Texas state senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis was interviewed by Maria Shriver on NBC. Maria Shriver did a great job taking America and specifically Texans through the Wendy Davis story. Specifically, she covered her ascent from living as a single mother in poverty in a trailer park to a Harvard scholar and ultimately a star in politics who remembers where she came from.

Wendy Davis took Maria Shriver to the trailer park where she lived and had a prescient statement. “I tried really hard not to put this in the rearview mirror,” Wendy Davis said. “I've tried to keep it present.”

A politician who has lived in poverty and hard times can empathize with those she governs. A politician who had to use public service at times to get a hand up to be self-sufficient and a net benefit to society understands the policies that have material effects on the lives of the middle class and the poor.

Maria Shriver asked Wendy Davis if she felt she was living in poverty during her difficult years. Her answer was the answer many Americans and Texans could have recited.

“I knew I was poor because of the struggles that I and my young daughter Amber were experiencing,” Wendy Davis said. “I was having a really hard time making ends meet, paying for my child care, a car payment, and making sure I kept the lights turned on sometimes didn't happen.”

Wendy Davis told her full story to the National Press Club a few months ago. It was more complete than the story she had the time to provide to Maria Shriver for this expose.

More on the Wendy Davis interview below the fold.