WILLisms:
Of non-Texas Democrats in places like New York City and San Francisco, Wendy Davis is perhaps among the dozen or so most popular figures in political life today. Herfundraising from liberals in liberal bastions bears that out. Ronan Farrow and the rest of the MSNBC crowd love her.
In Texas, though, not so much.
The Texas Democrats’ primary performance Tuesday was an unmitigated disaster, and the performance of Wendy Davis was particularly abysmal.
The Austin American-Statesman set up a few benchmarks the day before the primary:
“So is all the hoopla around Wendy Davis and Battleground Texas just so much hype, or are Democratic prospects truly better than four years ago?
“A first test will be whether the party primary draws more than the 680,000 voters who participated four years ago, and if Davis exceeds White’s 517,487 votes in a seven-person field. One would assume that a healthy number of new voters registered by Battleground Texas’ 5,700 volunteer deputy registrars would want to take advantage of their first opportunity to exercise their franchise.”
At last count, with 8,742 of 8,745 (99.97%) reporting, Wendy Davis had just 432,025 votes, or 79.05% of the primary vote in a two-person race. All told, 546,480 Democrats voted in the 2014 primary.
Failure, in other words.
If you’re someone who has given millions of dollars to this effort, you’re fuming and/or depressed today. Send in the auditors. Send in the adults. Double down. Or retreat entirely.
Compare the Democrats’ figures to the Republican nominee Greg Abbott’s numbers. Abbott received 1,219,831 votes, or 91.50% in a four-way primary race. 1,333,010 Republicans voted in the 2014 primary. Those figures may change ever-so-slightly, as 8,825 of 8,829 (99.95%) of precincts are now reporting.
But what is really astonishing is that Wendy Davis lost 26 mostly-South Texas counties and tied in two more (click for larger version):
Additionally, in 22 other counties, no Democrat votes were reported. As in none. Zero. Which happens on both sides. It’s a big state with some very rural and remote areas. But still.
Davis versus Abbott (click all of these for larger versions):
Abbott versus his competitors:
Davis versus her competitor:
And 2014 versus 2010:
In 2010, Bill White received 76% in a field of seven opponents, including an extremely well funded one. How could we ever forget the hair product magnate Farouk Shami:
I guess when you don’t have any candidates but for flash celebrity candidates, you can’t help who you have to run, but when will the Democrats learn that these people aren’t much use once their 15 minutes is all used up? And, if and when they con their way into office, they prove disastrous?
Wendy Davis still has a job, her state Senate seat.
Come November, she will be unemployed. And like the left deserted Cindy Sheehan when she had exhausted her usefulness, so too, will they desert Wendy Davis. She will find that no one wants to take her calls.
Handwriting is on the wall. Perhaps she can try her hand at practicing law.