WASHINGTON -- Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who became an overnight sensation Tuesday when she filibustered a restrictive abortion bill, has secured more than $240,000 in pledges for her next run for office from members of MoveOn.org, the progressive group shared with The Huffington Post.
The pledges suggest that Davis would have major progressive backing if she chose to make a jump to higher office. Running would inevitably be expensive and likely difficult in a deeply conservative state that has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994.
Davis has said that she is interested. "I would be lying if I told you that I hadn't had aspirations to run for a statewide office," she said on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes" on Wednesday.
The MoveOn members have not given money yet; however, the group has recorded pledges from over 6,500 members.
Davis spoke for more than 11 hours Tuesday against the anti-abortion bill, wearing a back brace, catheter and pink tennis shoes. Republican lawmakers eventually ruled her out of order; however, a crowd of supporters screamed to disrupt the chamber and the clock on the special session ran out at midnight, killing the bill.
On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry (R) called for another special session to try to pass the bill, which would reduce the number of abortion clinics in the nation's second-largest state from 42 to five through onerous regulation.
On Thursday, speaking at the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas, Perry took a personal shot at Davis, who was herself a teenage single mother. "It is just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters," he said.
The second special session of the Texas Legislature begins on July 1. Davis said she will not "back off" if lawmakers reintroduce the bill as expected.