A new poll indicates that Wendy Davis has failed to charm Texas women with her empty rhetoric about claiming to care for women's health. Last summer, Wendy Davis rose to stardom when she filibustered Texas' headlining Pro-Life bill in a 12-hour standoff with the clock. Thanks to a special session ordered by Texas' Pro-Life Governor Rick Perry, legislators got a second chance to represent their constituents and voted HB2 — supported by the majority of Texans — into law. Davis had been canonized by the President of the United States, the liberal media, and feminist organizations all over the country by the end of the battle, and suddenly a new gubernatorial candidate was having her coffers padded by some of the wealthiest abortion promoting organizations and individuals in the country.
Off to what was perceived as a strong start as the Democratic nominee for governor, Davis began criss-crossing the state with tidy speeches about how much she cared for the education of Texas children (never mind her total opposition to their Right to Life), and the high regard in which she held women's health (never mind the fact that she filibustered a bill full of provisions specifically written for women's health). Davis, however, avoided mentioning her support for abortion on the most public legs of her campaign trail (although she was happy to do so when the cameras weren't rolling).
Perhaps Davis knew that her extreme position on butchering the pre-born was not shared by the majority of Texans — not even the majority of Texas women. Rhetoric about their “right to choose” and “women's reproductive rights” would fail to move the women of Texas, who are solidly Pro-Life on abortion. So Davis simply avoids the topic on her campaign trail, even choosing to defiantly skirt the question of when she believes life begins.
Unsurprisingly, the more Texas women learn about Davis, the less they like her. As a result the favorability/unfavorability ratings of her opponent are the opposite of her own — and they bode much better for the Republican, Greg Abbott, who is currently Texas' Attorney General. According to the report (emphasis added):
…Greg Abbott's at 51% to 37% for Wendy Davis. Those numbers are largely unchanged from our last poll of the state in early November when Abbott had a 50/35 advantage. Davis had a 39/29 favorability rating right after her famous filibuster last June, but since then voters in the state have mostly moved toward having negative opinions about her and now she's at a 33/47 spread. Davis' name recognition is actually 12 points higher than Abbott's, but his reviews break down favorably with 40% having a positive view of him to 27% with a negative view.
A graphic in the report reveals that Davis’ favorability among women is only 32%, and her unfavorability is much higher, at 46%.