Not looking good for Wendy Davis.
New question in Texas Can Davis survive defeat - Yahoo News
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) — It's a sunny afternoon just before the election and Wendy Davis isn't addressing an arena packed with adoring supporters, speaking on national television or working a hotel ballroom of top donors.
Instead, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor is in a soldier's backyard in an especially conservative corner of the state that she has no hope of carrying, addressing 30 campaign volunteers as they slap at stinging fire ants.
Davis' campaign, which began with sky-high hopes among Democrats nationwide, is nearing the finish line facing seemingly insurmountable odds. The state senator dares critics to count her out, but her well-funded and popular Republican opponent, state Attorney General Greg Abbott, looks so unstoppable that the question now looming over the race is whether defeat will reduce her to a spent political force.
"Not everybody's going to win the first time. She'll be back," said Alfred Nairn, a retiree at the backyard event in Killeen, a town of fast-food joints and billboards emblazoned with religious slogans. The community of almost 140,000 is anchored by Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. military posts in the world.
Davis, 51, built a national brand and showed more sizzle than most unsuccessful candidates. So even a sizeable loss could leave her with more appeal than any southern Democrat in recent memory. But her challenge will be retaining enough notoriety to capitalize on her state's booming Hispanic population, which holds the potential to help Democrats eventually end a 20-year, longest-in-the-nation losing streak in statewide elections.
Win or lose, Texas Democrats insist, Davis will remain atop the party alongside rising state stars such as Julian Castro, who stepped down as San Antonio mayor to become the nation's housing secretary and has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee in 2016.
Since Davis is giving up her Fort Worth-based Senate seat, she could take her national profile to a political think tank or a job as a television pundit.
"She does well on TV. That's a pretty well-tried path for people like her," said Matt Bennett, former aide to President Bill Clinton and Al Gore and co-founder of the moderate Democratic group Third Way. "That is a path she might be happier on anyway. She of all people knows how tough it is to win in Texas."
But Cathy Bonner, who was a close confidant to Texas' last Democratic governor, Ann Richards, said Davis isn't "as jaded as a pundit."
"She's very sophisticated in politics and elections," said Bonner, also a Davis donor. "I don't think she would ever be that."
Since Richards' day, most Democratic gubernatorial candidates have disappeared from the political landscape after defeat. That includes Gary Mauro, who was beaten by then-Gov. George W. Bush in 1998. Mauro said the state party would applaud any future political moves Davis makes, including possibly challenging tea party-backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2020.
"I would hope that she do that rather than take the pundit route," he said. "I think most Texans feel the same."
New question in Texas Can Davis survive defeat - Yahoo News