Shades of "Stand-up, Chuck!" What Wendy Davis says about here exaggerated and misleading campaign biography.

I am proud of where I came from and I am proud of what I've been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn't walked a day in my shoes."

This is what many people don't know about her likely opponent, Texas Attorney General, Republican Gregg Abbott.

Abbbott congratulates graduate after delivering the commencement address at Sam Houston State University in May, 2010.

Abbott has been in a wheelchair for the last 30 years.  He was 26 when an oak tree fell on him in a freak accident when took a break from studying for the bar exam and when out for a jog with his roommate.  The tree severed his spine.

He initially was taken to a hospital unable to treat that type of injury. That meant another transport, to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where surgeons found bone fragments lodged in his broken spine, as well as fractured ribs and damaged kidneys.

Days passed before his condition stabilized. Doctors ran out of places on his buttocks to inject painkillers.

Abbott could not eat solid food and developed a perpetual case of cotton mouth, which he eased by sucking on a wet rag flavored with lemon.

He was forced to lie flat for a month before beginning grueling rehabilitation sessions.

His paralysis required him to relearn life's basic tasks: opening doors, getting dressed, brushing his teeth. Most days, he wore a body cast and sweatpants and struggled to get around.

Despair and anxiety about the future flooded his head, he said. Abbott leaned on constant encouragement from his mother and his wife, Cecilia. He spent his bedridden hours reading about politics, an interest he developed in high school.

Where he once dreamed of life in private practice, he now began thinking more about politics. "Certainly things get changed and rearranged when you have an injury like this," he said.