By Laura Silverman, KERA News and Ben Philpott, KUT News
AUSTIN – Just a few hours after State Senator Wendy Davis and a raucous crowd managed to stop a strict abortion bill in Austin, Governor Rick Perry fired back this afternoon. He’s calling lawmakers back next week for a SECOND special session. Abortion is on the agenda – so are transportation funding and sentencing guidelines for 17-year-olds.
Davis’s 10-hour filibuster STILL has the political world riveted – from Austin to Hollywood to the White House. So KERA and KUT in Austin have teamed up to profile the Fort Worth Democrat. KERA’s Lauren Silverman starts out with a look back.
This isn’t Wendy Davis’ first rodeo. Two years ago, the state senator took the stand to block a budget that would have cut $4 billion from public schools.
WENDY DAVIS: “All session long, I have been fighting for that little guy. For the people that come, I’m very committed to that. It truly is the reason that I’m here.”
Her hour-long filibuster in 2011 was just a warm-up for last night’s marathon. This time, she came prepared- running shoes and bac-brace included. In Ft. Worth, Davis is known as a fighter. Bud Kennedy of the Star-Telegram says in her Republican dominated district, elections, including one this Spring, have been tight.
BUD KENNEDY: “It’s been a 4-year job just to stay in office for another 4 years. And I just think the 12 hours of Wendy on the ropes hanging by her fingernails yesterday, was just a metaphor for what we’ve seen of her throughout her career…”
And her life. Davis was raised by a single morther who worked long hours at a Brahm’s icecream parlor to make ends meet. A few years back she told KERA that by age 19, she was a single mother herself.
DAVIS: “I worked 2 jobs. I had a full-time job during the day and I waited tables at night and I really struggled. I lived in a mobile-home community in southeast Ft. Worth, and understood what it meant to come home and have your lights turned off or your phone turned off because you just couldn’t balance it all and keep it going…”
While raising a child, Davis managed to returnt to school and become the first person in her faimly to graduate from college. After Texas Christian University she was off to Harvard Law before making her way back to Ft. Worth. There, she served 9 years on city council. Here’s Bud Kennedy:
KENNEDY: “She was a middle-of-the-road, business-moderate Democrat that wasn’t until she got to Austin that she became the champion of the cause…”
Three causes really: job creation, public education and women’s health. And she worked relentlessly. Davis introduced more than 60 bills after only 4 months in Austin. In 2009, she was named “Leigislative Rookie of the Year” by the Texas Monthly. More recently, the focus has been women’s reproductive rights.
KENNEDY: “I, like so many poor women, relied on that as my absolutely only source of healthcare…”
After last night’s performance, Davis secured her leading role in Texas’ Blue Minority. She’s getting shout-outs on Twitter under the hashtag StandWithWendy from blogger Perez Hilton, director Josh Whedon and a certain fan in the White House. Even with all this attention, Davis says she’ll never forget that mobile home in Ft. Worth. Lauren Silverman, KERA News.
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And I’m Ben Philpott in Austin, where Senator Davis’ already shining star among Democrats, got a new coat of glitter Tuesday night. Davis was already the Democrat most likely to run for Governor in 2014; she has a decent ability to raise money, and as you just heard, she has a marketable personal story. But being tapped to carry the minority party’s banner into an election can be a curse. The Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith ticks off the list of recent Democratic Gubernatorial losers:
“Until last night, she was viewed as basically the latest in a long line of, you know, Tony Sanchez, Chris Bell, Bill White- nice people, pure of heart, public-spirited, but without a chance in Hell of winning…”
Then she hit the floor with those pink running shoes, and a goal of talking an abortion bill to death, as she explained in this exchange with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst:
DAVID DEWHURST: “Is it still your intention to filibuster?”
DAVIS: “Yes Mr. President…”
DEWHURST: “You’re recognized”
DAVIS: “…I intend to speak for an extended period of time on the bill, thank you very much…”
Which, 13 hours later, led to this:
CROWD CHANTING: “…WEN-DY! WEN-DY! WEN-DY! WEN-DY!…”
In between, there was social media blitz- at one point about 165,000 people were watching the Texas Tribune’s livestream of the Senate drama. Smith says it tranformed Davis from being just another lamb led to slaughter.
SMITH: “She is no longer just any Democrat running for Governor. She would have the enormous benefit of having established herself as a major state-wide, national and international figure.”
Democrats have seen the next “Big Thing” come and go during a 2-decade losing streak in statewide elections. But they say Tuesday night was different. Lizzie Burr is president of the Capitol Area Democratic Women, and a long-time Democratic activist and strategist. She says Tuesday night was a catalytic moment.
LIZZIE BURR: “…and that frankly, I think, blind-sided the Republican leadership. They were not prepared for the people to come, and they were not prepared for Wendy Davis.”
But is Wendy Davis prepared to run? If she does run for governor, she’ll have to give up her senate seat and would have the mammoth task of fighting for the Governor’s mansion against either Governor Rick Perry or Attorney General Greg abbott. Ben Philpott, KUT News.
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