Are Dems still claiming they are going to turn Texas blue?

AUSTIN, Texas, June 12 (Reuters) – The front-runner for the Texas governor’s race, Republican Greg Abbott, has kept a solid lead over Democratic challenger Wendy Davis in their bids to run the economically and politically powerful state, a poll released on Thursday said.

State Attorney General Abbott, 56, leads state Senator Davis by 12 percentage points, widening an 11-point lead he had in a similar survey taken in February, the poll by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune found.

Republicans have won every statewide election in Texas since 1994, helping turn the state with a $1.4 trillion a year annual economy into an incubator for conservative policies that are often copied by other states.

Davis, 51 gained national attention last year when she donned pink running shoes and spoke for 10 hours in a filibuster against new abortion restrictions. This week, she replaced her campaign manager in what analysts saw as a bid to energize a stagnant push for the governor’s mansion.