Notes:  The race to succeed retiring Gov. Rick Perry (R) was closely fought, closely watched, and costly, but the result was not close as Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) defeated state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) by an unexpectedly wide margin of more than 20 percentage points.

Abbott was elected Attorney General in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 and 2010.  Previously he served five years on the Texas Supreme Court after being appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to fill a vacancy; earlier he was a state district judge in Harris County, and an attorney in private practice.  He has used a wheelchair since 1984, when a oak tree fell on him while he was jogging, leaving him paralyzed below the waist.  He announced his candidacy for governor on July 14, 2013.  Former Texas GOP chair Tom Pauken was also running, but ended his candidacy in December, and Abbott won the Mar. 4, 2014 Republican primary with 91% of the vote.

Davis was elected to the State Senate representing District 10 (Fort Worth) in 2008; previously she served as a member of the Fort Worth City Council.  From being single mom working as a waitress and living in a trailer park, she went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.  On June 25, 2013 Davis gained national attention (#StandWithWendy) for her nearly 13-hour long filibuster of SB5, a bill strengthening regulation of abortions.  She announced her bid for governor on Oct. 3.  Davis handily won the Mar. 4, 2014 primary, defeating Reynaldo "Ray" Madrigal by 78.08% to 21.92%.

Also on the November ballot were Kathie Glass (L) and Brandon Parmer (G).  Glass, an attorney, was also the Libertarian nominee for governor in 2010 and the party's nominee for Attorney General in 1982.  She ran an active campaign emphasizing the concept of nullification.  Her website reports she "traveled 40,000 miles to all 254 counties in Texas in her tour bus" and "raised and spent over $250,000." Texas is a decidedly conservative state.  Republicans have swept all statewide races since 1998, and in 2012 the Romney-Ryan ticket carried the state's 38 electoral votes by a 15.78 percentage point margin.  Nonetheless, Davis' candidacy generated excitement and hope among Democrats.  While a Davis win was a longshot, Abbott's wide margin in Nov. 2014 dealt a significant setback to Democrats' Battleground Texas efforts. 

The Texas Tribune's Jay Root describes how a combination of dysfunction in the Davis campaign and a strong turnout operation by the Abbott campaign led to the margin.  He reports on a Jan. 6, 2014 memo, where consultants warned Davis' campaign manager that, "The campaign is in disarray and is in danger of being embarrassed - both over the course of the next 11 months, and when the votes are counted in November."  They noted "the campaign has lurched to the left over the last few months" and suggested "there has been a decision made to run Wendy not as a moderate Texan who could plausibly beat Greg Abbott, but rather as a national Democrat, appealing to liberal donors in the mistaken belief that there is a hidden liberal base in Texas."  In a scathing Feb. 11 letter, the consultants wrote that "the campaign is now so far off the rails we doubt it is salvageable."  Even as Davis' campaign was reporting a record 133,600 individual donors in June, it did replace its campaign manager. 

Abbott and Davis engaged in two debates: on Sept. 19 in Edinburg (Rio Grande Valley) (>) and on Sept. 30 from KERA studios in Dallas (>).

In July 2014 the Abbott campaign reported $35.6 million on hand, the largest amount ever by a Texas candidate, and according to Politico the most of any gubernatorial campaign in the country at that time.  Spending on the race totaled at least $83 million including $47 million by the Abbott campaign and $36 million by the Davis campaign.

 

Campaign Managers:
Greg Abbott:  Wayne Hamilton
(June 2013)  Political director on Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, 2011-Jan. 2012.  Founding partner of San Jacinto Public Affairs.  Executive director of the Republican Party of Texas to end of 2003; the longest serving executive director in the party’s history.  Executive director of Texas Inaugural Committees in 2003, 2007 and 2011.  Senior campaign aide to U.S. Rep Joe Barton.  Bachelor's degree in political science and government from Dallas Baptist University, 1984.  Fifth-generation native of Ellis County, Texas.
 

Wendy Davis:  Chris Turner
(reported June 11, 2014, replacing Karin Johanson)  Texas state representative for District 101 (Arlington & Grand Prairie) since Jan. 2013.  Owner of Persuasive Deliveries, LLC in Grand Prairie since July 2009.  Senior vice president for communications at Open Channels Group, Dec. 2010-Dec. 2012.  District director (2007-08) and deputy district director (2005-06) in the U.S. House.  Campaign manager on Chet Edwards for Congress, 2000-06.  Political director for state Sen. Mike Moncrief (Fort Worth).  B.A. in government from the University of Texas at Austin, 1996.  Lifelong Texan; grew up in Dallas.

Karin Johanson
(Oct. 2013-June 2014) Principal at Dewey Square Group, 2013.  Campaign manager on Tammy Baldwin for U.S. Senate, Oct. 2011-Dec. 2012.  Principal at Dewey Square Group, 2007-11.  Executive director (from Spring 2006) and political director (2005-06) at the DCCC.  State director for ACT Florida in the 2004 cycle.  Principal at Precision Communications, Inc., a consulting firm in Silver Spring, MD.  Managed Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin's winning campaign in  2002.  Political director at the DCCC in 2000 and worked as its West Coast field director.  Communications director, then political director at EMILY's List.  Worked for U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for ten years including the last two as chief of staff.  B.A. in political science from American University.


Kathie Glass  Tom Glass
Kathie's husband.  Vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of Texas.  Before retiring he worked as a systems analyst for at ExxonMobil.  Odessa native.


See also: 
Harry Enten.  "Wendy Davis's Campaign Was Bad, But That Probably Didn't Matter."  FiveThirtyEight, Nov. 15, 2014.

Jay Root.  "Internal Memos Detail Davis Campaign Dysfunction."  The Texas Tribune, Nov. 12, 2014.

Jay Root.  "Sophisticated Turnout Machine Fueled Abbott's Big Margin of Victory."  The Texas Tribune, Nov. 7, 2014.

Tim Murphy.  "Wendy Davis Spent $36 Million and All She Got Was This Lousy Landslide."  Mother Jones, Nov. 5, 2014.

David Saleh Rauf.  "Abbott, Davis combine to spend $83 million in Gov. race."  San Antonio Express-News, Oct. 28, 2014.

Christine Ayala and Bobby Blanchard.  "In TV Airtime, a Candidate Looks Invincible."  The Texas Tribune, Oct. 24, 2014.

Paul J. Weber.  "Wendy Davis going beyond Texas for campaign bucks."  [AP] San Diego Union-Tribune, June 15, 2014.

Aman Batheja.  "Texas' Shift From Blue to Red Informs 2014 Races."  The Texas Tribune, June 6, 2014.

Peter Hamby.  "8 glimmers of hope for Wendy Davis in her bid for governor of Texas."  CNN, Oct. 4, 2013.

Jay Root.  "Davis Makes It Official."  The Texas Tribune, Oct. 3, 2013.

Katie Glueck.  "Davis vs. Abbott: 'Bruising'"  Politico, Sept. 22, 2013.

Jay Root.  "In Launching Bid for Governor, Abbott Says He's Ready to Fight."  The Texas Tribune, July 14, 2013.

Christy Hoppe.  "Greg Abbott officially announces he's running for Texas governor."  The Dallas Morning News, July 14, 2013.

Nate Olivarez-Giles.  "Stand with Wendy: Texas senator's abortion bill filibuster captivates the internet."  The Verge, June 26, 2013.


Iowa State University - Archives of Women's Political Communication: Wendy Davis.

Brian W. Smith and Thomas J. Beech.  "The 2014 Texas Gubernatorial Election and Making Texas a Battleground State."  Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Apr. 2015. [DOC]