06/25/23
Good morning! It’s Sunday, June 25th.
Whoa! Sunday! Special episode!
June 25th is national Strawberry Parfait Day, by the way.
This episode is not about that, fyi. I’m not doing a special episode about parfaits. But, you know… special episode or not, we’re still going to make sure we cover the big holidays.
And now, the special episode.
Special Episode – Wendy Davis’ 2013 Filibuster
Filibuster story via Texas Tribune
Planned Parenthood Texas Votes
I’m gonna tell you a story about June 25th, 2013. It’s not a story about me at all, but it’s a big part of my story. And it’s one I love telling.
But before we get to me, let’s vroom vroom on over to Texas. In 2013, as abortion restrictions were being passed all over the country, the state introduced SB5. The bill would have put in place a set of unnecessary restrictions that would have caused all but five of the state’s abortion-providing clinics to close.
On June 25th, the bill was meant to come up for a vote on the last day of the Texas Senate’s special session. If you’ve ever had more than one conversation with me, you know what happened next.
Wendy Davis, a State Senator from Tarrant County, filibustered the bill in a historic 13 hour filibuster that had everything – catheters, rule breakers (not her, the Republicans who tried to change the computers and say the vote that took place after midnight actually took place before), memes (afterwards. People were SUPER into Wendy… myself included). And all of this happened on YouTube… it took a while for national media to cover it, but more than 180,000 people watched it online.
Think about that… 180,000 people, all over the country, watched a FILIBUSTER. On YOUTUBE.
Over those 13 hours, 11 of which were filled with just Wendy talking, she read letters from people from all over Texas who had written in to tell their own story – to talk about the bill or talk about their own experiences.
Wendy used her time to make sure other voices were heard in the chamber.
What we only learned later was that Wendy could have told her own story. But she didn’t. Because this wasn’t about her. It was about, “the thousands of Texans who have been ignored.”
By the way, if you don’t know, each state makes their own filibuster rules. This isn’t like the Senate, where they can just say they’re going to filibuster and that’s that. It’s not like Ted Cruz’ 21-hour filibuster where he name-dropped both Ashton Kutcher and White Castle before reading Green Eggs and Ham (a book he apparently doesn’t understand the meaning of). The Texas Senate filibuster is no joke – no eating. No drinking. No hard candies. No bathroom breaks. No sitting. No leaning. No going off topic.
And that’s what she did – for eleven hours. Followed by two hours of Republicans trying over and over again to break protocol and force a vote. But finally it was midnight – and the filibuster worked.
For the moment.
In a special session, it was voted on once more and SB5 became HB2, both of which passed and, with Governor Perry’s signature, became law on July 10th.
We know the rest – the clinics close. Wendy runs for governor and loses. And it feels like a moment of, to be frank, hopelessness.
Except… Except that, while that’s happening, a case from Whole Women’s Health is headed to the Supreme Court. And in 2016, nearly three years to the day after Wendy’s filibuster – the bill that Wendy filibustered was found unconstitutional.
And it’s not a light switch. It’s not like these clinics can immediately open. But it’s a huge win for abortion rights all over the country.
Because what Wendy did mattered. Not only that but, as Wendy is quick to note, the bill passed largely because, once again, those individual stories of real people who would be affected by clinics closing moved an abstract law into something tangible.
It matters that we work together.
I was one of those 180,000 that watched Wendy’s filibuster on YouTube. Little heart eye emojis on this woman standing up not just for Texas, but for people all over the country. Doing something big, knowing how possible it was that eventually the bill would pass, but doing to it make sure all these voices were heard. To turn a light on what was happening.
I think a lot about what would have happened if I’d never seen that filibuster. I had just been hired as a PA on Hart of Dixie. It was so excited. Not my first PA job, but it was a dream scenario of a show and sort of saw my entire career in front of me. I would have been really, really happy.
But something woke up that day.
A few months later I started working on a documentary about Wendy’s gubernatorial campaign. Then it became a movie about voting. The movie became a nonprofit. I went back to school for my master’s in political science. We’re the People became We Are Voters. And now it’s a decade later and I get to spend every single day thinking about how I can increase voter turnout through civics education. (Even when I’m at Disneyland.) And you know what? Maybe if I’d never seen that filibuster, I’d sleep more. Have more money. Have more free time.
But I think a little part of me would have always felt like something was missing.
The truth is – we don’t know what’s going to wake us up. Sometimes we don’t even know when we need it.
And I tell my part of the story because… well it’s my show and I get to do what I want. This show is free! But also because – it’s not that unique of a story.
As I’ve mentioned here a few times in the last two months, I’ve been working on a short documentary about Wendy. Not just the filibuster but the last ten years. About what we can learn from her. And as I’ve been working on it, I’ve talked to a lot of people for whom the filibuster also changed their lives.
In the years since the filibuster, Wendy’s started an organization called Deeds Not Words that’s trained hundreds of advocates and registered thousands of voters. Now, as a senior advisor to Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, she is still working to protect and rebuild abortion rights in the state.
It’s been ten years since her filibuster, and one year since the Dobbs ruling overturned Roe. Eight months since we saw the effect of Dobbs on the midterm elections – where, in every single state that put abortion measures on the ballot, voters voted to abortion in their state.
I’ve spent a decade thinking about Wendy’s filibuster. Thinking there was a special kind of magic that could only ever be associated with Wendy Davis.
It’s ten years later and, if I’m being honest – after two movies about her, and multiple interviews with her… I believe that more than ever.
I’ve learned a lot from Wendy, but today I’m thinking about the biggest thing I’ve learned – that the magic of Wendy is in the reminder that we all, in our own way, have our own fight in us.
There are things we care about. Things we will never stop fighting for. It won’t always be easy, and there will be really hard moments. But when it matters, when it’s really important, those roadblocks become speed bumps.
Over, under, or around… we find a way through.
I struggled a lot to write this episode. Which is a little bonkers because, if you know me, you know this is a story I tell easily. Often. But every time I do, it’s important that I get it right. That I do it well.
As I’ve been working on the documentary and talking to different people, I joked that I felt like I was going to end up spending my whole life telling Wendy’s story. And maybe that’s true. Maybe I will spend the rest of my life telling Wendy Davis’ story in as many ways as possible. If that’s true - what an honor.
To tell, in a million different ways, the story about a woman who, over and over and over again, refused to give up. Who used her voice as a microphone for others. Who wanted to leave it all just a little better than she found it. And who, in the face of obstacle after obstacle, did exactly that.
Because it’s also the story of my mom. My grandma. Carmen. Strong women who raised me. Who I’m just out here, trying to catch up with.
So of course I will tell this story over and over. Why on earth would I want to do anything BUT tell that story, and tell it well?
And that’s it. That’s the special episode.
I’m proud of Wendy.
I’m proud of Texas. Not all of Texas. Not Greg Abbott and his abhorrent policies. Not Tedward Cruz and his abhorrent beard (what do you want me to say? Dude is feckless.) But come on… there’s a magic to Wendy, but there’s also a magic to a state that’s given us NASA, frozen margaritas, and Kelly Clarkson.
But more than… um… more than frozen margaritas (what do you want me to say? More than Wendy? I just did a whole episode about her!). But for real, more than frozen margaritas, because you are also refreshing on a hot summer day… I’m proud of you.