In just two months time, Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis went from relative obscurity to being featured in a Vogue spread in the fashion glossy’s September issue, the fattest magazine of the year.
There, Davis is profiled by Vogue’s Heidi Mitchell, who details the lawmaker’s fashion choices, her backstory and where that 12-hour filibuster over abortion legislation might launch Davis in the future.
On fashion, Vogue notes that the shoes Davis wore for her June 25 marathon filibuster were made by Mizuno, paired with a blue Escada coat. For the magazine, she posed in Carolina Herrera and Reed Krakoff pumps.
Davis’ biography is also explored–she went from a single mother living in a trailer park to a Harvard Law-educated lawmaker. And she wasn’t always a big fan of politics. “I remember we’d go into restaurants and everyone wanted to talk politics, and I thought, God this is soooo boring,” she recalled thinking before her Harvard days. (Clearly, she changed her tune.)
Finally, the big question in Texas is whether Davis will throw herself into the governor’s race. “The eyes of the world are on Texas, and I’m not proud of what they’re seeing–except when they see Wendy,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who hails from the state. “During the filibuster, the Republicans acted like bullies, and Americans hate bullies.”
While this could open up the race up for Davis, the counterargument is that she lost her moderate street cred by championing abortion rights. And electing a liberal Democrat in Texas is hard business.
“Wendy Davis is too smart to run for governor in 2014,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Vogue. “A lot of people will urge her to, mostly because they want some excitement, but she is the only one who hurts if she fails.”
