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" In the midst of an uphill battle to become the first Democratic governor of Texas in 20 years, Wendy Davis took time Wednesday night to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the filibuster that put her in the state and national spotlight by appearing in front of 1,600 supporters with many of the key figures of June 25, 2013. Her campaign (and that of lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van de Putte) has struggled to create the same energy spontaneously generated when thousands of Texans flooded the state capitol in Austin last summer to protest a bill \u2014 which ultimately passed \u2014 that would shutter nearly all of Texas&amp;#039;s abortion clinics. But speakers and supporters alike spoke with reverence of the filibuster and hoped to recapture the passion it provoked. State Sen. Kirk Watson, who bought time toward the filibuster&amp;#039;s end by arguing parliamentary points of procedure, said that the Texas legislature has seen a lot of bizarre conflict, but that nothing in his experience compared to the point that day when he had to tell law enforcement not to confiscate feminine hygiene products from citizens entering the Senate gallery. (Texas Department of Public Safety officials reportedly took them out of concern that objects would be thrown on the Senate floor.) State Sen. John Whitmire and Reps. Senfronia Thompson and Jessica Farrar joined Watson onstage. Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards spoke, citing anecdotes of young Texas women, who, inspired by the filibuster, had decided to work at Planned Parenthood, go to law school, and postpone a move to New York to work on Van de Putte&amp;#039;s campaign, respectively. By far the most charged speech of the evening came from Van de Putte, who launched the loud applause and cheering that ended the filibuster when she said, &amp;quot;At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?&amp;quot; Van de Putte said that she hadn&amp;#039;t been planning on speaking up, but also that she didn&amp;#039;t plan on being ignored, and fiercely described the experiences that led her to that moment.  &amp;quot;It was for the time I was told that I needed to take home economics and not algebra because I was a girl,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;It was the time I was told that I couldn&amp;#039;t be the student government president because I was a girl. And it was the time I was told, &amp;#039;You can&amp;#039;t run for the legislature, because if you do, who&amp;#039;s gonna take care of your kids? You&amp;#039;d be a bad mother.&amp;#039; That&amp;#039;s what came out of me that night.&amp;quot; Davis came to the stage wearing her famous Mizuno sneakers and focused on labeling the legislature and existing Republican power base as insiders uninterested in listening to their own constituency. She called on her supporters to send her to &amp;quot;speak truth to power&amp;quot; and urged constituents to volunteer, knock on doors, and vote. Those in attendance seemed more optimistic than the polls would warrant. The most recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows Davis 12 points behind Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate. Van de Putte is 15 points behind her opponent, Dan Patrick, a Tea Party-backed candidate who beat incumbent David Dewhurst in the primary. They are up against not just a serious deficit in the polls but also 20 years of inertia, low turnout, and voter ID laws that survived a Supreme Court challenge. But at this event, the message was that victory is still obtainable in November. Austin attorney Barbara Ellis, who was at the filibuster last summer, said it was important to commemorate its anniversary. &amp;quot;The attack on women&amp;#039;s reproductive rights and limitations on women&amp;#039;s access to healthcare is shameful and it&amp;#039;s embarrassing for this state,&amp;quot; Ellis said. As for the Davis campaign&amp;#039;s prospects, supporters will need to feel that she can actually win. &amp;quot;If people have the idea that she doesn&amp;#039;t have a chance, then she won&amp;#039;t have a chance. But if people understand that Ann Richards never was ahead in the polls before she won her race, then they&amp;#039;ll understand that if they go out and vote, she has a chance.&amp;quot; Richards notably benefited from a series of spectacular gaffes on the part of her opponent, Clayton Williams, the most serious of which was his decision to make a rape joke in front of reporters. But it&amp;#039;s true that she never led in the polls, and won by fewer than 100,000 votes in 1990.  Some of the younger women in attendance, those born after 1994, have never lived in a Texas with a Democratic governor. Twenty-year-old Olivia Stephenson, a student at Southwestern University in nearby Georgetown, volunteered for the Davis campaign and agrees with the conventional wisdom about the groups the Democrats should need to attract. &amp;quot;The target audiences they really want to get to vote for Wendy are women and the Latino community,&amp;quot; she said. Gaby Beker, a 19-year-old political science student at the University of Texas, said, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t remember a time when [Rick Perry] wasn&amp;#039;t governor.&amp;quot; Beker thinks Davis still has capital to burn from last summer. &amp;quot;The filibuster really skyrocketed her to where she is now, and I think it&amp;#039;s absolutely carried through,&amp;quot; Beker said. &amp;quot;I think that Texans are ready to see something that will make a more positive social dynamic for us.&amp;quot; RELATED: The Devastating Abortion Story That Could Change the Way You Vote A Texas OB/GYN Details the Horrific Consequences of Abortion Restrictions Why Aren&amp;#039;t Politicians Fighting for Your Right to an Abortion? Follow Susan on Twitter. Photo credit: AP "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a27724/wendy-davis-filibuster-anniversary/>