Opinion

Don’t blame Wendy Davis for the things Wendy Davis made up

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Wendy Davis’ gubernatorial campaign is crumbling around her. Having shot to national prominence for a failed filibuster protecting late-term abortions that most Texans — and Americans — abhor, Davis decided to take on Greg Abbott, a shoo-in for governor who had millions in his war chest before Davis had even begun to consider throwing her hat into the ring. And while Davis is heavily backed by the pro-abortion lobby, she seems to have forgotten the state she’s trying to represent is Texas, not New York or California. She’s been trying to run a campaign based on issues like gun control in a state that loves their guns, and seems fond of insulting the Texans she wants to govern. It’s no wonder the polls look bleak for her.

Unfortunately for Davis the race, which was never in her favor, doesn’t seem to be looking up either. The Dallas Morning News ran a damning expose on Davis, revealing that her rags-to-riches, self-made woman tale of a struggling single mother who put herself through law school and made it to the state legislature with nothing but hard work and ambition is almost a complete fabrication.

Davis was, in fact, a single mother for a few months. She did get her college degree, and then attended Harvard Law School. But the reality is that she was 21 when she got divorced, not 19, and that she married a man, Jeff Davis, who paid for her to go to school and took care of the children she left behind while she went to Cambridge to fulfill her ambitious dreams. The day after her husband made the last payment on her student loan, she left him, and he maintained custody of both children, including the child that her ex-husband fathered. She said that it just “wasn’t a good time” for her. Motherhood is all about picking and choosing when you feel like raising your kids, after all.

She also isn’t new to lying about her past. Davis also lied under oath in 2012 that she was 19 when she got divorced, and not 21.

Rather than taking the usual politician’s route of fake apologies after being caught in a lie, Davis decided to completely abdicate responsibility and blame Greg Abbott. That’s right, according to Wendy Davis, Greg Abbott is the one responsible, claiming that Wayne Slater, the reporter who broke the story, got the story from the Abbott camp. Davis went further on her Twitter account, claiming that Abbott had sunk to a new low by attacking her family and her character, and called him out of touch with the struggles Texas women face. It’s hard to tell which struggles she’s referring to. The struggle of ditching your kids in order to further your career? Deciding whether one should wait a day or a week before leaving their husband after using him for his money? Yes, these are truly the struggles of the Texas everywoman.

Slater himself clarified that he had no contact with the Abbott camp, but what if Abbot had been the one that leaked the story? Is Davis really going to blame Abbott for the lies that she chose to spread?

Unsurprisingly, the pseudo-feminist camp is already coming out in defense of Davis, despite the fact that she has been caught in a series of blatant lies. Tanene Allison, for example, claims that a “gang of men in Texas are trying to burn State Sen. Wendy Davis on a proverbial stake.” Ah, yes, the horrors of men not allowing a pathological liar to continue with her pathological lies. Or, over at Pandagon, the idea is to just act as if it never happened.  Davis has admitted that she misrepresented details about her background, but evidently, because she’s a woman, no one is supposed to acknowledge or be bothered by that. Modern-day feminism means never being held accountable.

Perhaps the issue of exaggerating her background isn’t much on the scale of weighty political scandals, but it certainly still is damaging to Davis. She has been caught lying multiple times, and when caught, rather than owning up and apologizing, she’s dodging blame and attacking her opponent. Is this someone who is truly ready to be a governor? Davis’ handling of this scandal shows how woefully unprepared she is for the national stage, no matter how much of a hero she is to the pro-abortion movement.

Cassy Fiano