Wendy Davis

Wendy Russell Davis (born Wendy Jean Russell; May 16, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician from Fort Worth, Texas.

Her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 1973, when she was 10 years old.

When Russell was 13, her parents divorced.

Her father quit his job to pursue work in community theater, leading his child support payments to evaporate.

Her mother, who had a ninth grade education, supported her four children by working menial jobs.

When Davis was 17 and still in high school, she moved in with her boyfriend, construction worker Frank Underwood.

In 1981, she graduated from Richland High School as a member of the National Honor Society.

She married Underwood on January 24, 1982, and gave birth to her first daughter, Amber, later that year.

When she was 19, she and Underwood separated.

While waiting tables in 1983, she was introduced by her father to lawyer and former city councilman Jeffry R. Davis, who would become her second husband.

She filed for divorce from Underwood in December 1983, and the divorce became official on May 22, 1984, when she was 21.

She was given custody of Amber, with Underwood paying child support.

Davis attended University of Texas at Arlington for one semester, but left the school for financial reasons.

Davis attended a two-year paralegal program at Tarrant County College from 1984 to 1986.

She enrolled at Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1986 on an academic scholarship and a Pell Grant.

Following her second marriage, her husband began to make significant financial contributions to her education.

He would ultimately adopt her daughter, Amber.

The couple eventually married on May 30, 1987 and settled in a historic home in the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth.

A second daughter, Dru, was born in September 1988.

Davis underwent abortions for two later pregnancies that would not survive and/or would kill her: one (whom she named "Lucas") due to an ectopic tubal pregnancy and another (whom she named "Tate Elise") due to the fetus suffering from Dandy–Walker syndrome.

In May 1990, Davis graduated from TCU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

That autumn, she relocated to Lexington, Massachusetts, with her daughters to attend Harvard Law School.

This living situation proved untenable; after four months, her daughters returned to Texas to live with her husband.

Davis's mother helped to care for her daughters, and Davis flew back to Texas regularly to visit her family for the remainder of her time at Harvard.

While at Harvard, she volunteered at a legal clinic for the poor, where she helped AIDS patients write living wills and surviving partners with their legal rights.

In May 1993, she earned her J.D. degree cum laude, and she was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in November 1993.

After graduating from law school, Davis was law clerk to U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas from 1993 to 1994.

She worked as an attorney at Haynes & Boone (practicing litigation).

In 1999, Davis's then-husband, Jeff Davis, started Safeco Title Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, and she became part owner.

In November 2003, Jeff and Wendy Davis separated.

When the divorce settlement was finalized in 2005, the former couple shared "joint conservatorship" over Dru, who primarily lived with her father in the family home; Wendy Davis agreed to pay $1,200 a month in child support.

A member of the Democratic Party, Davis represented the 10th district in the Texas Senate from 2009 to 2015.

She previously served on the Fort Worth City Council.

On June 25, 2013, Davis held a thirteen-hour-long filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, a measure which included more restrictive abortion regulations for Texas.

The filibuster played a major role in Senate Democrats' success in delaying passage of the bill beyond the midnight deadline for the end of the legislative session, though it ultimately passed in a second session.

The filibuster brought Davis national attention, leading to speculation about a run for governor of Texas.

She subsequently ran for governor of Texas in 2014, but was defeated by Republican Party nominee Greg Abbott by 59% to 38%.

On July 22, 2019, Davis announced she would run for Texas's 21st congressional district in 2020.

She lost the election to Republican Chip Roy.

Wendy Davis was born Wendy Jean Russell in West Warwick, Rhode Island, the daughter of Virginia "Ginger" (née Stovall) and Jerry Russell.