Wendy Davis political future won’t include another bid for SD 10

Former state Sen. Wendy Davis misses public office and hopes to serve again someday.

But there’s one job the Fort Worth Democrat won’t take: the state Senate District 10 seat she represented for more than six years.

“I hope to support a candidate from Senate District 10 who is going to reflect the priorities of the people who live in that community, rather than the very narrow priorities that are being reflected by the current senator in office,” Davis, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told the Star-Telegram this week. “But it won’t be me.”

State Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, who won the seat last year, said she’s not surprised Davis would support someone to challenge her.

“Obviously we couldn’t be further from each other in terms of politics,” Burton said. “I won in the general election with [52.83] percent of the vote. She can say all she wants that I don’t represent the district.

“It’s very obvious in the voter turnout that I do.”

Observers say they aren’t surprised that Davis won’t seek re-election to the Senate seat.

“People usually don’t go back to a rung they’ve already attained,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “If a politician tries to move up and fails to do that, they are oftentimes out of politics.”

But Jillson said Davis could well pick up a federal appointment to a post in Washington, D.C., or perhaps to a judicial job in Texas that could keep her in the limelight and give her a different type of political experience.

“Then, once Texas has evolved more and Democrats become competitive, she might be able to run for statewide office,” Jillson said. “But that could be a decade or two down the road.”

‘It was a calling”

Davis, a former Fort Worth councilwoman and state senator, gained worldwide attention in 2013 for an 11-hour-plus filibuster of a strict comprehensive abortion law. While she found success that night in killing the bill, it was quickly revived and approved just weeks later.

Davis went on to run for governor in 2014, going head to head with Republican Greg Abbott, who won by more than 20 percentage points, or nearly 1 million votes.

Davis stayed out of the limelight immediately after the election. But in recent months she has been traveling and giving public speeches, and has talked about an initiative to promote gender equality that she hopes to unveil this year.

She has also said she’s working on a TV show pilot based loosely on her life.

“I love serving in public office,” she said. “I feel like it was a calling. I believe I have the heart of a public servant and if I have the opportunity to be called to do that again one day, I would be honored to do it.

“But I’m not aiming at any particular office,” Davis said. “I don’t have anything in mind.”

Different beliefs

Burton, a Tea Party activist and grassroots conservative, often campaigned for the Senate district — which includes Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield and Colleyville — by pointing out her different opinions and beliefs from Davis’.

She threw her hat into the ring for this post long before Davis announced she wouldn’t seek re-election and would run for governor.

Burton won a five-way race for the GOP nomination and then bested Democrat Libby Willis, Libertarian Gene Lord and Green Party candidate John Tunmire in the 2014 general election.

She was sworn into office for a four-year term in January.

A member of the Liberty Caucus, made up of senators with Tea Party ties, Burton often in the Legislature did the opposite of what Davis might have done.

On the first day of the session, Burton strode onto the Senate floor wearing “Stand for Life” cowboy boots that nearly sparked a media frenzy.

“It’s a new day and because of that, I wanted to step out and represent that in a visible way,” Burton posted on Facebook. “No more pink shoe drama for SD 10.”

Burton was referring to the rouge red Mizuno Wave Rider 16 tennis shoes Davis wore and made famous during her filibuster.

Asked about Burton’s boots, Davis told the Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News that “her boots are nothing more than a kitschy statement that stand for the proposition that she believes it’s OK to pick and choose between which constitutional freedoms we’ll defend, and which we’ll ignore.”

Lost voices?

Now, 10 months after leaving office, Davis said some former constituents still reach out to her.

“We hear from time to time, when I’m home in Fort Worth, from people who are upset about the perspective of the person who represents them now, who feel their voices have been lost,” Davis said. “They feel there’s no one fighting for them in the Texas Senate as there once was.”

Burton said she is fighting for people throughout the district and constantly traveling to different areas of the district to attend meetings and events.

She praised her staff for working hard to help all the people who contact her office seeking help in negotiating through government bureaucracy.

“I don’t represent any one town, group or business above anyone else,” Burton said. “I represent the people in the district.

“What I do for all constituents in the district is protect their rights,” she said. “I do not believe their voices are being lost.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Wendy Davis political future won’t include another bid for SD 10."