Wendy Davis and Open Carry

Date

Feb 7, 2014

Notes

Was Wendy Davis smart to embrace open carry? I think not. In the end, a lot more of her core constituency will be disappointed than will be elated. And I don’t see that she has much to gain. Greg Abbott long ago wrapped up the support of the gun toting crowd (I seem to recall a certain cover of a certain magazine with a certain shotgun) and there is no way Davis can compete for it. This isn’t a huge misstep, but it does reinforce the narrative of a campaign and a candidacy that doesn’t know what it is doing.

Comments

David Siegel

Agree. Maybe it gets gun control off the table as an issue, but that wasn’t going to change many minds anyway.

Democrats aren’t going to fool anyone. They should run as Democrats and try to convince voters they are right, not pretend they are just like Republicans.
Beerman

This action is appealing to many moderate Independents in Texas. And, there are a number of us that are tired of the Tea Party radicals in the Republican Party, and the ultra-liberals in the Democratic Party. She needs our Independent support and votes to have a chance against Abbott. Pretty smooth move on her part.
- Jed
  
  political science says independents aren’t, not really. in texas, independents should break for the republican regardless of the campaign narratives, at least 60/40, and i say that without looking at data. it may be even higher than that.
  
  so, no. the strategy has to be to appeal to disaffected leftists.
  
  and she ain’t doing that.
  - Beerman
    
    I would guess that it was 80-20 before TP’ers took over Rep Party, and is more like 50-50 today, and changing daily.
    
    Are “disaffected leftist” similar to “infected rightist”?
    
    Time will tell on Davis campaign strategy……
  - Blue Dogs
    
    Obama is a CANCER to Democrats everywhere in the midterms
Jon

It would have been a smarter move to do it during the period between her campaign announcement in September and Wayne Slater’s DMN article last month — that would have made the move look more proactive than reactive. Now? It will probably help in a close race, but that will likely requires some gaffes from the Abbott campaign or unexpected setbacks in the state’s economy that makes more moderate voters less tied to maintaining Texas’ status quo.
- Blue Dogs
  
  In other words, 2014 must be the last Republican sweep of all statewide offices
  - Jon
    
    Their best chance in ’18 is probably if they can still nationalize the election and run against Washington. Which would mean it’s probably better for them if Hillary wins in 2016, so Abbott could force Juan Castro to defend or distance himself from whatever she’s done in her first two years in office (obviously this only works also if Texas’ economy continues to out-perform the U.S. as a whole. The last time the Democrats won the governorship, in 1990, was before the late ’91 recession but after the S&L debacle, when Texas’ economy was lagging the national totals and GHWB was in the White House. That opened it up for Ann Richards and Claytie’s faux pas out in Jeff Davis County sealed the deal).
    - Blue Dogs
      
      Castro would then hit back and say Abbott and the Republicans have been in power since 1994 and serious issues such as cuts to education and health care have been ignored
      - Jon
        
        Running San Antonio right now — at a time when, thanks to Eagle Ford, it would take a politician of epic incompetence to screw up the city’s economy — means Castro should have a far better stand-alone record to run on in 2018 than Davis does in 2014, to avoid being tied to the national party.
        
        But there still will be a bit of a nationalization to the ’18 campaign if the Democrats control the White House. And it can’t help but be linked to Washington politicos since Ted Cruz’s seat will also be up for election.. Then it again will come down to how Texans overall see their state government running vs. the nation as a whole and how closely tethered they see the Democratic Party’s nominees to the beliefs of the national party (and also how competent the new team of Republicans are seen in running Texas in the 2015-18 period — Abbott could be an inept chief executive or suffer blow-back from things coming out that occurred on Perry’s watch that would affect the state voter dynamic)..
      - Blue Dogs
        
        Abbott’s problem is that he never served in the Legislature: which is going to be a huge problem since Straus will run all over him in the 2015 legislative session, you watch.
nickthap

Maybe she’s actually for it. Ever thought of that?
Max Powers

The problem most of the people advising Wendy Davis come from the Legislature where scoring points is easy because there is something to score against. Outside the Legislature these guys and gals do not have little to no institutional knowledge about the executive branch, and how it should be perceived.

As it is right now Wendy looks like she’s running for State Senate rather than Governor.
John Bernard Books

fooled me…she earned my vote.
John Bernard Books

The only thing Windy will be carrying is the stack of cash she’s been promised for running.
Crosbo

So what’s wrong with Wendy believing and supporting Open Carry? I’d much rather she (and all candidates) openly express and support their beliefs. Rather than hide or fake support and ultimately be falsely elected.
- don76550
  
  Wendy Davis is no supporter of your gun rights. She sat in 3 legislative sessions and never introduced a single pro gun bill including open carry. Instead she voted against pro gun measures. Davis is a liar who is trying to use the gun issue to obfuscate her extreme radical liberal views.

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