You can follow the action on twitter. I will ask as many questions as time permits. Now it is time to introduce our guests. Please stand briefly. From your right, dallas morning news. Maria, fort worth start telegram. David callaway, usa today, editorinchief. Adrian garcia. Kevin, washington post. The honorable rodney alexander, texas state senator. Allison fitzgerald. Skipping over the speaker for moment. Bob carden with card in communications and the Speaker Committee member who organized todays lunch. I thank you. Bobby patton. Of thes leader and owner l. A. Dodgers. The senior sector producer and manager of political programming for abc news. Marilyn thompson, bureau chief for thompson reuters. A host and reporter with voice of russia and blogger for the washington post, she the people blog. Rick dunham, a political reporter with the Houston Chronicle and former National Press club president. [applause] it seems now like the whole country was watching when our guests today literally stood up for her belief on the floor of the texas state house. For 12 hours she filibustered of republicansponsored abortion bill with turf on her feet without being able to sit, lead on her desk, or drink water. That made texas state senator, wendy davis, and he wrote to a hero to liberals and prochoice activists. She began working after school when she was 14 to help support her single mother and three siblings. By 19, she was a single mother herself, working two jobs to make ends meet in hopes of creating a better life for her young daughter. She eventually enrolled in community college, a journey that culminated with a law degree from harvard. Soon after she became a practicing attorney in fort worth and served nine years on the city council. She was recruited to run for the texas senate and scored a huge political upset by defeating a wellentrenched incumbent. In the senate, she ran and won the election in 2008 in a race that was considered one of the biggest upsets in texas politics in recent times. She was reelected in 2012 despite rick perry and every major republican officeholder campaigning against her. Her main issues are Economic Development, education and family issues. She was named pressman legislator of the year in 2009. Freshman legislator of the year in 2009. She apparently likes the filibuster, because prior to the one that got her National Attention in 2011, she staged a public election. That filibuster temporarily blocked the cut and set the stage for the legislature restoring most of the money in 2013. She has been mentioned as a possible and senatorial candidates in texas. Gubernatorial candidates in texas. Were hoping she may tip the cards for what the future might hold. [laughter] please help us give a warm welcome to senator wendy davis. [applause] thank you. Thank you all for having me here today, and thank you, angela, for inviting me to be here. It is a pleasure to be with such an esteemed group of people. I have to tell you people get a little bit nervous when i approach a podium these days. You obviously know what happened on june 25 in the texas legislature, but in case you were one of the few people not Live Streaming it, i thought i would repeat the entire thing for you today. [laughter] lets get comfortable. In all seriousness, i am very honored and so grateful you are interested in hearing more from me. I am constantly reminded what a privilege it is to have of voice. Though i mean the voice figuratively, my initial understanding of the power of voice was quite literal. When i was a young girl my family tried to spend as much time as we could with my grandparents. They lived in the panhandle of texas. My grandfather made his living his entire life as a tenant farmer, and when he was in his mid60s suffered a massive stroke. From that point forward, he lived the rest of his life in a nursing home. He was partially paralyzed and had a very difficult time forming words because of his paralysis. When my mother and siblings and i would pile into my moms old volkswagen and drive to visit him, we would pick him up at the nursing home and keep him in his home for the weekend with us. At some point on several of those occasions he would beckoned me into the kitchen, and i would sit with him at their old formica table, the one that has the silver band that goes around the side. He would bring a piece of paper out. Point at it. I knew my task. He would dictate to me. A letter he hoped to communicate to a friend. As you can imagine, he is sitting there in his wheelchair, me with my tiny legs stuck to their plastic chairs on a hot summer day. It was a lot of hard work. It was slow, and it could be very difficult. It was challenging, not just for me, for him, but me as well. Invariably on those occasions my grandfather would start crying, which meant i would start crying, too. It is a very hard lesson for a nineyearold to witness the despair in her grandfathers face, but the experience drove home a very powerful lesson for me, the importance of having a voice. How painful it is to lose it, and how important it is to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and to be true to what they would say if they could. Many of you heard my name for the first time last month when it, as allison said, and the last hours of the texas legislative session the powers decided to pass not just an abortion bill, but a bill that would block Healthcare Access to tens of thousands of women across the state of texas. In the process, these partisan lawmakers were seeking to rob texas women of their voice. When women showed up at the capitol to testify, many of them were turned away and unable to give voice to an issue that had a very real impact on their lives. Before i took the floor that morning for the longest 13 hours of my life, i worked with staff to track down testimony that had been submitted in testimony hearings but had not been read. During the next hour read it read every single one of their stories out loud. These were real people with very personal stories to tell. Many of whom had never given voice to their story before to another human being. At first my staff was reading them a little too fast, because 13 hours is a long time to fill. As word spread through the capital about what was happening, our email started filling up with stories that were coming in from women and men all over the state of texas. In fact, by the time the day was over we have received over 16,000 personal stories. 16,000 people hungering to be heard. I have to tell you, at some point in the day i stopped worrying about running out of time or stories and instead, i started worrying about running out of time. When i stood up at my desk that day, i had no doubt that filibustering the bill was the right thing to do, but i had no idea it would trigger trigger such an overwhelmingly positive response across the state, across the country. There was an outpouring of support for texas women. The most remarkable thing about it is stories that otherwise never would of been told were suddenly national news. The voices we heard in support of my filibuster that night are not the ones we normally hear amplified across the state of texas. I think a lot of people who live outside our state are surprised they even exist. Texans know the voices in our state that shout the loudest have not often been the ones that speak for everyone. That night, the nation was introduced to a force within our state. A force that will have a lot to say. The shape that america takes. We have an outside influence on the direction of the nation, and Many Americans are ready see texas as the gateway to a better life. We are the nations no. 1 destination for internal migration. The reason, as any texan will tell you, is we have a lot to be proud of. There is our very diverse and fastgrowing economy. Our abundant natural and energy resources. Our long coastline, and low unemployment and low cost of living. Just as importantly, there is the fervent belief that a better tomorrow for ourselves and children is just within our reach. My whole life i have seen texans create those tomorrows for themselves and family. I have seen them raise themselves up by the bootstraps and by their sling backs, and by pink running shoes. Texans work hard, and we believe hard work should pay off. The majority of texans know our state is stronger when it makes the investments in people that helped them reach their full potential. And yes, texans know there are areas where we can and must do better. One out of every 10 Public School students in the United States goes to school in texas. Yet we produce the lowest percentage of highschool graduates in the entire country. Onefourth of our children live in poverty. Would like to brag about our economy. We have the highest number of children living without insurance. That is nothing to brag about. We do have a lot to be proud of, and were joined by a few of the texas leaders who not only know we can do better, but are hoping to make texas better. We have some of them in our audience today. We have our county commissioner. I am thrilled to be joined by a Community Leader and school board trustee. My incredible, beautiful sister in the texas senate who was the one who asked finely at what point it would take for a womans voice to be heard in the texas senate . Former congressman martin frost. City councilman joe burns who represents a city council. My Old City Council district in fort worth. Justice of the peace. At the head table we have amazing people with us today. You have been introduced a little bit to them. Bobby patent is a local business leader. He truly defines what it means to be at texas success story. A troopnearing entrepreneur. A true pionerring entrepreneur. Adrienne garcia and my very dear friend and said that colleague. Texas women know that ellis has our back. [applause] these leaders, amazing leaders are a part of a growing movement to build a state that is more star. They are ready to talk about how it can be even greater. The majority of texans are ready to start that conversation. Their voices are too often drowned out by the shouts of people in power who provoke division. Who hope that shouting will distract from real solutions. They are doing serious damage to the lives and opportunities of the texans the claim to represent. They brag about low unemployment, while at the tame same time dramatically underfunding texas education. They travel to states as far away as california and new york, trying to lure business to texas, while at the same time ignoring the needs of Higher Education system to make sure opportunities are available to all of our young texans. Soon as we know the consequence of that will be we will probably have to travel to other states. There not being true to what people in texas are actually saying. It would be as a pretending to listen to what my grandfather had to say in writing down what ever i felt. You all know the saying, and some of you know the song, this aint my first rodeo. This is not my first filibuster. In 2011, i took a stand against a partisan plan to strip 5. 4 billion from our already very underfunded Public School system. I do not know if you are aware of this, but after that budget cuts went into place, texas became 49th out of 51 in what it is investing in the future of the School System in this country. I wanted to filibuster because it helps put us into a special session where teachers and parents finally had an opportunity to come to the capital and be heard. It was very important to me their voices be part of the conversation, and here is why, because i have seen firsthand that education is absolutely a pathway from poverty. 30 years ago i could not have imagined standing in front of you, standing in washington before a group of people like you. Because back then my life looked so very different. It looked a lot like my moms life. My mom has a sixth grade education. After my parents divorced, she had no husband, no Financial Security and four children to raise. Every meal my mother put on our table was a struggle for her. By the time i was 19, i also was already married and divorced and raising a young daughter myself, living in poverty and facing the same challenges and hardships i had seen my mother face. Anybody who believes that everything is bigger in texas, nobody saw the trailer i lived in. I was always on the brink of the financial disaster back then. A flat tire on my car meant having to choose a belonging to pawn. It was 99 cents pizza rolls. My daughters baby food was non negotiable. Last. Rolls would experiences like that can absolutely narrow your vision, crush your optimism. For me, it came down to a simple calculation. If i really wanted to make a better life for amber, had a responsibility to improve my own. It was with a heart full of love for her that i started the journey. At the time i was working as a receptionist for a pediatrician. Even though my paycheck was small, it was worth it to work there. I have no Health Insurance but my daughter had free medical care and medicine and free formula. One day at work one of the nurses came in and dropped a pamphlet on my desk for Tarrant County community college. That pamphlet opened the door for me. I had always thought of college as belonging to someone else, but that day and started to believe perhaps it could belong to me, too. The state of texas helped making it affordable, even for a single mother like me. In addition to going to school, i still work fulltime and waited tables four nights a week. While it was not easy, in the texas i grew up in, it was possible. When i transferred to texas christian university, received scholarships that covered the cost of my tuition. But today, students facing the same challenges that i once faced are unfortunately not able to receive the same kind of assistance. There is so much greater needs. Some may qualify students who cant get help because there is not enough to go around. Other things made my future possible. When i needed basic Healthcare Services, i have a Womens Health care clinic very close to where i lived. For those next few years that is where i received the entirety of my health care. Today of course, in texas, partisan legislation on top of years of severe budget cuts have cut that access from tens of thousands of women across the state. Each of them has lost the only health care they have ever known. Regardless of your politics, i think everyone would agree that is just bad policy. Because i was able to go to college and law school, i was able to be a part of starting Small Businesses and to become part of contributing back to the economy of my state. That is how it works. I want so very much to make sure more people have the chance to do that. The challenges i have taken on as a legislator are about two things. A path and a voice. Although i have been characterized as a problem, i record is really about trying to find solutions. My record is really about trying to find solutions. I started my politics on a city council. In texas we do not run for local office with a Party Affiliation next to our name. We do not govern with one, either. I got in the habit of working on issues that are not considered natural for democrats from shale gas drilling to Transportation Planning to serving as the chair of the City Economic Development committee and fostering a great deal of Economic Development and privatepublic partnerships. I was determined to take that mentality to austin. That is one reason i ran for the state senate. The district was not drawn for a democrat. The people i represent are a lot more interested in seeing problems solved and they are in partisan label. They know how seriously i take bringing their voice to austin and how willing i am to work with anyone to get things done. One thing you should know about the Texas Capital is we did not have to cross an aisle to Work Across Party Lines because there really is no aisle. Instead when we want to work with the republican colleague, i simply say to my chair across the senate floor, and we begin. For example, in the last legislative session i work with a Bipartisan Coalition of lawmakers to pass equal pay for equal work legislation. Even though there were republican lawmakers who were willing to work with me to see this injustice made right, governor perry in what was an overtly partisan move vetoed that bill. That not only undercuts the potential of texas women but makes texas a less attractive place to do business. Texas families are paying the price. Having been there, i understand how precious those few dollars can be. How very much of a difference it can make. That is why my real passion has been consumer reform. If you have ever had to go to a pawn shop for a payday lender in texas, and i have, you know texas is the wild, wild west when it comes to the predatory lending industry. The state turned its head as the industry siphons dollars from the local economy entraps hard working families into a cycle of debt they cannot escape. I have worked closely with an Unlikely Coalition of folks to try to address the issue from the Christian Life commission to the aarp to the Defense Department because of the fact that so many military members are subjected to those practices. I have also worked to ensure state agencies operate with oversight, transparency, and a commitment to being affected is the words of taxpaying dollars. In texas some officials have turned the state agencies into cash cows and favor factories to further their own interests and to reward their donors. And for all of rhetoric, and i know we all hear it about the government and small government, texans want what i think everyone wants, they just want to see good government. I continue to take on issues people did not always associate with democrats. These problems do not have a Party Affiliation. We helped to create better in court to recognize veteran service and their unique needs. After returning from iraq, richard