Backlash to Planned Parenthood’s Davis endorsement misplaced

The leaders of Planned Parenthood and its political arm in Texas, Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, are no strangers to political controversy.

But they probably weren’t expecting to elicit a ferocious backlash over endorsing a legislator who is a longtime advocate for women’s health and LGBTQ rights, in addition to being prochoice.

Granted, the legislator in question — state Rep. Sarah Davis, who has represented House District 134 in Harris County since 2010 — is a Republican. But still.

In a normal political environment — or rather, the kind of political environment which we would all like to see, and routinely exhort our political leaders to build — there would be no controversy over such an endorsement.

The pushback began even before Planned Parenthood Texas Votes last week announced its endorsements in this year’s Texas House races. Davis was the only Republican to earn the group’s nod, along with a slate of Democratic challengers and incumbents, including state Reps. Jon Rosenthal of Houston and Gina Calanni of Katy.

Davis, an attorney by training, has won the group’s support in previous election cycles. And already, this year, she had been backed by Equality Texas and the Human Rights Campaign, and not for the first time. Both of those organizations are focused on LGBTQ rights and are, like Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, nonpartisan organizations — albeit in a context where few Republican elected officials openly align with them on the issues.

A petition circulated by Sherry Merfish, a former Planned Parenthood board member, had argued that in 2020, the stakes are simply too high for that organization to endorse Davis. Democrats have set their sights on retaking control of the Texas House this year, in advance of 2021’s redistricting cycle, and the district Davis represents — a highly affluent and educated one, encompassing West University Hills, Southside Place, Bellaire

and a bit of Houston — is a blue one, at least on paper.

The petition, which was signed by hundreds of Texans, argued that although Davis is pro-choice, the rest of her record is at odds with the overarching goals of the Democratic Party: “Sacrificing a pro-choice Democratic majority this election to keep a Republican in office, no matter her stance on reproductive justice, cannot be justified.”

It continued: “We are not single-issue voters because we do not lead single issue lives.”

So Planned Parenthood Texas Votes’ decision to endorse Davis anyway, despite the preemptive push back, was a divisive one.

“The only way to end the 10year epidemic of Texas’ deadly anti-choice laws is for Democrats to retake the Texas House,” said Davis’ Democratic opponent, attorney Ann Johnson, in a tweet. “I am profoundly disappointed Texas Planned Parenthood has ignored the voices of our local community and is now standing in the way of that overarching effort.”

This line of argument is plausible, and must be compelling to many Democratic voters in this still-red state. Johnson is a longtime supporter of reproductive rights and justice herself, as well as being aligned with most of the Democrats in the Texas Legislature on issues such as gun rights. And, of course, every seat that Democrats flip bring them one step closer to the majority, at which point they would be able to pass legislation through the chamber, at least, without scrounging up support from the handful of Republicans willing to cross the aisle, from time to time.

But it’s also easy to understand why Davis would have earned the confidence of an organization such as Planned Parenthood Texas Votes over the course of the past decade.

In addition to being the only openly pro-choice Republican in the Texas Legislature, Davis is a key voice when it comes to funding for women’s health programs, given her role as the chair of Article II — health and human services — on the House Appropriations Committee.

She’s also one of the few legislators of either party who has a record of standing up to her own party, and reaping the consequences. The most dramatic example of this came in 2018, when Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed Davis’ primary challenger, conservative attorney Susanna Dokupil, and accused Davis of misleading her constituents by refusing to campaign as a Democrat. Among the issues Abbott raised that year was Davis’ support of reproductive rights.

Dokupil’s challenge failed, and Davis, on primary election night, used her victory speech to explain why.

“On a state level, if we continue to govern from the fringe or from the far right, the election results that we’re seeing tonight should be perfectly predictable, because that’s not who Texans are,” she said. “Regardless if you’re a Republican or Democrat, we’re Texans and we care about each other. We just want some common sense governance. If we continue to elect leaders who want to focus on very fringe issues, this party — my party — is going to continue to suffer losses.”

Davis is also — and perhaps not coincidentally — one of the relatively few elected officials in these polarized times with a record of electoral success in the face of strong headwinds. In 2016, she won reelection by 10 points, even as Democrat Hillary Clinton carried her district in that year’s presidential race. In 2018, Davis bested Democrat Alison Lami Sawyer by 5 points in the general election, during what was otherwise a countywide “blue wave.”

In other words, the voices of the local community, as expressed at the ballot box, have been speaking in Davis’ favor. That may change in 2020, of course. But in the meantime, it’s hard to fault the nonpartisan groups that have looked at Davis’ record, and decided to support her return to the legislature.