Grace, most of the people she talked to before running discouraged her from running. I was among those, and a number of other big donor that I know and talked to did the same. Not because we thought she wouldn't run a good campaign, so much, but because the demographics of Texas are such that NO Democrat can yet win a Statewide race. She heard that advice loud and clear. One of the dominant theories as to why she ran is that :1) she didn't enjoy being in the minority in the Texas Senate; and 2) because her district is essentially the only swing district in the Texas Senate, she was going to face a very spirited reelection challenger who would exxentialky have unlimited money (and she would be running in a hostile 6th Presidential year environment for Democrats).
Her decision was still flawed in my view because she had mo chance in the governor's race, but had probably a35 or 40% chance of winning her Senate seat.
Originally Posted by TexTushHog
I agree with the opinion that her run might reasonably be viewed as ill-considered at this time, but think I might have looked at the choice a bit differently if I were in her shoes.
It seems to me that if she has enduring political ambitions, but chose not to strike now, she'd be running against an incumbent in 2018. And that's generally a rather difficult task, unless your opponent conveniently shoots himself in the foot. Also, she's been a hot, high profile item recently, while she must have realized that she had a rather tenuous hold on her senate seat. In politics, as is the case with so many other things, one often needs to strike while the iron is hot.
But I think there was an even more compelling reason for Wendy Davis to go for it now.
Even a failed gubernatorial candidate is a very high profile individual. Perhaps some law firm would lust after the opportunity to put her name in its masthead, especially since she has a Harvard law degree.
And, at 51 years of age, she probably has very little net worth, since she chose to go into public life rather than to practice law for an extended period of time. Assuming that Wendy Davis (like most of the rest of us) likes travel and a lot of other nice stuff, it's reasonable to assume that she might want to establish some financial security for her retirement years.
To that end, there are few things quite like pulling down a 7-figure annual income for a decade or so.