Texas Democrats have reason to worry that state senator Wendy Davis, their Golden Girl nominee for governor who won national political stardom with her filibuster of an abortion bill last year, has come out of her primary a little tarnished.
Republican attorney general Greg Abbott emerged as his party’s nominee with over 1.2 million votes representing over 90 percent of ballots. Davis won 79 percent of the vote against her unknown challenger, Corpus Christi municipal court judge Ray Madrigal, but failed to clear even 435,000 votes in the Democratic primary.
Despite her victory, Davis lost a wide swath of Hispanic South Texas, including Laredo and McAllen. She may have trouble holding on to the Hispanic vote. Abbott is fluent in Spanish, has a Hispanic wife, and staged his victory celebration at Aldaco’s restaurant, about a mile from the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. He pledges his campaign will pose a “real threat” to Democrats who need Hispanic votes in order to win.
He certainly will be well-funded in that effort. Abbott has three times more money in the bank than Davis, leading her in the “fundraising primary” by $30 million to $11 million. A new University of Texas poll shows him with an eleven-point lead over Davis.