Two Essays & Two Court Cases Cast National Spotlight on Texas

This week in Texas politics: Wendy Davis writes two high-profile essays and the Supreme Court hears arguments on two Texas cases, one dealing with affirmative action and the other with “one person, one vote” policies.  

By Emily DonahueDecember 11, 2015 3:24 pm,

It’s end of a long week in Texas politics, with news from the stately halls of Washington DC, where the Supreme Court heard two Texas cases. Here to make sense of it all, Aman Batheja of the Texas Tribune.

This week marked the return of Wendy Davis to the national conversation. The former State Senator and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate has written two high-profile essays – one in the Lenny Letter, a feminist newsletter, and the other in Politico magazine – about her loss in the governor’s race last year.

“Whoever is working with her to rehabilitate her image is doing a very good job,” Batheja says. “She’s smartly going after her biggest weaknesses from her failed race against Abbott.”

Davis spoke about her frustrating loss to Abbott and why she caved on open carry during the governor’s race, because she thought it’d make it easier to win over conservative voters, Batheja says.

“When she announced her bid for governor after her famed filibuster, she really had a better image nationally than in Texas,” he says. “Among Democrats around the country, she is really popular.”

Two Texas cases were heard at the Supreme Court this week – one on state Senate districts and the “one person, one vote” argument and the other on affirmative action at the University of Texas.

“Both of them deal with Texas coming to terms with its fast-growing minority population,” Batheja says.

Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.