On Monday, 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis announced that she would take on freshman GOP Rep. Chip Roy in Texas’ 21st District (or as Roy’s own House site identified it, Texas’ 21th District). Davis enters the race with the support of a number of prominent House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as nine of the state’s 13 Democratic members of Congress.
Davis was a longtime politician in Fort Worth who was mentioned for years as a rising Democratic star especially after 2012, when she held her state Senate seat 51-49 even as Mitt Romney was carrying the district 53-45. Davis became a national progressive hero the following year after she waged a 13-hour filibuster to stop an anti-abortion bill (even the brand of pink sneakers she was wearing on the Senate floor attracted massive attention).
Davis decided to run for governor in 2014, but she had a tough time gaining traction against Republican Greg Abbott, especially during such a hostile climate for Democrats. Davis ended up losing statewide 59-39, and she lost the 21st District by the same spread. Davis later relocated from Fort Worth to the Austin area.
This seat, which includes parts of the Austin and San Antonio areas as well as part of the Texas Hill Country, went from 60-38 Romney to 52-42 Trump. While this has been safely red turf for decades, 2018 was very different. Roy, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, won the general election last year against Democrat Joseph Kosper by a narrow 50-48 margin at the same time that Cruz was carrying the seat just 49.6-49.5.
Roy rose to nationally infamy in May when he blocked a $19 billion disaster relief bill, a move that frustrated many of his fellow House Republicans. However, the whole matter doesn’t seem to have hurt Roy’s fundraising. The freshman hauled in $402,000 for the quarter and ended June with $656,000 cash-on-hand.
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