The morning after Wendy Davis officially kicked off her campaign for Texas governor, EMILY’s List says they’ve already got her back.
MSNBC has learned the pro-choice women’s group plans to endorse Davis on Friday morning, hoping to bolster her uphill bid. Their endorsement of the Texas state senator comes as no surprise–EMILY’s List has been a backer of her legislative races and heavily promoted her ever since she skyrocketed to national prominence after a day-long filibuster against a controversial anti-abortion bill in the Texas state Senate.
Davis, the underdog in red state Texas, who will probably face Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, will need their fundraising prowess and grassroots help, especially if she hopes to even the playing field against the likely GOP nominee.
In an email set to go out to supporters Friday morning, EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock writes that Davis, who rose from a single mother to Harvard law school and finally the state legislature, has “got grit. She is fearless. Most of all, she puts her shoulder to the wheel and never stops.”
“This is exactly the type of woman, type of Texan, we need to not only run–but win,” Schriock says. “Wendy has proven she won’t back down from a fight and after her epic 13-hour filibuster, we know she’ll literally put her body on the line to protect us from the GOP’s War on Women.”
While Davis has been a supporter of abortion rights and the issue was a lightening rod for her earlier this summer, she has to walk a careful tightrope though in the conservative state, and Republicans believe her positions on choice will backfire. In her speech Thursday officially kicking off her campaign, the focus wasn’t on her crusade against the abortion restrictions bill; she spent her time talking about education and jobs.
Jessica Taylor