Wendy Russell Davis (born Wendy Jean Russell; May 16, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician from Fort Worth, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, Davis represented the 10th district in the Texas Senate from 2009 to 2015. She previously served on the Fort Worth City Council.
On June 25, 2013, Davis held a thirteen-hour-long filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, a measure which included more restrictive abortion regulations for Texas. The filibuster played a major role in Senate Democrats' success in delaying passage of the bill beyond the midnight deadline for the end of the legislative session, though it ultimately passed in a second session. The filibuster brought Davis national attention, leading to speculation about a run for governor of Texas. She subsequently ran for governor of Texas in 2014, but was defeated by Republican Party nominee Greg Abbott by 59% to 38%.
On July 22, 2019, Davis announced she would run for Texas's 21st congressional district in 2020. She lost the election to Republican Chip Roy.Texas Election Results: 21st Congressional District, New York Times, November 4, 2020.
Early life, education, and family
Wendy Davis was born Wendy Jean Russell in West Warwick, Rhode Island, the daughter of Virginia "Ginger" (née Stovall) and Jerry Russell. Her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 1973, when she was 10 years old. When Russell was 13, her parents divorced. Her father quit his job to pursue work in community theater, leading his child support payments to evaporate. Her mother, who had a ninth grade education, supported her four children by working menial jobs.
When Davis was 17 and still in high school, she moved in with her boyfriend, construction worker Frank Underwood. In 1981, she graduated from Richland High School as a member of the National Honor Society. She married Underwood on January 24, 1982, and gave birth to her first daughter, Amber, later that year. When she was 19, she and Underwood separated. She filed for divorce from Underwood in December 1983, and the divorce became official on May 22, 1984, when she was 21. She was given custody of Amber, with Underwood paying child support.
Davis attended University of Texas at Arlington for one semester, but left the school for financial reasons. While waiting tables in 1983, she was introduced by her father to lawyer and former city councilman Jeffry R. Davis, who would become her second husband. The couple eventually married on May 30, 1987 and settled in a historic home in the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth.
Davis attended a two-year paralegal program at Tarrant County College from 1984 to 1986. She enrolled at Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1986 on an academic scholarship and a Pell Grant. Following her second marriage, her husband began to make significant financial contributions to her education. He would ultimately adopt her daughter, Amber. A second daughter, Dru, was born in September 1988. Davis underwent abortions for two later pregnancies that would not survive and/or would kill her: one (whom she named "Lucas") due to an ectopic tubal pregnancy and another (whom she named "Tate Elise") due to the fetus suffering from Dandy–Walker syndrome.
In May 1990, Davis graduated from TCU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. That autumn, she relocated to Lexington, Massachusetts, with her daughters to attend Harvard Law School. This living situation proved untenable; after four months, her daughters returned to Texas to live with her husband. Davis's mother helped to care for her daughters, and Davis flew back to Texas regularly to visit her family for the remainder of her time at Harvard. While at Harvard, she volunteered at a legal clinic for the poor, where she helped AIDS patients write living wills and surviving partners with their legal rights. In May 1993, she earned her J.D. degree cum laude, and she was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in November 1993.
In November 2003, Jeff and Wendy Davis separated. When the divorce settlement was finalized in 2005, the former couple shared "joint conservatorship" over Dru, who primarily lived with her father in the family home; Wendy Davis agreed to pay $1,200 a month in child support.
Law career After graduating from law school, Davis was law clerk to U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas from 1993 to 1994.Gardner, Jacylyn. (September 28, 2009). Memories of U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer. Texas Lawyer. She worked as an attorney at Haynes & Boone (practicing litigation).Personal Profile: Wendy Davis, The Texas Tribune. In 1999, Davis's then-husband, Jeff Davis, started Safeco Title Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, and she became part owner. The title company was sold to First American Title as part of their divorce decree, and Davis continued to work at the Fort Worth branch of First American Title until 2009. Davis was of counsel at Cantey Hanger from March 2010 to December 31, 2013. She partnered with Brian Newby to open Newby Davis, PLLC in March 2010.
During her time working for the Safeco title company, Davis was paid an annual salary of $40,000 by her husband Jeff Davis. Jeff Davis told Robert Draper of the New York Times Magazine that he paid her the salary for her work for the city of Fort Worth as a council member, a job that paid little.
Political career
City Council Davis first ran for the Fort Worth City Council in 1996, but was defeated by ninety votes. After her defeat, Davis sued the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, American Broadcasting Company, and the Disney Company, which at the time owned the Star-Telegram and ABC. The Texas Tribune stated that she alleged "that biased coverage led to her defeat and caused injury to her physical and mental health". Her claims were rejected by the Texas courts, based upon the Star-Telegram's First Amendment free speech grounds."Metro & Texas Digest", Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 3, 2000
Subsequently, in 1999, Davis was elected to the Fort Worth City Council. During her nine-year tenure there, Davis focused on transportation, economic development, and neighborhood issues. She also worked on economic development projects, such as the Montgomery Plaza renovation, the Tower, Pier One and Radio Shack campuses.
Republican politics While serving on the Fort Worth City Council, Davis voted in Republican primaries. (Municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan, so her affiliation was not indicated on the ballot when she ran for City Council.) Davis has said that she was then a Republican because she liked Republican Congresswoman Kay Granger of Fort Worth, and she wanted to vote on judicial nominees in Republican primaries. She voted in the Republican primaries in 1996, 1998 and 2006 and she has given $1,500 to Granger.Root, Jay. Spotlight on Davis, the Democrats' Big Hope, The Texas Tribune, September 1, 2013. Also, in April 1999, she gave $250 to George W. Bush's first presidential campaign.
State Senate
In 2008, running as a Democrat, Davis narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Kim Brimer for Texas's 10th Senate district, which includes portions of Tarrant County, Texas, despite a legal challenge against her candidacy by the state Republican Party. Davis was re-elected in 2012, defeating a challenge from Mark M. Shelton, a Fort Worth pediatrician and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, who would seek the 10th district seat again in 2014.
Davis was the vice-chair on the Senate Select Committee on Open Government. She was also a Member of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, the Senate Committee on Transportation, and the Veteran Affairs and Military Installations Committee. She had previously served on the Senate Committee for Education and as vice-chair on the Senate Committee on International Relations and Trade.
On May 29, 2011, Davis launched a filibuster of a budget bill that cut $4 billion from public education in the state, resulting in a special session called by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
In 2009, Texas Monthly named her "Rookie of the Year". She was also chosen by the readers of Fort Worth Weekly as the "Best Servant of the People". In January 2012, Davis was listed among "12 State Legislators to Watch in 2012" by Governing magazine and was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide races.
Early in the 83rd Session, senators drew for terms in a post-redistricting, once-a-decade process. Davis drew a two-year term and was up for re-election in November 2014. In March 2013, she announced her intention to run for re-election to the Senate. On October 3, 2013, she changed her mind and announced a candidacy for governor of Texas instead of re-election to the State Senate.
2013 filibuster
On June 25, 2013, Davis performed a filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, a proposal to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, require abortion clinics to meet the same standards that hospital-style surgical centers do, and mandate that a doctor who performs abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. She attempted to hold the floor until midnight, when the Senate's special session ended, after which it would no longer be able to vote on the measure. Following an 11-hour filibuster—ending three hours short of midnight—Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst ruled that Davis had gone off topic, forcing a vote on whether the filibuster could continue. Despite Republican efforts, parliamentary inquiries from Leticia R. Van de Putte and others as well as raucous cheering and yelling from the political activists gathered in the Capitol carried on through midnight and the close of the special session. Following the deadline, Republicans indicated that a vote had taken place and passed, while Democrats declared that the vote had taken place after midnight, making it void. Dewhurst later conceded that the bill was dead.
The next day, Governor Rick Perry called for a second special session to allow for another attempt to pass the abortion restrictions, as well as to address other issues. The bill was eventually passed by both the House and the Senate in the July 2013 second special session,Schwartz, John. Texas Senate Vote Puts Bill Restricting Abortion Over Final Hurdle, The New York Times, July 2013.Weiner, Rachel. Texas state Senate passes abortion restrictions, The Washington Post, July 13, 2013.MacLaggan, Corrie. Texas passes abortion restriction bill, governor certain to sign, Reuters, July 13, 2013. prompting one commentator to state that "Wendy Davis won the battle, but Rick Perry won the war."Woodruff, Betsy. Texas: How Pro-Lifers Won, National Review, July 2013. The bill was signed by Gov. Rick Perry on July 18, 2013.Luthra, Shefali. Perry Signs Abortion Bill into Law, The Texas Tribune, July 18, 2013.
The filibuster attracted national attention, including from The New York Times and The Washington Post. National fundraising by and speculation about a gubernatorial run for Davis also followed."Battleground Texas surpasses $1M", Politico, July 15, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2013. She was encouraged to run by groups like Battleground Texas and EMILY's List.
During the filibuster, Davis wore hot pink sneakers known as Mizuno Wave Rider 16. Following the filibuster, the sneakers became "the bestselling shoe on Amazon.com and an unlikely feminist symbol". Davis's sneakers gained national attention.
Campaign for Governor of Texas
On October 3, 2013, Davis announced her intention to run for Governor of Texas in the 2014 gubernatorial election. On March 4, 2014, she won the Democratic nomination with 432,065 votes (79.1 percent), defeating her only challenger, Reynaldo "Ray" Madrigal, who received 114,458 votes (20.9 percent). Davis was the first female nominee for Texas governor since the defeat of Gov. Ann Richards in 1994 by George W. Bush. In the election on November 4, 2014, she lost to Republican nominee Greg Abbott, the then-outgoing Texas Attorney General.