Lone Star (Wendy Davis revives Dem party in Texas). by Christopher Hooks at Slate

[applegrove]

Lone Star
Filibustering state Sen. Wendy Davis may have done the impossible: revived the Democratic Party in Texas.

By Christopher Hooks at Slate

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/06/texas_abortion_filibuster_and_wendy_davis_the_state_senator_has_revived.html

"SNIP................................

“It’s kind of awakened the Democratic Party, which didn’t really have a lot of lifeblood flowing through it,” says Terrysa Guerra, a rising strategist in the state party. “I see a tremendous amount of excitement. More than I’ve ever seen at any point in my career—even in 2008.”

Davis, a longtime champion of Texas Democrats, has been profiled dozens of times in the last 24 hours. The child of a poor Fort Worth family, she was a divorced single mother by the age of 19. After putting herself through a two-year paralegal program at a nearby county college, she graduated first in her class from Texas Christian University. Then, Harvard Law, with honors. Charismatic, articulate, friendly, principled, and relentlessly driven, she’s been one of the great hopes of her party, which hasn’t won a statewide post in almost 15 years.


Next year, Perry will likely relinquish the governor’s mansion and prepare for a presidential run, and the Republican nominee to replace him will likely be Attorney General Greg Abbott, a man with hyperconservative social views, one of whose Twitter icons is himself with the stone statue of the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds. Also up for re-election is Sen. John Cornyn. Democrats have been desperately searching for competitive candidates for the 2014 cycle. Davis has—so far—declined.

Many of the party’s stronger candidates have shied away from the next cycle because they believe better circumstances will come by the end of the decade. Almost all discussion about Texas’ increasingly competitive political balance has focused on the growing number of Latino voters. But there are a myriad of other factors Democrats will have to learn to exploit if they’re to win. Texas is enjoying rapid immigration from other parts of the United States, especially California, and its urban areas, which shade blue, are experiencing explosive growth. But traditionally Democratic demographics turn out to vote at anemic levels.

...............................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. And the Republican know a star was born. That is why they have worked doubly hard

to attack her in the last 24 hours. They don't like democrative narratives that arc that high, that quick.

[idwiyo]

2. K&R