PHILADELPHIA — Former Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis wouldn’t rule out a challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz when asked about her ambitions at the Democratic National Convention.
Davis, who did “unusually” poorly in her gubernatorial bid, was speaking at a women’s event at the Democratic Convention when the Washington Examiner asked her about whether she would consider running against Cruz when his term is up in 2018.
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know,” she said. But then she smiled and added: “We’ll see what the future holds.”
Earlier in the evening, when asked by the Examiner if she would ever consider running again, Davis said she would consider it.
“I hope to run for office again one day,” Davis said. “I don’t know if I will, honestly, but I miss being in public service and I feel like I have something to offer and I hope I have the opportunity to run some day.”
She wouldn’t say if she had any regrets about her gubernatorial campaign, but did say she “learned a lot of lessons.” Hopefully lessons like: Don’t use your opponent’s disability in an attack ad.
So what has Davis been up to since her failed 2014 campaign? For the past few months she has been a surrogate for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and has started her own organization called “Deeds Not Words” that helps young Democratic women become active in the “gender equality movement.”
“I meet young women all the time who are very passionate about gender equality and they’re looking for ways to get in, and my organization is a way for them to find different paths to get into activism,” Davis said.
She also held a garage sale where she sold many of her clothes and belongings, and even a pair of the pink sneakers she wore when she protested an abortion bill for 11 hours in the Texas senate.
During her remarks at the event, which was sponsored by Emerge 2016, another left-leaning organization that recruits and trains women to run for office, Davis spoke about how she became involved in politics. She said that at some point while she was on the Fort Worth City Council she was approached by a Democratic women’s group called Annie’s List, which helped support her in running for Senate and the governor’s office.
Hint, hint, Republicans: That is three left-leaning groups helping women get involved in politics, and that is by no means an exhaustive list. Get your act together.
Davis also said she would have supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders if he had been the nominee, and criticized Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“I think it’s really important that we pull together and do everything we can to advance our collectively shared ideals and to prevent people like Donald Trump from becoming the president of our country, communicating his message of hate to our children, appointing our next supreme court justices,” Davis said. “There’s too much at stake for us to let that happen.”
As for the remaining Sanders supporters who refuse to back Clinton, Davis had a message for them.
“What I would encourage is for the people who supported Bernie to own the victories that they’ve had in shaping the platform of the Democratic Party,” Davis said. “There’s no question that the individuals who were a part of that campaign made possible the movement — the progressive movement — of our platform.”
She added: “I think there’s so much to take pride in as a country because of that. And I hope, you know, that when we get through the immediacy and the hurt feelings, I hope there’s some ownership of that. Those folks made a difference and I hope they see that; they certainly did.”
That’s a much better message than what some Clinton supporters have been telling Sanders supporters, which is to shut up and get in line.
Would Davis have a chance against Cruz in 2018? Unlikely. She lost spectacularly to Gov. Greg Abbott, and even though Cruz’s image has taken a hit from his failed presidential run, he’s still a strong conservative in the Senate from a deeply red state.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
