DALLAS — Former state Sen. Wendy Davis says it’s unfathomable that massacres like those in Uvalde and most recently Highland Park, Illinois, have become “normal” in American society.
And she says she views life a bit differently now that she’s a grandmother to two granddaughters.
“Just this overwhelming idea that they’re not safe no matter where they go and how wholesome the activity they’re participating in is just incredibly sobering and terrifying at the same time,” Davis said on Inside Texas Politics.
Despite Congress passing the most extensive gun control bill in decades last month, reaction has been somewhat muted.
Davis, who mounted a losing bid for Congress in 2020, says that’s because it always feels like the country is taking one step forward, two steps back.
She points out that at the same time lawmakers passed the gun control legislation, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that required citizens who wanted to carry a handgun in public to show a need to defend themselves.
Watch the segment below:
Davis became a national name in 2013 when she led a 13-hour filibuster on the floor of the Texas Senate to block a bill that included more abortion restrictions at the time.
She does think the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe, will motivate Democrats to show up at the polls in November.
But she wonders, like many other political analysts and consultants, whether the economy will still trump every other issue.
“I think it will be very motivating, not just for Democrats, but for people across the political spectrum, independents and moderate Republicans as well,” said the Democrat. “Right now, of course, most people are really concerned, justifiably so, about the economy.”
The question now becomes whether Democrats have the patience to play the long game, a slow methodical approach to changing abortion law that could take years or even decades, just like conservatives did the past 50 years while slowly chipping away at Roe.
“The desire to just burn it down and find quick solutions is real and strong. And I feel the same way,” she told us. “But I’ve been involved in this long enough to understand that we only have the ability to get through and change issues like this based on our political systems. And if we play a role, a vital role, in doing that, we can move the needle forward.”