Tough odds are the norm for Texas lawmaker Wendy Davis

Rick Jervis and Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Former teen mom, Wendy Davis leads Texas abortion filibuster To lead their nearly 13-hour filibuster aimed at blocking a contentious abortion bill, Texas Democrats turned to Sen. Wendy Davis, who pulled herself up from a tough background as a teenage mother to graduate from Harvard law school.

The two-term senator was named %27Rookie of the Year%27 during her first session

Davis was the first member of her family to go to college

By 19%2C she was divorced with a child

AUSTIN — Wendy Davis, the fearless state senator who became an Internet sensation with her filibuster of a restrictive abortion bill that ground the Texas Legislature to a halt, has faced tough odds all her life.

"She's a total fighter," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late Texas governor Ann Richards. "And the thing about Sen. Davis, she says she's going to do something, she gets it done."

The daughter of a single mom, Davis, 50, overcame her own hardships as a divorced teenage mother to graduate with honors from Harvard Law School.

At 19, Davis decided to become the first member of her family to go to college after hearing of a two-year paralegal program from a co-worker.

At the time, she was in a trailer park and raising her daughter by herself. "We were the working poor," she told The New York Times.

Davis clerked for a federal judge, practiced law and was CEO of a title company before getting into politics with her election to the Fort Worth City Council in 1999.

After unseating a longtime Republican incumbent in 2008 for state senator from Fort Worth, Davis, a Democrat, was named "Rookie of the Year" by Texas Monthly magazine and was re-elected in 2012.

On Tuesday night, Davis' 10-hour filibuster of an abortion regulation bill came to an end when the chairman ruled she had gone off topic. Fifteen minutes before midnight, the Senate chamber's packed gallery erupted in raucous shouting, disrupting the proceedings and effectively killing the bill when the midnight deadline for passage came and went.

"I'm rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans who are being ignored," she said when her speech began, later adding: "These voices have been silenced by a governor who made blind partisanship and personal political ambition the priority of our state."

With each passing hour, Davis' livestreamed filibuster attempt turned into Twittermania as thousands of people followed online and her Twitter following jumped from 1,200 to 20,000.

"My back hurts. I don't have a lot of words left," Davis said after being showered with cheers by activists at the Capitol.

Among political junkies who had never heard of the two-term senator, Davis is suddenly being hailed as a comer for statewide office.

It was not the first filibuster victory for the fearless legislator, who is an avid runner and cyclist.

In 2011, she clogged up the legislative gears with her filibuster of a budget bill that cut $4 billion from public education in Texas.

"I know the economy is important to Gov. (Rick) Perry. Obviously, he likes to talk about what a great place Texas is and what a wonderful climate we've created here for that," Davis told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in January. "But if we don't have an educated workforce, it won't be long before we lose our footing there."

Her rookie talkathon then ran out the clock and forced the Republican governor to call a special session.

The high-profile stunt not only put a big spotlight on the freshman senator. It also made her a big political target for unhappy Republican power brokers.

Perry took a swipe at the first-term senator for upending his budget maneuvers in the 2011 legislative session: "We come here to work. We don't come here to be show horses."

But the cool and collected Davis, who has championed women's issues in the Legislature, shrugged off any worry of repercussions.

"I've never worried about payback," she told The New York Times."People are hungry for leadership that's not afraid of political consequence."

Before Tuesday night, Davis was known among Texas political insiders and Austin-based activists but generally unknown throughout the state, said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

In a poll conducted by UT/Texas Tribune earlier this month, more than half of respondents said they had never heard of Davis, while 11% had a favorable opinion of her and 12% had an unfavorable opinion of her, Henson said.

That changed Tuesday night.

"Those numbers are immediately obsolete," he said. "My suspicion is that those numbers are going to be up – on both ends."

It might also open up new political avenues for Davis.

The progressive political blog Daily Kos took note of her new high-profile and began asking readers whether it should start a draft movement for Davis to run against Perry in 2014 if he seeks a fourth term as governor.

Public Policy Polling had taken a sounding in January about just such a matchup and found that the largely unknown Davis even then was only trailing Perry 47-41.

"Wendy Davis would nationalize that Texas governor's race, and help accelerate the state's transition to Purple (and eventually Blue) status," Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas wrote in a post.