After her failed gubernatorial campaign, Texan Wendy Davis is trying to dissect exactly where she went wrong.
In an interview with the San Antonio Express-News, Davis walked back her earlier support for open carry and expanded gun rights. She admitted that saying she supported those ideas was just shameless pandering in her quest for the governorship.
“There is one thing that I would do differently in that campaign, and it relates to the position that I took on open carry. I made a quick decision on that with a very short conversation with my team and it wasn’t really in keeping with what I think is the correct position on that issue,” she told the paper.
Her position on open carry didn’t sway Republicans and ended up just alienating her from the Democratic Party.
“Though I certainly support people’s right to own and to bear arms in appropriate situations, I fear with open carry, having watched that issue unfold during the campaign, that it will be used to intimidate and cause fear,” she said. “What I do know is that as an elected public servant, I’ve always been true to my core beliefs. Always. And I’m so proud of that,” she said. “And this was the only time I felt like I’d strayed a bit from that.”
Davis lost her race badly, by more than 20 points to Republican Greg Abbott. She did worse than any other Democrat in the state and the negative rating for Davis after the race was the highest for any candidate.
And yet, the only thing she says she would change is her stance on open carry, likely one of the few things she agreed with the electorate on.
If she actually wants to see where she went wrong maybe she should try listening to the voters and her fellow Texans.
