TEXAS: Greg Abbott And Wendy Davis Easily Win Gubernatorial Primaries

Anti-gay GOP Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis today both coasted to easy wins in their respective primary bids to succeed Gov. Rick Perry.

Abbott clinched the Republican nomination for governor and Davis locked up her party's selection, thereby making official a showdown poised to become a record-shattering arm's race of fundraising in a Texas gubernatorial election. In another sign of a rightward drift, state Sen. Dan Patrick, who drew heat from even fellow Republicans for bemoaning an "invasion" of immigrants coming across the Texas-Mexico border, appeared headed for a runoff in the lieutenant governor's race with longtime incumbent David Dewhurst.

Democrats set on breaking the nation's longest losing streak in races for statewide office, meanwhile, hoped a charismatic headliner in Davis would turn out long-dormant voters. Davis, who catapulting to national political stardom last summer with a nearly 13-hour filibuster over abortion restrictions, is the first female gubernatorial nominee in Texas since Ann Richards in 1994. Her underdog campaign has raised $16 million so far behind a whopping 91,000 individual donors and big checks from abortion-rights groups.

 Davis endorsed marriage equality last month.