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Spirited senate debate . . . Sen. Wendy Davis ’90 and Rep. Mark Shelton

Spirited senate debate . . . Sen. Wendy Davis ’90 and Rep. Mark Shelton

Texas District 97 Rep. Mark Shelton (left) and Texas Sen. Wendy Davis ’90 squared off for the second of their three debates at TCU in October. (Photography by Glen E. Ellman)

Spirited senate debate . . . Sen. Wendy Davis ’90 and Rep. Mark Shelton

TCU got a front-row seat to one of Texas’ nastiest and most expensive legislative race in October when it hosted the second of three debates between Sen. Wendy Davis ’90 and Rep. Mark Shelton who vied for the Senate District 10 seat.

Davis would win the election in November with 51.1 percent of the vote, but three weeks earlier neither candidate held back, charging at one another over the handling of the state budget, Davis’ ethics and the expansion of Medicaid.

More than 400 students, faculty, staff and members of the community packed into the Kelly Alumni Center to follow the verbal fireworks during the 90-minute exchange, which was sponsored by the TCU Forensics Club and moderated by TCU political science professor Adam Schiffer and Horned Frog alumni, Bud Kennedy ’76 of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Omar Villafranca ’00 of NBC5.