Wendy Davis Says Texas Not a Red State

Texas gubernatorial hopeful and Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis asserted on Thursday in an interview with statesman.com, “Texas is not really a red state, it’s just a non-voting state.”

Davis, who gained notoriety for her 11-hour filibuster against a bill that would have banned late term abortions, may be engaged in wishful thinking rather than admitting the facts about Texas. Since 1994, Republicans have won all of Texas’s 29 statewide offices, giving the state the longest streak of single-party dominance in the country. 

These statewide offices include governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state comptroller, land commissioner, and agriculture commissioner, three seats on the Texas Railroad Commission-which oversees the energy sector-and nine seats each on the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. It bears repeating: not one Democrat has won any of these seats in twenty years.

Moreover, Republican Rick Perry is the state’s longest-serving governor. Perhaps Senator Davis doesn’t recall that in the last two presidential elections, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney took Texas in a 57% to 41% landslide over Obama, which was slightly larger than McCain’s landslide over Obama in 2008. The last Democrat elected governor was Ann Richards in 1990, the same year the Macarena was the latest dance craze and Cheers was the hottest sitcom.

Making statements that are less than accurate puts Ms. Davis on familiar ground. In January, Dallas Morning News revealed that, contrary to her official State Senate bio, Wendy Davis was never a single teenage mother: “Davis was 21, not 19, when she was divorced. She lived only a few months in the family mobile home while separated from her husband before moving into an apartment with her daughter.”

Recently, the gubernatorial hopeful has been grilled by the media for her “desperate” flip-flopping on key litmus test issues for the Lone Star state. As a state Senator, the NRA gave Davis an F rating on gun rights due to her voting history against laws expanding the freedom of Americans to carry guns. But now as a candidate for Governor, Davis is supporting a proposed “open carry” law that would allow Texans with concealed gun licenses the right to carry a handgun on their hip, in full view, while in public.

Davis also now is bending her stance on the issue of abortion, prompting critics to rename her as “Gumby.” Last week, Davis told the Dallas News that she now favors a ban on late term abortions.