A former Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Senator famous for her pro-abortion “filibuster” formally announced she will run for Congressional District 21 this morning.
Wendy Davis‘s announcement comes three weeks after she said she would announce a decision on whether she would challenge freshman Congressman Chip Roy for the seat that was held for decades by influential chairman U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith.
The announcement came along with the release of a video, containing testimony from her deceased father and highlighting her career and family and community involvement.
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From the hip: Davis, who is well-respected among pro-choice Democrats for her willingness to filibuster for abortion, has that fighting side of her reputation already stamped and sealed. CD-21 was won by a narrow margin in 2018, and Davis will now attempt to expand her lead among undecideds, especially as a growing number of Texans find the practice of abortion on-demand barbaric. This “softer side of Wendy” approach is a distinct change in strategy from her former campaigns — we’ll see if this theme continues.
We include our original coverage below with the backstory, courtesy of Central Texas conservative blogging portal the Travis Tracker from June 6:
During an award ceremony this evening rewarding journalists who support liberal causes, a progressive philanthropist announced former state Senator Wendy Davis will be running in the Democratic Primary in Texas Congressional District 21 with the hopes of unseating freshman Congressman Chip Roy.
Though not exactly a secret, at the current moment the announcement seems to have been premature, with Davis telling a Dallas reporter via Twitter she would be announcing her next move in about three weeks. [Ed: her announcement came another three weeks after that.]
Roy has become a conservative favorite of late — especially for his lone stand against a pricey disaster recovery bill that his congressional peers were not given any time to properly read and study.
However popular with conservative voters, Roy also eked by in the general election by about 3 percentage points (50-47 percent), which was enough for statewide and national Dems to place his district in the cross hairs.
Davis, known for her time-consuming maneuvers as a Senator from Fort Worth during the 2013 Texas Legislature, has become something of a celebrity among Democrats. Detractors mocked her as “Abortion Barbie” while supporters cheered as she spent 13 hours talking on the Senate floor to stall a bill that would have essentially banned abortions in Texas after the 20-week mark (the bill later passed in a second special session). The spotlight fueled her for unsuccessful run for Governor of Texas in 2014, but was defeated by Republican nominee Greg Abbott who won by a 20-point margin (59–38 percent). Davis did not seek re-election to the Texas Senate.
Having emerged the victor out of a crowded 20-plus person primary race in 2018, Roy went on to succeed the retiring Congressman Lamar Smith, a powerful committee chairman on Capitol Hill. Republicans are anxious to keep this seat in GOP hands, especially as redistricting draws closer. But with a recent trend of Democrats performing slightly better in “urban suburbs” (and despite some more recent upsets) progressive interest groups are ready to pounce. …
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