Wendy Davis

But before we discuss the actual filibustering, who is Wendy Davis?

Growing up in Texas, Davis didn't have it too easy, as at the age of 14 she had to help her single mother with her three siblings. She too was a single mother at the age of 19.

The first person in her family to graduate from college, she then went on to study at Harvard Law School. After setting up her own practice, Davis spent nine years on the Fort Worth City Council, and was elected to the state senate in 2008, where she became the 12th Democrat in the upper chamber–just enough to keep the Republicans from closing off debate on bills.

She's sponsored bills on many different areas such as cancer prevention and sexual assault, and has used the filibuster technique before in 2008 and 2011.

The Filibuster

So, what is filibustering exactly? To filibuster a bill, the senator has to speak for a great length of time to prevent the legislation from being passed. With this case, Wendy Davis started at 11.18am and attempted to talk for 13 hours.

As no news channels were covering the event, over 182,000 people watched Davis address the Texas Senate on YouTube, a figure greater than the total viewing figures for some shows broadcast on free TV channels.

Davis even drew support from President Obama.

The Texas Filibuster