Wendy Davis (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wendy Davis (2016)

Wendy Russell Davis (born May 16, 1963 in Fort Worth ) is an American politician in the Democratic Party . She represented the 10th constituency in the Texas Senate from 2009 to 2015, and was best known in 2013 when she gave a twelve-hour speech to prevent an abortion restriction law. In 2014 she was defeated by Republican Greg Abbott in the gubernatorial election . She is running for the 2020 US House of Representatives election in the 21st congressional electoral district of Texas.

Family, education and work

Wendy Davis was born in Fort Worth, Texas . Her father, Jerry Russell, was a sales representative for the National Cash Register and had a dream of becoming an actor. Her mother did not have a secondary school diploma. The family moved back to Texas via Rhode Island , New York , California, and Oklahoma when Davis was ten. The father left the family when she was eleven and founded the non-profit theater Stage West , which is why he was soon unable to pay any maintenance. Wendy Davis then began delivering newspapers and later serving as a waiter to support her single mother and three siblings. In 1981 she graduated from Richmond High School as a member of the National Honor Society.

Davis became pregnant at 18 and married construction worker Frank Underwood, separated at 19 and divorced at 21. She raised her daughter alone at first and lived in a trailer park for the first few months while she worked in a pediatrician practice and in her father's theater café and attended Tarrant County Community College . She married lawyer and former councilor Jeff Davis in 1987, with whom she has a second daughter. The children were largely raised by her husband during their education, and in 2005 they divorced. Family circumstances became an issue in the 2014 gubernatorial election campaign; Davis was accused of twisting facts. She was the first in her family to graduate from college. Davis earned her bachelor's degree in English from Texas Christian University in 1990 and continued her studies at Harvard Law School , where she received her Juris Doctor in 1993 . Davis then began working in the title insurance market before setting up as a freelance attorney. In her joint law firm, she worked on public law, real estate and contract law.

Political career

Davis first got involved in politics in the early 1990s when she campaigned against an expansion of the Fort Worth Zoo that would have converted green spaces into parking lots. She pursued the same theme in 1996 when she first ran for a seat on the Fort Worth city ​​council , which includes formally non-party members. She lost 90 votes back and unsuccessfully sued the local newspaper for what she saw as unfair reporting. In 1999 she won in the same constituency 9, which included both affluent and extremely poor neighborhoods, and was a member of the body from 1999 to 2008. It was last elected in 2003 in inner city constituency 9 with over 68 percent of the vote. There she campaigned for the economic development of districts and was described as courageous and pragmatic. Among other things, she put pressure on oil production companies, which in her opinion were charging too high prices for land, and was the only member of the city council to oppose the - very popular - freezing of the transfer tax for senior citizens. At the same time, she established relationships with real estate developers and business people and campaigned for public-private partnerships, which met resistance on the political left . 1996, 1998 and 2006, she had in the primaries of the Republican voted.

State Senate

In 2008, Davis was elected to the Texas Senate in the 10th constituency. Your constituency includes the southern part of Fort Worth and its suburbs ( Tarrant County ) and is structurally inclined to the Republican. She defeated the Republican mandate holder Kim Brimer with 49.9 to 47.6 percent of the vote. In 2012 it was upheld against the former Republican State MP Mark M. Shelton with 51.1 to 48.9 percent for another four-year term after the ruling Republicans 'plan to transform Davis' district through Gerrymandering was banned by a court. In 2011, she successfully used the filibuster as an instrument against a draft budget that, in her opinion, contained too little public funding for schools. The Republican majority in the State Senate then withdrew her seat on the Education Committee. Her legislative work encompassed areas as diverse as cancer screening, short-term loans, protection from sexual violence and transparency from the authorities.

When the Republicans in Texas came up with a law banning abortion after week 20, they gave another nearly twelve-hour filibuster speech in the Texas Senate in March 2013 to delay the decision. The speech received worldwide attention; of Twitter - Hashtag #StandWithWendy reached during its hourly over 100,000 entries. The suddenly known Davis was brought into conversation for higher offices.

Candidate for governor in 2014

Wendy Davis on the cover of Ms. Magazine in the summer of 2013

Davis announced her candidacy for governor of Texas in September 2013, after previously serving as a candidate. On March 4, 2014, she won the Democratic party primary with 79 percent. On November 4, 2014, however, she lost 39 to 59 percent of the vote against Republican Greg Abbott , the previous Attorney General of Texas.

She then moved to Austin and founded the non-profit organization Deeds Not Words in March 2016 , which campaigns for equal rights, especially for young women. She gave up her legal practice and earned a living by appearing and speaking. Her partner, Alan Schoenbaum, is a retired attorney who ran the finances of her gubernatorial campaign. A film version of Davis' filibuster appearance has been planned since 2017; she should be embodied by Sandra Bullock . Davis continued to campaign for Democratic candidates and kept a political candidacy open.

Congress candidate 2020

In July 2019, Davis announced that he would run again in a political election for the first time since she was running for governor in 2014. She ran for the Democratic nomination for the US House of Representatives in the 21st Congressional constituency of Texas, which includes the rural center of the state as well as north San Antonio and south Austin . The mandate holder is the Republican Chip Roy , who won the constituency in the 2018 election for the first time and with a margin of just 2.6 percentage points. His predecessor Lamar Smith won the constituency in 2016 by 21 percentage points, while Davis was 20 percentage points behind when she ran for governor in 2014. Inside Elections considered a Republican victory to be likely in July 2019.

Political positions

Davis is against cuts in education spending and is an advocate of the right to abortion ( pro-choice ).

Web links

Commons : Wendy Davis  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mark Lowry, Perry Stewart: Jerry Russell, 1936-2013. In: Theater Jones , September 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d Lydia DePillis: Who is Wendy Davis? In: The Washington Post , June 26, 2013
  3. ^ A b c Jay Root: Spotlight on Davis, the Democrats' Big Hope. In: The Texas Tribune , September 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ Eun Kyung Kim: Sen. Wendy Davis recalls struggle 'making ends meet' as teen mom. In: Today.com , January 15, 2014
  5. ↑ Sue Owen, W. Gardner Selby: Wendy Davis never gave up parental role, though she agreed to daughter primarily living with father in family's home. In: PolitiFact , January 30, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b Wendy Davis' Biography. In: Vote Smart.
  7. ^ Election 2003: Fort Worth City Council - District 9. In: Our Campaigns.
  8. ↑ 2008 Election: TX State Senate 10. In: Our Campaigns.
  9. ^ Davis, Wendy R. In: Our Campaigns.
  10. ↑ Wendy Davis, Eleven-Hour Anti-Abortion Act Speech. In: Welt Online , March 26, 2013.
  11. ↑ Heidi Mitchell: Stand and Deliver: After Her 12-Hour Filibuster, How Far Will Texas Senator Wendy Davis Run? In: Vogue , August 15, 2013.
  12. ↑ Tom Dart: Wendy Davis to Stand as Democratic Candidate for Governor of Texas. In: The Guardian , September 26, 2013.
  13. ↑ Wendy Davis To Take 'Second Look' At Texas Governor's Race: Report. In: HuffingtonPost.com , July 1, 2013.
  14. ^ Wendy Davis to face off with Greg Abbott for Texas governor. In: The Guardian , March 5, 2014.
  15. ^ Davis, Wendy R. In: Our Campaigns.
  16. ↑ Steve Uhler: Wendy Davis 2.0. In: Austin Monthly , May 31, 2016
  17. ↑ Dave Montgomery: Wendy Davis talks about her movie, sexual harassment and another run for governor. In: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram , December 7, 2017.
  18. ↑ Abby Livingston: Wendy Davis announces bid for Congress, will challenge US Rep. Chip Roy. In: Texas Tribune , July 22, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Davis, Wendy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davis, Wendy Russell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician (Democratic Party)
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Worth