Wendy Davis’ new memoir appears to have something in common with her Texas gubernatorial candidacy: nobody’s buying.
According to Slate, which obtained sales data from Nielsen BookScan, the state senator, who is running against Republican state Attorney General Greg Abbott, has sold just 4,317 copies of her book, “Forgetting to Be Afraid,” since it was released Sept. 9.
As Slate notes, Nielsen BookScan does not record all book sales — including those at independent retailers. But including those sales, Slate estimates that the book has sold fewer than 6,000 copies in the seven weeks since its release.
By comparison, Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sold 70,000 copies of her memoir, “A Fighting Chance,” within a few months of its release, Slate reports.
And a book released just a day before Davis’ — David Limbaugh’s book “Jesus on Trial” — has sold 65,000 copies.
Limbaugh’s book sold more copies last week — 6,778, according to Nielsen — than Davis has mustered all together.
Corroborating these paltry sales figures, Davis’ book ranks 12,612 in Amazon Kindle sales while its hardcover version is the 3,784th most popular on the site.
Davis’ gubernatorial bid was fueled by her high-profile filibuster of a Republican-backed bill to regulate abortion last summer. Despite the failed effort, Davis generated widespread media attention which was parlayed into an energetic campaign.
Davis’ book was highly anticipated as well. Most major media outlets reviewed it, and it generated buzz because of the candidate’s bombshell revelation that she had had two abortions, both for medical reasons.
But Davis’ campaign has faltered of late. Earlier this month, in what some saw as an act of political desperation, Davis hit the airwaves with a commercial that was seen insensitive for opening with a scene of a wheelchair. Abbott is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. Though the ad was meant to paint Abbott as a hypocrite — it argued that the disabled Abbott has unfairly pushed for tort reform — it backfired on the Davis campaign.
And though Davis still holds out hope of upturning traditionally conservative Texas — even telling comedian talk show host Jon Stewart earlier this week “I’m going to be the governor” — she trails Abbott among all voters by 14 points, according to the latest average of polls. She event trails by double digits among female voters, according to one recent poll.