work of retail politics — the handshaking and small-talking and remembering of names and details of local sites and issues — like an Olympic athlete. Far from seeing a remote or robotic figure, I observed a woman who had direct, thoughtful, often moving exchanges.”

The key for the Clinton campaign will be to pay close attention as The Donald’s crowing grows increasingly shrill. (It will.) That’s when Hillary can recall Claytie and the Lady, and just relax and enjoy it.

Margaret Justus was a press secretary to Texas Governor Ann Richards from 1989 to 1994. She served as Texas press secretary for Clinton/Gore ’96, and is currently president of Justus Communications.

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