While some Democrats have avoided President Obama, Democrat Wendy Davis says “I’ve never backed away” from him and would be “thrilled” if he came to Texas to campaign for her gubernatorial bid. Asked today whether she has asked Obama to campaign with her, Davis said no. “I imagine he’s busy doing other things,” she told reporters.
Wendy Davis tells campaign volunteers in Austin early-voting figures look good for Democrats (Wayne Slater)
The issue flared earlier in the campaign when Obama, who is not popular in Texas, came to the state but Davis was campaigning elsewhere. They did meet once in Austin during a 50th anniversary symposium on the Civil Rights Act. But the meeting was private and the media weren’t invited to photograph them together.
In several states, Republican candidates in senate and governor races have sought to link their Democratic opponents to Obama and his policies. Democrats have pushed back, in some cases declining to say even whether they’d voted for him for president. Republican Greg Abbott is running an ad with their pictures side-by-side. Asked about the president, Davis denied she’s tried to avoid him.
“I would be thrilled if he or the Clintons would want to come and help,” she told reporters Wednesday at a campaign event in Austin. “I was pleased that Michelle Obama was willing to record a radio ad for me. And I’m very honored to have their support and the support of so many prominent Democrats across this country.”
Abbott was pressing the message Wednesday that Davis was an Obama acolyte. At a campaign rally in San Antonio with actor Chuck Norris, Abbott told GOP supporters a vote for Davis a vote for Obama policies.
At the Austin event, Davis criticized Abbott for refusing to say whether he would have opposed interracial marriage had he been attorney general years ago when some states banned it. Abbott has said his job as attorney general is to defend the law on the books, not pick and choose what he wanted to defended. Abbott is in court fighting a challenge to the state’s ban on gay marriage. Asked last week if he would have defended the interracial marriage ban in the same away when it was on the books, Abbott refused to answer, saying the question was hypothetical.
Davis: “I was just shocked that in the year 2014, Greg Abbott refused to answer the question of whether he would defend a ban on interracial marriage. We’ve moved decades beyond that. It was a simple question, with a simple answer. And the fact that he won’t answer it raises concerns.”