Texas Democrat faces questions about background
Wendy Davis, a Democratic star who hopes to become Texas governor, is trying to explain away small but nagging inconsistencies in a personal story that has been instrumental to her early success.
Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, burst on the national scene last summer after filibustering for more than 11 hours to briefly block state passage of stiff antiabortion legislation. Her physical stamina was impressive, but even more so was Davis’ bootstrapping back story: a divorced single teenage mom rising from the trailer park to Harvard Law School and a successful legal and political career.
Then on Sunday, the Dallas Morning News published a report raising questions about the details and chronology of the story Davis and her campaign have put forth.
The essentials are true: a hard-luck background, serious obstacles, personal striving, substantive achievement. But it turns out Davis was 21, not 19, when she divorced, and she lived in a mobile home for only a few months before moving into an apartment with her daughter. Her second husband helped pay for her final two years of college and her Harvard education, a fact omitted from her campaign website, which mentioned only academic scholarships and student loans.
None of that is likely to sink Davis’ candidacy, but the dust-up hardly helps — especially as voters are just getting to know the candidate. Davis already faces an uphill climb in strongly Republican Texas.
“My language should be tighter,” Davis told the Morning News. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”
On Monday, Davis released a chronology of her life, along with a f lurry of tweets and a statement: “I’ve always been open about my life not because my story is unique, but because it isn’t.”