Texas Sen. Davis expected to announce campaign intention this week

Even though she isn't a formal gubernatorial candidate, Democratic Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis says she's already getting smeared by the opposition. Davis, the Fort Worth senator who is expected to announce this week that she'll seek the Democratic nomination for governor, gained nationwide attention for her 11-hour filibuster during a special session against an abortion bill, scuttling its chances of passage and forcing Gov. Rick Perry to call a second special session so the measure -- among the toughest in the nation -- could be passed and signed into law. Davis has been called "Abortion Barbie" and characterized as "too stupid to be governor," The Dallas Morning News reported Monday. The "stupid" remark was attributed to a Twitter post by the top adviser to GOP front-runner Greg Abbott, the Morning News said. Davis told an audience during the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin she's been in tough fights before and she's "leathered up" because of the skirmishes. "I'm capable of withstanding all kinds of heat, all kinds of nastiness in order to try and deliver an important message for people who feel like they haven't been heard," Davis said. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, the New said. In the 2012 presidential race, Republican Mitt Romney beat incumbent Barack Obama by 16 percentage points. However, the News reported, some Davis opponents have been raising questions about her divorce from a Fort Worth attorney and her story of going from a teenage single mother living in a trailer park to becoming a Harvard Law School graduate.