Wendy Davis made headlines earlier this year with her abortion rights filibuster heard around the nation. In September and October, she teased the Texas body politic with her gubernatorial guessing game.
After bursting into the race in early October with a big announcement in Fort Worth, the Davis campaign has hit the ground running, from Brownsville, to 鈥� Pharr, Texas?
So where鈥檚 Wendy Davis? That's what is asking.
The current dean of Texas political writers and senior executive editor at , Burka sat down with KUT鈥檚 David Brown to discuss the Davis campaign.
First up: why aren鈥檛 we seeing more of on the stump?
鈥淭his is a race in which she needs to introduce herself to the state,鈥� Burka says. 鈥淎 lot of people know her, but a lot of people don鈥檛. We don鈥檛 have much of an idea what her message is going to be, and I don鈥檛 think they've gotten to that point yet. But I do think it鈥檚 going to be very important for her to start talking about issues at some point.鈥�
Burka adds that most new campaigns take time to decide on strategy 鈥� but these decisions need to be made early on.
鈥淭he Davis campaign has been slow to make those decisions,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a 鈥榯oo many cooks spoil the broth鈥� issue with them. There鈥檚 Battleground Texas, people from Washington and other Democratic groups that all want a piece of it.鈥� And so the question is, how are they going to shape a campaign?
鈥淔or Davis, this means deciding what her issues are, what her strengths are and what her opponent鈥檚 weaknesses are,鈥� Burka says.
鈥淭he ability to craft a message is really what campaigns are all about and so far, Davis hasn鈥檛 crafted a message and we don鈥檛 know what it would be. If she鈥檚 smart, which I think she is, she鈥檒l stay away from the abortion issue, but you have to have a message. What I see a lot in these campaigns is you have a candidate with a personality, but they don't have a message.鈥�
Copyright 2020 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit . 9(MDAxODQzOTgwMDEyMTcyNjI4MTAxYWQyMw004))
