Wendy Davis picks up Texas Academy of Family Physicians endorsement

Updated at 2:30 p.m., 11:35 a.m.

State Sen. Wendy Davis gained a new endorsement Tuesday from the Texas Academy of Family Physicians.

Davis, D-Fort Worth, faces a challenge from Republican state Rep. Mark Shelton of Fort Worth, a Fort Worth pediatrician, in her bid to win a second term representing Texas Senate District 10.

"Sen. Davis has championed access to health care and growing our physician workforce because she understands that a healthy Texas means a healthy and competitive economy," said Dr. Joane Baumer, a TAFP member and a Fort Worth doctor. "Family physicians are supporting Sen. Wendy Davis because she has been a steadfast advocate for doctors and for all patients."

Texas Academy of Family Physicians is the state's largest physician specialty organization.

Shelton is trying to win back for his party the seat that Kim Brimer of Arlington represented until Davis unseated him in 2008. In that race, she earned 49.91 percent of the vote to Brimer's 47.52 percent and Libertarian Richard A. Cross's 2.56 percent, election records show.

 “It’s no surprise that special interest groups supporting Obamacare support Davis,” Shelton said. “The Texas Academy of Family Physicians endorsed Obamacare. Davis supports Obamacare.”

Shelton said a poll earlier this year showed that voters in the Senate district shows voters in the district are opposed to the nation’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well. “As a 24 year pediatrician, I and a majority of other primary care physicians know firsthand that Obamacare is bad medicine for Texas families,” he said.

TAFP officials say their group has never endorsed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but noted members have worked to explain how measures in the law impact doctors and their patients.

 Davis, a former Fort Worth councilwoman, became a lightning rod for the GOP last year after staging a filibuster at the end of the legislative session, protesting public education cuts and forcing a special session. Attempts to make her district lean Republican were thwarted by legal challenges and court rulings that left the district as it was in 2008.

"A healthy, competitive workforce ensures our economic prosperity and protects our families," Davis said. "I'm honored that the work I've done on behalf of doctors and patients has earned this prestigious endorsement."

-- Anna M. Tinsley