Fired up and ready to go! From the inbox:
Sen. Wendy Davis today announced her intention to become the next Governor of Texas to a capacity crowd of supporters at the Wylie G. Thomas Coliseum near Fort Worth, where Davis received her high school diploma.
“We love Texas not only for how good it is, but for how great we know it can be,” Senator Davis said in her speech. “With the right kind of leadership, the great state of Texas will keep its sacred promise that where you start has nothing to do with how far you can go” she added.
During her announcement speech, Sen. Davis touched on issues important to Texas families, including jobs and education.
“We’re here because we want to fight for Texas jobs and help Texas companies grow,” Sen. Davis added. “We’re here because we want every child, no matter where they start in Texas, to receive a world-class education to take them anywhere they want to go, so that success and opportunity is within reach of every single Texan, and no one in this great state is ever forced to dream smaller instead of bigger.”
Born to a mother with a sixth grade education, Sen. Davis began work at the age of 14 to help her mother and three siblings. As a single mother living in a trailer park at 19, Davis learned of a paralegal program and enrolled at Tarrant County Community College through a pamphlet given to her by a co-worker. Davis eventually transferred to Texas Christian University and worked her way through college and with the help of financial aid and student loans. She eventually graduated with honors from Harvard.
Sen. Davis has served as a Texas State Senator since 2008 in Texas Senate District 10, where she unseated a longtime incumbent by building a coalition of voters in a district that reflects a true snapshot of Texas.
During her time as a State Senator, Davis was able to pass a number of important bills to protect Texas families. She co-sponsored SB 859, a bi-partisan bill that would help exempt certain research and development activities and grow the Texas economy. She also won approval of a measure to reduce the enormous backlog of untested DNA evidence in rape kits that so that police and prosecutors will have the evidence needed to police and prosecutors put sex offenders behind bars.
Prior to being elected to the State Senate, served nine years on the Fort Worth City Council, where she was a leader in economic redevelopment, attracting over 260 million dollars of investment that created thousands of news jobs in Tarrant County.
Visit the Wendy Davis campaign website: http://www.wendydavistexas.com
Follow the campaign announcement on Twitter: #teamwendy
Contact Information: press@wendydavistexas.com
Here’s the Trib story, here’s a preview of the race from Abby Rapoport, and here are eight reasons to be optimistic about Davis’ chances. Comparisons to 1990 are easy and likely to be lazy to make, but this is the first open-seat Governor’s race since then, and on the surface at least it’s hard not to see some parallels. Just remember that we all have a part to play in this, and there are plenty of things you can do to help if you want to. We’ve got our captain in place, now we need for the rest of the crew to sign on. Let’s get ready to get a move on.
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