Davis said she plans to make a final decision 'soon.' | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Davis: I will run for reelection or gov

Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who skyrocketed to national fame after mounting a lengthy filibuster earlier this summer, on Monday said the only statewide office for which she’s considering a run is governor.

“I can say with absolute certainty that I will run for one of two offices: either for my state Senate seat or for the governor,” Davis said after addressing a lunch held at the National Press Club, when asked whether she’d consider running for other statewide positions.


Davis became a liberal icon overnight when she led a 13-hour filibuster in Texas that temporarily derailed a sweeping and restrictive abortion measure. While that legislation ultimately passed, she is considered a possible Democratic contender in the Lone Star State’s governor’s race next year.

( PHOTOS: Wendy Davis’s filibuster)

“I’m still trying to decide, but I do think people are ready for a change from the partisan, very fractured leadership we have in Texas,” Davis said during a brief interview before her speech. She has met with the Democratic Governors Association in recent weeks about a potential gubernatorial run, a source told POLITICO Monday.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is seeking the Republican nomination.

“I think you can’t let too much more time get away because it’s a big race,” she said of her possible bid during the interview. “I gotta get my final decision made soon.”

She later indicated to reporters that she may still be testing the waters for a run.

( QUIZ: Do you know Wendy Davis?)

“I’m thinking very carefully about it, for myself and my family. Obviously, it’s a huge task to take on,” Davis said. “And I want to make sure it’s the right thing for me and also that it’s something that hopefully our state would want to see.”

At the lunch, she touted her bipartisan instincts — an important asset for a Democrat looking to make a statewide run in deep-red Texas.

“I got in the habit of working on issues that aren’t considered naturals for Democrats,” Davis said.

( Also on POLITICO: Davis discusses run with Democratic Governors Association

Throughout the speech, Davis noted her work on shale gas drilling, transportation, veterans’ issues and economic development.

“For all the rhetoric, and I know we all hear it, about big government and small government, Texans want what I think everyone wants: They just want to see good government,” she said. “I’ve continued to take on issues people don’t always associate with Democrats. These problems don’t always have a party affiliation and their solutions shouldn’t, either.”

She took a jab at Rick Perry when asked what she thought about a possible 2016 run by the outgoing governor.

“I have three responses to that,” she said to laughs, a nod to Perry’s infamous debate moment in which he could only name two of the three federal agencies he wanted to eliminate.

( PHOTOS: Rick Perry’s career)

When asked about her own thoughts on 2016 — and whether she’d consider serving as Hillary Clinton’s running mate — she demurred with a laugh, saying, “We’ll have to find out whether Hillary’s planning to run for president first.”

Davis also said, when asked whether Clinton could win in Texas, that “Hillary Clinton has a chance to do just about anything she sets her mind to.”

She struck a serious tone as she outlined her own story, describing her rise from poverty — she was the first in her family to graduate college, much less Harvard Law School — in emotional terms. She recalled having to make tough choices at the grocery store as a young, single mother, stretching a 99-cents pizza out for four meals. She eventually went to community college, followed by Texas Christian University, before arriving in Cambridge.

Davis discovered her “voice,” she said, when she held her first college book.

“It happened when I was standing in front of a bookshelf at Tarrant County community college, holding what was to be my very first college book,” she said. “I will never forget the feeling of the book in my hands. It was an incredible and overpowering moment. It was further than anyone in my family had ever gotten, and it was further than I had ever hoped for myself.”

She was catapulted onto the national stage during an abortion debate, but much of her speech focused more broadly on the state of Texas politics. Still, Davis personalized the issue of women’s health clinic closures — something that has happened in Texas, separate from abortion-providing clinics.

She noted that for several years when she struggled financially, health clinics were where she received all of her health care. And when asked to detail the components of the abortion measure that she filibustered, which ultimately passed, she delivered an impassioned answer, charging that many women would lose access to the procedure.

“After the filibuster, I’ve had more than a few [young women] come to me and simply cry,” she said, addressing the aftermath of the bill’s passage. “And what I see in their tears are not tears of defeat. Instead, it’s their understanding that even if only for a short while, their voices as much as mine made a difference in the landscape of what was happening in the state of Texas.”

Davis, sporting a fuchsia suit jacket, offered the audience a pledge.

“I want to leave you with this,” she said. “I will seek common ground because we all must. But sometimes you have to take a stand on sacred ground. Liberty: the freedom to choose what your future will hold.”