The 32-year-old daughter of Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, said Tuesday her mom likely would stay in politics if she loses on Nov. 4, although she said she does not see that happening.
“Her heart is in politics so I think that she would do something in that realm … but fortunately, she’s going to be governor, so we don’t need to talk about that,” Amber Davis told reporters outside Howson Public Library in West Austin, where she cast her ballot during her lunch break on the second day of early voting.
The latest poll of likely voters shows Wendy Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, trailing her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, by 15 percentage points.
The younger Davis, who lives and works in Austin, said her mom is “running on adrenaline fuel” leading up to the election, but that “she’s very enthusiastic. She’s very energized.”
She said she talks to her mom every day, usually at night, but does not campaign with her every day because she works full time.
The most challenging part of the campaign for her mom, she said, has been that it is a “grueling process.”
“She has very thick skin, so the criticism doesn’t really affect her as much,” she said. “It is hard to be that way but she knows the end point, she knows the end goal and that’s what she focuses on.”
Besides the fact that Wendy Davis is her mom, Amber Davis said she was voting for her because she “has the back of all her Texas constituents” and would “fight for them every day,” as governor.
Jackie King, who also cast her ballot at Howson on Tuesday, said Wendy Davis would be “a breath of fresh air.”
“I think Greg Abbott is part of the good old boy network,” she said, noting she tends to vote for Democrats and women.
A group of three male co-workers who rode together to the library to vote said they were supporting Abbott because they think he is the best candidate and someone who shares their beliefs, namely, fiscal conservatism.
Nick Williams said he was supporting Abbott because he was “fiscally conservative, socially liberal.”
His co-worker, Royce Imhoff, joked that Williams thinks Abbott is socially liberal because Williams is “right of Attila the Hun.”
The third co-worker, who did not want to give his name, said “everything I know of Wendy Davis scares the daylights out of me.”
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