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.

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

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

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

[12] 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.

[11][12][16] The couple eventually married on May 30, 1987 and settled in a historic home in the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth.

[12] 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;[23] Wendy Davis agreed to pay $1,200 a month in child support.

[13] The Texas Tribune stated that she alleged "that biased coverage led to her defeat and caused injury to her physical and mental health".

She also worked on economic development projects, such as the Montgomery Plaza renovation, the Tower, Pier One and Radio Shack campuses.

[citation needed] While serving on the Fort Worth City Council, Davis voted in Republican primaries.

[31][better source needed] In 2008, running as a Democrat, Davis narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Kim Brimer for Texas's 10th Senate district,[32] which includes portions of Tarrant County, Texas, despite a legal challenge against her candidacy by the state Republican Party.

[12][33] Davis was re-elected in 2012, defeating a challenge from Mark M. Shelton, a Fort Worth pediatrician and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, who would seek the 10th district seat again in 2014.

[35] On May 29, 2011, Davis launched a filibuster of a budget bill that cut $4 billion from public education in the state, resulting in a special session called by Texas Gov.

[38] In January 2012, Davis was listed among "12 State Legislators to Watch in 2012" by Governing magazine[39] and was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide races.

[44] She attempted to hold the floor until midnight, when the Senate's special session ended, after which it would no longer be able to vote on the measure.

[45] Following an 11-hour filibuster—ending three hours short of midnight—Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst ruled that Davis had gone off topic, forcing a vote on whether the filibuster could continue.

[46] Despite Republican efforts, parliamentary inquiries from Leticia R. Van de Putte and others as well as raucous cheering and yelling from the political activists gathered in the Capitol carried on through midnight and the close of the special session.

[48][49] The next day, Governor Rick Perry called for a second special session to allow for another attempt to pass the abortion restrictions, as well as to address other issues.

[67] In the election on November 4, 2014, she lost to Republican nominee Greg Abbott, the then-outgoing Texas Attorney General.

[66] In January 2014, Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News reported that the personal history Davis had been sharing on the campaign trail "blurred" some facts.

The ad attacked Abbott as being hypocritical for receiving monies from an accident which incapacitated him, and then, as attorney general, supporting litigation limits on such payments.

[71] MSNBC stated that the advertisement is probably "a hail mary effort" because Davis was trailing Abbott by double digits in the polls.

[72] In November 2014, Salon journalist Jenny Kutner reported that American Thinker writer Deborah C. Tyler came up with a last-minute nickname for then-gubernatorial candidate Davis, a "gynecist", a term Kutner felt was meant to be derogatory by Tyler, but according to Kutner, "actually sounds kind of awesome once she starts describing what it means: Gynecism promotes the political position that the primary and most essential power a female can hold is the control of her own sexual and genital functions.

[79][80] On June 25, 2013, Davis held an eleven hour long filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, a measure which included more restrictive abortion regulations for Texas.

[81] On February 11, 2014, Davis said that she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor.

She also said that background checks and training requirements would "help ensure that only mentally stable, law-abiding citizens" could carry weapons.