Poll: Pro-Life Abbott Leads Pro-Abortion Davis in Texas Governor Race

A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll has pro-life Attorney General Greg Abbott ahead of state Senator Wendy Davis in Texas’s governor race. 

Abbott received 40% of registered voters and Davis received 34%. Only 25% of the voters remained undecided. 

“These numbers are not evidence that the underlying fundamentals are changing in Texas,” said Jim Henson, who co-directs the poll and heads the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin. “We have not seen a big change in party identification, and we don’t see any large-scale shifts in the underlying attitudes that are forming.”

Abbott faces five Republicans in the primary, but half of the Republicans said they would vote for him. The closest to him is Lisa Fritsch at 3%. 42% of them said they do not know. The pollsters found that if Davis faced Tom Pauken, she would win with 36% of the voters, and Pauken would receive 33%. Libertarian Kathie Glass polled at 6%.

It is no surprise Davis polled higher with Democrats and Abbott polled higher with Republicans. They are evenly split with Independents, with Abbott coming on top with 32% and Davis at 31%.

Davis rose to fame when she filibustered Senate Bill 5 on June 25. The bill banned abortions after 20 weeks and forced abortion clinics to face the same safety standards as other medical clinics. She swore she would talk until midnight but only went 11 hours when Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said she went off-topic. Afterwards, pro-abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood propped her up and showcased her pink Nikes.

Greg Abbott is pro-life, and in January 2013, during a news conference for the state’s “Choose Life” plates, he reaffirmed his pro-life views. 

“If you really are pro-life, you are thinking about the life of the child,” Abbott said, “and once you start putting exceptions into that, you’re saying that there are certain children who really are not worthy of life.”

When he was 26 years old, a tree fell on him and suffered a back injury. He has been in a wheelchair ever since. His accident only reenforced his stance on abortion. 

“As I laid there motionless on the ground, gripped with pain, as helpless as a child in the womb, I knew my life had changed forever,” he said. “Some people think it’s easy to write off the lives of the disabled or the different. But every day, God reminds us that all life has value, no matter the form.”