Texas Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott easily defeated state senator Wendy Davis in the Texas governor’s race.
The Associated Press called the contest shortly after 9 p.m. EST, with Abbott taking 57.5 percent of the vote versus Davis’ 41 percent.
Those returns are in line with the latest polls which put Abbott around 15 points ahead of Davis.
Abbott will replace term-limited Republican Rick Perry.
Davis came to national prominence last year following an 11-hour filibuster in which she attempted to block a Republican-backed bill to increase restrictions on abortion.
Wearing a pair of symbolic pink sneakers, Davis became a progressive darling after the session. Shortly after, she launched her gubernatorial campaign.
But campaign troubles began in January after a report surfaced that Davis had been less that truthful about several details about her life. She claimed to have been a single mother by the age of 19 who was living in a trailer park, and pulled herself up by her bootstraps to eventually graduate at the top of her class at Texas Christian University before going to Harvard Law School.
But it came to light that Davis’ ex-husband, Jeff Davis, a former Fort Worth city councilman, had a bigger hand in her success than Davis let on. Though he harbored no ill feelings towards his ex-wife, Jeff Davis said he financed her tuition at Harvard. He also said she filed for divorce soon after he made the final payment on her student loans. (RELATED: Who Is The Real Wendy Davis?)
Though she likely never had a legitimate chance in conservative Texas, the final nail in Davis’ political coffin was a TV ad her campaign released which many believed unfairly attacked Abbott, who uses a wheelchair because he is paraplegic. The ad intended to paint Abbott as a hypocrite because he has supported tort reform despite having won a large settlement from his injury, which occurred in the 1980s. (RELATED: Wendy Davis Uses Greg Abbott’s Wheelchair Against Him In New Ad)
Other Davis allies crossed the line regarding Abbott’s disability. The conservative muckraker, James O’Keefe, filmed a group of staffers with Battleground Texas, a grassroots Democratic group with close ties to the Davis campaign, mocking Abbott’s wheelchair.
And last month, The Daily Caller first reported on a Davis campaign event at which Democratic state representative Dawnna Dukes said Abbott “just rolls around.” (RELATED: Texas Democrat Said Greg Abbott ‘Just Rolls Around’)
Davis followed up that line of attacks with another accusing Abbott of opposing interracial marriage. Davis interpreted Abbott’s refusal to answer a hypothetical question about interracial marriage, which is largely a settled issue, as him failing to support it. But the accusation backfired, given that Abbott’s wife is Hispanic.
Many observers have speculated that if Davis were to lose the race, she would have a sure job at MSNBC.