Texas Dem star Wendy Davis plots comeback, jumps into congressional race
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrat Wendy Davis announced Monday, July 22, 2019, that she's running for Congress in 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Wendy Davis – the pink sneaker-wearing Texas Democrat who rose to fame among liberals for her 13-hour filibuster of a state Senate abortion bill in 2013, and then lost a high-profile run for governor a year later – announced Monday she plans to run for a U.S. House seat.
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“I’m proud to announce my campaign for Congress in TX-21!” Davis, a former state senator, tweeted. “I’m running to be a voice for every Texan who feels forgotten by a broken political system. It’s time to make Washington listen -- will you stand with me?”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Her return to politics is another sign of Democrats' renewed optimism in Texas.
Previously a state senator from Fort Worth, Davis is now running in a booming congressional district that stretches from Austin to San Antonio.
The incumbent in the race, Republican Rep. Chip Roy, is a freshman lawmaker who once worked as chief of staff to Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and made headlines in May for single-handedly blocking $19 billion in disaster aid over protests that it didn't include money to address the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. The spending bill ultimately passed, but not before Roy's delay frustrated lawmakers on both sides.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In 2018, Roy won the race with just 50.3 percent of the vote.
The decision by Davis, who now runs a nonprofit, to run for a House seat means she has opted against entering the state’s 2018 Senate race with incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Davis, 56, entered the 2014 gubernatorial race to great fanfare but was crushed in the election by Republican Greg Abbott, who won 59.3 percent of the vote. The race turned nasty: Davis took heat after running a negative ad against Abbott, a paraplegic, showing an image of a wheelchair and invoking the accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Davis became an overnight Democratic sensation in 2013 after her filibuster over an anti-abortion bill. She told Texas Monthly in March that she recently met with actress Sandra Bullock to discuss the Oscar winner portraying her in a movie about the filibuster, which Davis said could be released next year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.