Uh oh, Wendy Davis’ life story not what it seems
She left her husband the day after he made her last student loan payment
Wendy Davis rose to national prominence when she conducted a filibuster to block a Texas bill restricting non-medically necessary abortions after 20-weeks. For that position, which is wildly unpopular, Davis became the next Elizabeth Warren — the Great White Hope in pink sneakers.
Erick Erickson dubbed her “Abortion Barbie,” which led to howls of sexism. But as I explained in Why is “Abortion Barbie” off limits for Wendy Davis?, Barbie and Ken analogies in politics are quite common. Erickson’s remark was directed not at Davis’ gender, but her self-professed ignorance of the Kermit Gosnell House of Abortion Horrors. That someone running on a pro-late term abortion platform didn’t know about the biggest abortion story of the year made her look, well, like a plastic impression.
Like Elizabeth Warren, whose life story does not hold up to scrutiny, Davis appears to have narrative problems, as detailed today by The Dallas Morning News, As Wendy Davis touts life story in race for governor, key facts blurred:
Wendy Davis has made her personal story of struggle and success a centerpiece of her campaign to become the first Democrat elected governor of Texas in almost a quarter-century.
While her state Senate filibuster last year captured national attention, it is her biography — a divorced teenage mother living in a trailer who earned her way to Harvard and political achievement — that her team is using to attract voters and boost fundraising.
The basic elements of the narrative are true, but the full story of Davis’ life is more complicated, as often happens when public figures aim to define themselves. In the shorthand version that has developed, some facts have been blurred.
Davis was 21, not 19, when she was divorced. She lived only a few months in the family mobile home while separated from her husband before moving into an apartment with her daughter.
A single mother working two jobs, she met Jeff Davis, a lawyer 13 years older than her, married him and had a second daughter. He paid for her last two years at Texas Christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston. When they divorced in 2005, he was granted parental custody, and the girls stayed with him. Wendy Davis was directed to pay child support.
In an extensive interview last week, Davis acknowledged some chronological errors and incomplete details in what she and her aides have said about her life.
“My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”
To summarize the rest of the article, which of course you should read in full, her second husband paid her way through her last two years of college and all of Harvard Law School, he raised their two daughters for whom she didn’t even fight for custody. She left her husband the day after he made her last student loan payment:
When she was accepted to Harvard Law School, Jeff Davis cashed in his 401(k) account and eventually took out a loan to pay for her final year there….
Over time, the Davises’ marriage was strained. In November 2003, Wendy Davis moved out.Jeff Davis said that was right around the time the final payment on their Harvard Law School loan was due. “It was ironic,” he said. “I made the last payment, and it was the next day she left.”
Not exactly the story her campaign previously told, as the Dallas Morning News pointed out:
“With the help of academic scholarships and student loans, Wendy not only became the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree but graduated first in her class and was accepted to Harvard Law School,” her website says.
Will it matter? A misleading personal narrative didn’t hurt Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and doesn’t hurt her among progressives because they don’t care any more than they cared about Bill Clinton abusing his power over a young female intern to elicit sexual favors.
But Texas isn’t Massachusetts, and the Texas electorate doesn’t sleep with copies of The Nation and Mother Jones under their pillows.
Here’s how one of her supporters describes her:
A former colleague and political supporter who worked closely with Davis when she was on the council said the body’s work was very time-consuming.
“Wendy is tremendously ambitious,” he said, speaking only on condition of anonymity in order to give what he called an honest assessment. “She’s not going to let family or raising children or anything else get in her way.”
Then there’s this little tidbit dropped by the Dallas Morning News:
In his initial divorce filing, Jeff Davis said the marriage had failed, citing adultery on her part and conflicts that the couple could not overcome. The final court decree makes no mention of infidelity, granting the divorce solely “on the ground of insupportability.”
We have a lot of Texas readers here. How’s that true narrative going to play?
(Featured image source: New York Magazine)
Comments
Well, I may be one of those people who helped to “create” this monster – we knew her father, so when she first ran for City Council in our district, my husband and I both voted for her. She seemed harmless enough at the time, so we voted for her to be our local state representative.
Unfortunately, once she made it to state office, the gloves came off. We didn’t vote for her after that – she got too big for her britches. We never told her father that, of course – he was a very nice man, and you don’t speak ill of a person’s children to their face.
He passed away a few months ago (complications from surgery), so we don’t feel obligated to rein in our disgust for this woman’s behavior any more.
The abortion thing might not be a deal-breaker for some people in this state, but abandoning her children may well be a bridge too far even for them.
I don’t think that she is going to win in Texas. That sort of bio sounds more conniving than uplifting. Using that husband to pay for her last two years as an undergrad, and then HLC, and letting him raise her kids while she spent 3 years in Boston, just doesn’t work with a lot of middle America. And, I don’t think that it will help her that the reason that her ex-husband gave for filing for divorce was that she was sleeping around – after he took the kids and put her through law school back east. There are places that sort of bio works, but not, I suspect, in Texas. I am thinking up here in Colorado it might be just the thing – you expect that sort of thing from Dems, and give them leeway. Or, maybe Virginia. Both states have a lot of transplants, and may be moving to the left as a result. Virginia, in particular, seems to almost revel in the sleaziness of its politicians. She would fit right in, with their new governor.
We don’t need Wendy Davis to be our next governor here in Texas! She tells lies, she promotes abortion like its apple pie which kills innocent babies. She makes herself out to be something she certainly is not; a Texas success story. I was born here and my family has been here over a 100 years. So when has Texas started promoting lies, abortion, divorce and gay rights?
“Sen. Wendy Davis’s camp announced her campaign manager is
Karin Johanson, who managed the bid of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly
gay member of the U.S. Senate and first woman in Wisconsin to hold the post.”
If you all want Texas to stay Texas don’t vote for this woman. (I only called women ladies if they deserve it).
And don’t the liberal left have enough states that they have ruined? Don’t give them Texas!
Democrats are all about theater and personal ambition. Raising children is something many see as unworthy and not related to success and definitely something one should not site as one’s greatest achievement. Abortion to them is the great career tool. It gives THEM options and I have yet to get one single Democrat to view a video of an abortion being done on an unborn baby. Seeing another human killed is not something they have time to witness, nor do they care about the victim. Character is theater to them, morality is not a factor. I am certain many reading even this comment will go off in angry rage. I pray Texas voters consider character, willingness to sacrifice one’s self for others as being more relevant to political office than theater. She is acting as her own theater coach when she says: “My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”
I guess I don’t understand. You should never vote for a candidate that is pro choice even though that is law of the federal government for the last 40 years. Pro Choice will never be changed and regardless would not affect you directly since you or your family of course would not have an abortion? Smoking Marijuana would be another Pro Choice- you don’t have to smoke it. Gay Marriage- again Pro Choice- you don’t have to marry if you are gay. Why are these political issues that will not help you or my family have a successful life?
What’s bothering me:
If a guy had married a woman, gotten her to pay for his college and then dumped him … he’d be skewered.
I have seen and have heard of cases where a guy has a GF from his undergrad days, he enjoys her feminine charms, then finishes his grad school / law school, and promptly dumps the woman who has stood by him, and gets a new high status trophy. Rightfully so he is pilloried.
I’ve seen it personally where women have done the same thing. But, that said – women are MUCH better at spinning it “we just drifted apart” – meanwhile she wanted to be emotionally supported and sexually fulfilled and then dumps her man to find a high status male who will “go in the same direction as her”.
That alone – that she so BLATANTLY used another human being for years, and then unceremoniously dumped her kids – means she is a vile excuse for a human being.