This was a race that didn’t draw all that much national attention outside of progressive cheerleading groups, but it’s still worth revisiting in the aftermath of yet another battle to turn Texas blue. Many of you may recall Wendy Davis, the progressive darling who drew national acclaim from liberals for her now-infamous eleven-hour filibuster of a pro-life bill back in 2013. The effort proved ineffective since the bill went on to pass anyway. She then tried to leverage the national attention she had drawn by running for governor. She experienced a similar level of “success” in that effort, being trounced by Greg Abbott by more than twenty points.
This year she decided to shoot for a more modest goal by trying to unseat Republican Congressman Chip Roy in the 21st district of the Lone Star State. I know you’ll all be shocked to learn that her efforts once again produced the same result. The Associated Press called the race earlier this morning, and while Davis did slightly better than she had in her gubernatorial bid, she still came up six points shy of finally putting one the W column. (Free Beacon)
Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) defeated progressive media darling Wendy Davis on Tuesday, marking the Democrat’s second consecutive loss since her famous 2013 pro-abortion filibuster.
Roy led Davis by 6 points when the Associated Press called the race early Wednesday morning. The Democrat’s campaign in many ways mirrored her 2014 failed gubernatorial bid—she proved popular with national liberal donors but ultimately failed to win over the district’s voters.
As the Free Beacon goes on to note, Davis’ national popularity among liberal media figures has never translated into any sort of broad support back home. Or at least not enough to win any races beyond the local, state government level. This dichotomy is reflected in her fundraising efforts. Davis remains a powerhouse in terms of being able to raise cash for campaigns, but only a meager portion of it actually comes from Texans who live in her district.
In this campaign, 85% of Wendy Davis’ campaign contributions came from outside of her district, with quite a bit of it coming from outside the state. A lot of the money came from the Soros family, along with national pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood, EMILY’s List, and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this. If you can’t get the voters in your own district to send you money, maybe they won’t wind up being all that interested in voting for you either.
The linked article does include one amusing anecdote related to Davis. Do you remember those famous pink sneakers I mentioned above? Ever wonder what happened to them? One of the editors at the very conservative Free Beacon, Brent Scher, bought them in 2016 when Davis hosted an estate sale. Davis even autographed them later the same year. There’s a little piece of political history to make you smile as we wait for the election to finally be over.
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