Updated: Oct. 19, 2023, at 11:11 a.m.

A Texas State House candidate and TikTok star discussed her time in law school and her campaign at an event at the Elliott School of International Affairs on Tuesday. 

Averie Bishop, a digital media specialist who has garnered over 800,000 followers on TikTok for her videos about her political activism and experience at Southern Methodist University Law School, said her anger over former President Donald Trump’s win in 2016 led her to enter politics. The 27-year-old Democrat and Miss Texas 2022 champion — who, if elected, would be the youngest representative in Texas’ delegation — talked to community members at the event hosted by The GW Pre-Law Student Association. 

Bishop said attending law school helped her gain the research and interpersonal skills necessary to be a political candidate but said the pressure to be among the top students in her class put a mental toll on her during her first semester of law school. She said finding support in online communities like TikTok helped her work through it.

“For a brief moment, I kind of fell into this trap of expectation and pressure to go into big law and make all this money,” Bishop said. “But fortunately, I was able to be rerouted through social media and creating fun content, reminding myself my purpose and that’s to serve and to also run for office and to help make sure that there’s equitable representation across the government.”

Bishop, who also completed her undergraduate degree at SMU, said she stayed in Texas for law school because she wanted to make progressive changes in the state instead of leaving for a more blue-leaning state.

“The more that people try to challenge the status quo in a specific state that is often assumed to be a certain way, we can change the state from within, if we stay in those communities and we fight for them instead of needing to go to places that we’re told are bigger and better,” Bishop said.

Bishop is running in the state’s 112th House district against incumbent Republican Rep. Angie Chen Button, who has served in the chamber since 2009.

She said part of her campaign is focusing on “transparency” about what it’s like to be a young person in politics. 

“We have no voice at the table right now,” Bishop said. “We have very few representatives who are under the age of 35, and so hopefully, by running I can increase the visibility and transparency of the political process.”

After graduating from SMU Law School in 2022, Bishop said she decided not to take the bar exam and instead helped companies including Adobe and Microsoft grow their audience through short-form videos. 

“While I may have not sat for the bar exam, I don’t necessarily think I need it to run for office and to serve a community of people,” Bishop said.

In 2015, Bishop co-founded a non-profit with her mom to increase education access for students in disadvantaged areas in the Philippines. Bishop said when she thinks about why she entered law school, she reminds herself of the success of her non-profit and how that experience propelled her to continue helping others by going to law school.

Bishop said her experiences from growing up in McKinney, Texas — a majority-white town — as a Filipina American and running a nonprofit inspired her to pursue politics. 

“I learned that I wanted to run for office, to serve others and to help other people feel that what made them different really made them stronger,” she said. 

Bishop said that even if she loses, she hopes her candidness on social media surrounding her run for office will inspire other young people to do the same.

“I am learning the process of running while simultaneously learning and providing that information to the people who follow me so that if one day they think to themselves, ‘Oh, I don’t think I could do it. I’m not rich enough. I’m not pretty enough, not tall enough. I’m not well educated enough.’ There is no perfect time to run. The time to run is now,” Bishop said.

This post was updated to correct the following:

The Hatchet incorrectly reported that Bishop was running for Congress. She is running for the Texas State House of Representatives. We regret this error.