AUSTIN, Texas — This is a tough time to be Wendy Davis. Always viewed as a long shot in the Texas Governor’s race, she dropped even further in the polls after several weeks of ill-advised attacks that were viewed as mocking her Republican opponent Greg Abbott’s disability. Her campaign is almost out of money, while Abbott enters the last week of the race with more than $13 million cash on hand. Now, recently disclosed sales figures for her memoir, Forgetting to be Afraid, show that the book is selling extremely poorly — especially in light of how much positive national press attention Davis has received promoting the book.
According to Slate’s Betsy Woodruff, Nielsen BookScan numbers showed that only 4,317 copies of the book had been sold since its September 9th release date. Woodruff notes that the BookScan numbers do not include sales from many independent book retailers, “so the actual number of copies sold is probably higher, although still likely below 6,000.” As a comparison, Woodruff notes that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren — also a much-celebrated heroine for the political left — sold more than 70,000 copies of her memoir, A Fighting Chance, in its first few months. David Limbaugh’s latest book, Jesus on Trial, was released the day before Davis’ and BookScan reports it has sold over 65,000 copies, including 6,778 just last week.
Noting the troubles facing Davis’ campaign, Woodruff remarked that her book and campaign “are telling reminders that hype only takes you so far.”
In addition to failing to boost her campaign, Davis’ book may end up causing her headaches after the election. As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the apparent collaboration between her book publisher and campaign and the intertwining of their interests led Abbott’s campaign to file a complaint against Davis with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.
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