Just 36% of Texas Voters Support Abortion Activist Wendy Davis

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 24, 2014   |   2:29PM   |   Austin, TX

Abortion has never been popular at the polls and abortion activists Wendy Davis, whose sole claim to fame is standing up against a bill to stop late-term abortions on viable babies, gets the support of just 36% of Texas voters in a new poll.

Greg Abbott, who is pro-life, starts the general election race for governor with an 11-point lead over Davis, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

In the governor’s race, Abbott would beat Davis 47 percent to 36 percent in a general election held today, with 17 percent of registered voters saying they have not made up their minds about which candidate to support, according to the poll.

wendydavis11“We’ve been talking since the beginning of this race about whether anything would be different, and we’re not seeing anything that’s different,” said Jim Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “There was some talk about how Davis had done better in our last poll, and that was partially an artifact of her rise in the fall, and we’re seeing something of a reassertion of the normal pattern.”

In the October survey, Davis’ announcement and sudden political celebrity cut the Republican’s lead over her to 6 percentage points. Now, the distance between the two has widened a bit.

“The story of the last four months is, Davis loses a couple points, Abbott gains a couple of points,” said Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll and a professor of government at UT-Austin. “He had a pretty good couple of months. She had a pretty bad couple of months, all without many people paying attention.”

Before they get to the general election, each faces a primary election. On the Republican side, the poll found Abbott well ahead of his rivals, with 90 percent support among likely Republican voters, followed by Miriam Martinez at 5 percent, Lisa Fritsch at 4 percent and Larry Secede Kilgore at 1 percent. Davis leads Ray Madrigal 87 percent to 13 percent among likely Democratic voters.

This month, Davis was confused and struggling with which position on late-term abortions will appease the most people. Does she stick with her initial position filibustering against the Texas ban on late-term abortions — so she can stay the darling of the abortion proponents at Planned Parenthood and NARAL? Or does she flip-flop and support such a ban, sticking with the overwhelming majority of Texas residents.

Davis appears to have decided to “dance with the one that brung ya” by keeping her loyalties to the nation’s abortion industry.

As Davis campaigns to become governor of Texas, she is undertaking a campaign to play down her fierce support of abortion on demand and her infamous filibuster of a bill to stop abortions up to the day of birth in Texas.

As a result, Davis is continuing her campaign to reform her image as an abortion activist as she attempts to moderate her extreme views enough to placate a Texas electorate that is solidly pro-life. Davis has already downplayed her pro-abortion views and is attempting to focus on other political issues, and attempted to pull a fast one in her campaign for governor by declaring herself “pro-life.”

Yet, during a speech recently, Davis called abortion “sacred ground” and indicated she may run for governor. Later, she indicated she thinks pro-life women “don’t understand” abortion and she showed she has no understanding of the Kermit Gosnell case.

The last Democrat to be elected Texas Governor was Ann Richards in 1990. Since then, the Democratic nominee has lost every gubernatorial election.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is seeking the GOP nomination to replace pro-life Governor Rick Perry, who is not planning to run again next year. Prior to assuming the office of attorney general, Abbott was a justice on the Texas Supreme Court and was appointed by former Texas governor and President George W. Bush.

At age 26, Abbott was struck by a falling oak tree that injured his back as he jogged by. He has used a wheelchair ever since and has become an eloquent pro-life advocate — speaking up for both the disabled and the unborn.

The accident serves as a reminder that regardless of someone’s circumstances, he or she deserves a chance at life, Abbott has said.

“As I laid there motionless on the ground, gripped with pain, as helpless as a child in the womb, I knew my life had changed forever,” he said at the National Right to Life convention in June.. “Some people think it’s easy to write off the lives of the disabled or the different. But every day, God reminds us that all life has value, no matter the form.”

Abbott, a rising Republican Party star, who is pro-life on abortion, is the leading contender with Perry not running. Abbott already has millions in the bank for a statewide bid.