Wendy Davis
A year ago, Wendy Davis was an unknown state senator in Texas. No one knew or cared about her political career — at least, not on the national stage. But then she had her attention-grabbing filibuster in order to allow Texas women to continue to kill their babies after the 20th week of pregnancy. She was hailed as a hero by the pro-abortion lobby, even though her filibuster failed spectacularly. Her filibuster didn’t keep Texas legislators from voting, and the bill ultimately passed later in a special session anyway.
While the filibuster didn’t let Davis accomplish her goal of allowing gruesome late-term abortions to continue, it did catapult her into the national spotlight, and unsurprisingly, she ultimately announced that she would be running for governor of Texas.
Wendy Davis’ campaign finance filing came out this week, and over at Beltway Confidential, Timothy Carney has some interesting analysis:
Wendy Davis, running for Texas governor on the strength of her stand in favor of late-term abortion, raised nearly $3.80 million in the second half of 2013. Nearly $1.07 million – 28 percent – of that money came from outside of Texas, according to my analysis of her campaign finance filing.
… In fact, the biggest out-of-state contributions Davis lists are all cash or in-kind contributions from pro-choice groups. EMILY’s List contributed $135,000 in cash, plus $25,000 in speechwriting and $4,761 in postage. Planned Parenthood and its affiliates have contributed more than $60,000 between cash, list rental, staff time, and other in-kind gifts.
NARAL has been fundraising for Davis, which accounts for more than $18,000 in in-kind contributions. Naomi Aberly, who sits on the board of Planned Parenthood’s lobbying arm, spent more than $10,000 as an “event expense” for Davis. Aberly has deep connections in Texas, but Davis’s campaign reports her as living in Boston.
Fully a quarter of Davis’s out-of-state money, then, is directly attributable to the cause of legal abortion. Considering Aberly’s and NARAL’s fundraising for Davis, and Planned Parenthood’s providing mailing lists to Davis, probably most of that million in out-of-state money was motivated by her standing up against abortion restrictions.
This isn’t entirely surprising, considering that the majority of the support she enjoyed during her attention-grabbing filibuster wasn’t coming from Texans. The majority of Texans supported the bill Davis fought to keep from passing, after all, so it’s not likely that they would be too thrilled about her efforts to protect late-term abortion in their name.
Abortion advocates are extremely invested in this gubernatorial race. Texas remains, to their despair and dismay, a largely pro-life state. Their hope is that, with Wendy Davis in office, Texas can become more of a pro-abortion state. It doesn’t matter that Texans don’t agree with them — likely why Davis has remained largely silent on the issue and, most appallingly, tried to claim that she was against late-term abortion. She even insulted the Texans who don’t agree with her.
Wendy Davis doesn’t seem to have much of a chance of winning this election, but if by some chance she does, it’s important to remember that the abortion lobby played a huge role in putting her there. And it also is important for pro-lifers to pay close attention to this race — it is a perfect example of why it is so important for us to be active politically.
Pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Emily’s List, along with abortion industry titans like Planned Parenthood, are extremely invested in getting pro-abortion politicians elected into office. They’re willing to put in time, money, and manpower, which means that pro-lifers must do the same. Wendy Davis is currently an extremely notable example, receiving millions from out-of-state thanks to her abortion industry backers, and it’s something for pro-lifers to keep in mind each election season.
