Wendy Davis makes it official: She’s running to be governor of Texas in 2014!

Big news out of the Lone Star State today!

Pro­gres­sive hero Wendy Davis, who did an incred­i­ble job lead­ing the fight against leg­is­la­tion to roll back repro­duc­tive rights in Texas back in the spring, has announced that she is run­ning to replace Rick Per­ry as the state’s governor.

At an event in Hal­tom City, Davis laid out her vision for the state and told excit­ed sup­port­ers, “If you want a gov­er­nor who will speak for every­one, then every Tex­an needs to be part of get­ting that gov­er­nor elect­ed. I need you.”

The Texas Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty cheered the news.

“Wendy Davis is the can­di­date for Gov­er­nor Tex­ans deserve,” said Texas Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair­man Gilber­to Hino­josa. “She is a new type of leader, one whose sto­ry reflects what is best about Texas. Sen­a­tor Davis has a proven record of fight­ing for our fam­i­lies, and as Gov­er­nor she will secure an even brighter future for Texas.”

“Today is an incred­i­ble and excit­ing day for all Tex­ans. Over the next year you will con­tin­ue to see grass­roots ener­gy and engage­ment like you’ve nev­er seen before in Texas. We’re all ready to knock on doors, make the calls, talk to our neigh­bors, and raise the mon­ey required so that Wendy Davis will be elected.”

Our friends over at Burnt Orange Report (Texas’ best pro­gres­sive blog) have a recap of Davis’ cam­paign kick­off. Sounds like it was a very excit­ing event:

The “options are few­er” for Texas fam­i­lies today, Davis said — and she won’t accept that. Our state is run for the ben­e­fit of a few, when it should be run for all Texans.

“In Austin today, our cur­rent lead­er­ship thinks promis­es are just some­thing you make to the peo­ple who write big checks. But the promise I’m talk­ing about is big­ger than that. It’s the promise of a bet­ter tomor­row for every­one. Texas deserves a leader who will pro­tect this promise. Texas deserves a leader who will keep it.”

That’s the kind of gov­er­nor Wendy Davis plans to be.

“Until the fam­i­lies who are burn­ing the can­dle at both ends can final­ly make ends meet, we will keep going. Until the amaz­ing health care advances being pio­neered in this state reach every­one who needs them, we will keep going.”

“Until every child from Longview to Lub­bock to McAllen to Mesquite makes it to a stage like this, and gets their diplo­ma, and knows that noth­ing will wash out the road to their future dreams, we will keep going. Until the cor­ri­dors of pow­er are the cor­ri­dors of the peo­ple, until prob­lem-solv­ing trumps par­ti­san­ship, until our state is a lot less lone and a lot more star, we will keep going. As long as we can make this great state even greater, we will keep going,” Davis said as the crowd joined her emphat­i­cal­ly in declar­ing we will keep going.

Empha­sis is theirs. (Also worth read­ing is the live­blog of the announce­ment).

The Austin Chron­i­cle has more on the kick­off.

The Repub­li­cans wast­ed no time in attack­ing Davis; Greg Abbot­t’s cam­paign chose to launch a vol­ley at the like­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nee rather than sim­ply wel­com­ing her to the race. (Abbott, the cur­rent right wing Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Texas, is con­sid­ered to be the Repub­li­can fron­trun­ner; Rick Per­ry is retiring).

But Wendy Davis is tough. And smart. And coura­geous. Quite sim­ply, she’s an inspi­ra­tion. Repub­li­cans are very much mis­tak­en if they think she’ll be easy to beat. This is going to be a race worth pay­ing atten­tion to, and we’ll cer­tain­ly be fol­low­ing it with the help of our friends at the Burnt Orange Report.