This morning, Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis told her story to a national audience during a "Doing It All" segment with Maria Shriver on the Today show. Throughout the interview, Davis characterizes her experiences as a "Texas success story":
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Here are some excerpts as Wendy Davis describes her early struggles and her concern for future generations to Shriver:
Shriver (voiceover): Her early struggles, she says, have informed everything in both her political and her personal life.
She attended Tarrant County Community College near Fort Worth while working two jobs to keep food on the table.
(To Davis): When you came to study here in this library at this community school, did you feel that you were living in poverty? that you were quote, unquote poor?
Davis: I knew I was poor because of the struggles that I and my young daughter Amber were experiencing. I was having a really hard time making ends meet, paying for my childcare, paying for a car payment, and making sure that I kept the lights turned on ... sometimes didn't happen.
[...]
Shriver: It has been a long, hard road for Wendy Davis to have her voice heard. A journey she says she's very proud of, but one she fears that other women may not be able to follow.
Davis: If you told me today that I had to start over, and do the whole thing again, I wonder whether I'd be able to. And I worry that other young women--like me, in Texas--can't.
Davis' concerns are valid as Texas Republicans have done so much to destroy opportunities for Texans during the past decade.
I want to conclude, though, with Wendy's description of herself:
I am the epitome of hard work and optimism.
Those of us who want to help elect her will do well to keep those sentiments in mind.
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