Reports: Wendy Davis To Run For Texas Governor
Wendy Davis, who became something of a minor political celebrity when she conducted a filibuster against an abortion bill in the Texas State Senate, will apparently be running for Governor of the Lone Star State:
Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis and her advisers have begun informing influential Democrats that she intends to run for governor in 2014, according to multiple sources familiar with Davis’s conversations.
The Fort Worth legislator made a national name for herself in June when she mounted a filibuster against new proposed abortion clinic regulations. Texas Republicans ultimately passed those restrictions into law in a special session called by outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Perry
Davis advisers declined to confirm that she will enter the governor’s race, but Davis consultant Hector Nieto said the senator has made up her mind about 2014 and will unveil her plans next week.
“Sen. Davis has decided what she will do and she looks forward to making that announcement with her grass-roots supporters on Oct. 3,” Nieto said.
This will take place at an actual event and not just via email so it seems likely she’ll be announcing that she’s running. If she wasn’t, she’d likely just send out an email. In any case, while Davis is likely to draw in a lot of outside money because of her noteriety, it’s unlikely that she’ll pose much of a challenge to Attorney General Greg Abbott, the presumptive Republican nominee. Texas may start trending purple at some point, but it’s unlikely to happen in any significant way in 2014.
She has a bigger play in mind. What it could be, I have no idea, just a gut feeling that she would not take on this Quiotic quest otherwise.
Looking forward to that Latino outreach.
I admire her for not using any Nazi analogies during her filibuster, unlike her Texas/Cuban/Canadian senator did during his non-filibuster.
The state will never turn purple unless there are credible candidates running on the Dem side, and the first few statewide Democratic will likely only win when their opponents screw up badly.
I don’t know much about Ms. Davis other than the filibuster, but she seems more likely to be a credible candidate than not. And, if Greg Abbott implodes when we learn that he has had an illegal congress with his mother (or whatever), she’ll have a decent chance.
Good luck to her.
Can’t imagine her winning.
But good on her for trying.
It upset my sense of fair play that the Texas legislature threw all sorts of bullsh1t restrictions at Davis during her filibuster while Cruz was allowed to read DOCTOR FREAKING SEUSS on the Senate floor.
When I looked at the Texas Congressional District maps, it looks like that there is not U.S. House seat that Ms. Davis could run for and win. Is she running as a suicide candidate in 2014 in hope of taking advantage of the changing demographics of Texas in a few years.
Also, Ms. Davis is 50 y/o so there is time for her to plan but not a huge amount of time. She would still be young enough in 2020 to think about getting a House seat and have enough time to enjoy being a Congressperson.
But – but – she had no chance of blocking the law, and she ultimately failed. She just wasted people’s time and is using her stunt as a springboard for an unsuccessful run at higher office. A fundraising stunt! Trivial! Obstruction!
Right?
@Pinky: Actually, she did block the law. Governor Perry called a second special session just to ram it through.
Also, most people respect honest-to-God talking filibusters. (For example, Rand Paul’s a couple of months back; I don’t recall a regular here who didn’t like it even if they disagreed with him.) Cruz wasn’t even filibustering, just talking.
Technically, it’s not unsuccessful yet. 🙂
Also, I think most people consider abortion restrictions nontrivial. Y’know, fuel for the culture wars and all that malarkey.
And all filibusters are obstruction. It’s obstructionism, or obstruction for its own sake to game the system, that’s bad. That requires more than one filibuster, naturally.
@Tillman: – She delayed the passage of a law. No different than what Cruz is being accused of.
– Do people respect filibusters? It seems like the word used to be an obscenity. Remember all the complaints about the House Republicans blocking things? It was said that the Republicans were unprecedentedly using filibusters. When I pointed out that they weren’t, no one agreed. So maybe the distinction is the act of speaking for a long time, rather than the act of opposition? No, that wouldn’t work either, because Cruz spoke for a long time and it was labelled irresponsible. So I’m at a loss, unless the distinction that people on this site care about is which party is doing the filibuster-like-thing.
– Technically, Cruz’s presidential run isn’t unsuccessful yet. But people around here have written it off as such.
– Abortion law isn’t trivial. Neither is health care or the budget. Why do people say that Cruz standing against a majority on his issues is trivial, but Davis doing the same is noble?