AUSTIN—Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, expressed pride in her debate performance and confidence in her campaign at a political forum hosted Saturday afternoon in Austin.
The night before in Edinburg the Fort Worth Democrat debated Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican running for governor, in the first of two scheduled debates for the governor’s race.
In an interview with the Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith, Davis reiterated her position to increase public education funding, institute universal pre-kindergarten and expand Medicaid, even if it required using executive action from the governor’s office.
She disputed criticism that has been raised in the campaign that she inappropriately used her public position to benefit herself financially.
The senator, who is trailing in the polls in the GOP-heavy state, said she was optimistic that she would win in November, citing a recent internal poll that showed her trailing by single digits.
“I trust our numbers, I trust our message, and most importantly, I trust the people of this state,” she said.
Abbott declined an invitation to the event.
“I had an opportunity to show a stark contrast between these two people who are asking to serve Texas as its next governor, and I think I was able to demonstrate…that I will be a governor who will fight for the people of this state,” she said about last night’s debate.
During the debate the candidates had a chance to ask each other one question. Abbott asked whether she regretted voting for Obama, a president who is very unpopular in the state. Davis didn’t answer the question then.
On Saturday when asked again she said, “No, I don’t regret it.”
Davis continued her call for universal pre-kindergarten in the state, a plan that she said would be enacted on a sliding scale—offered free to low-income families and at some cost for families who earn more money—and estimated the price tag to be around $700 million for the state.
On Medicaid expansion, Davis offered that if elected she would consider using executive action to accept the federal funding, given the unlikeliness of the issue being taken up by the GOP-dominated Legislature. Texas Republicans have resisted expanding Medicaid, arguing that the costs to the state would soar in future years.
Davis said Saturday that expanding Medicaid would bring hundreds of thousands of jobs to the state and that passing on the expansion meant sending Texas tax dollars to other states that have accepted the federal money.
“We have an opportunity to bring our own tax dollars back to Texas and make them work for us,” she said.
Questions have been raised throughout her campaign about potential conflicts of interests in votes she made first as Fort Worth Council Member and later as a senator. The Dallas Morning News reported that Davis voted as a council member on projects that benefited her title insurance business.
In 2006, when developers wanted to transform an aging hotel they asked for a $21.5 million incentive from the city. Davis pushed Fort Worth City Council to approve the incentive.
A deed of the sale showed that the title company Davis owned with her former husband held the title to the hotel. It’s not clear how much the title company earned from the $11 million hotel sale.
On Saturday, Davis said that in her position as head of the Fort Worth Economic Development Committee she had supported numerous incentive deals. Her “number one focus” in every deal was whether the incentive would bring money and jobs to the community, regardless of who was doing the title work, she said.
“There was never any kind of quid pro quo in the work I did,” she said.
The next debate between Davis and Abbott will be Sept. 30 in Dallas.