Texas Governor Race 2014: ABC News' '14 For '14'

Texas Governor Race 2014

ByABC News

January 28, 2014, 4:41 PM

Jan. 29, 2014 -- ABC News' "14 For 14" project is documenting 14 races that matter between now and November. This page will be updated throughout the year. See the full list of 2014 midterm election contests the ABC News political team is tracking.

THE PLAYERS

THE STAKES

Attorney General Greg Abbott is looking to take the reins from long-standing Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, but he's being challenged by Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis. Davis took her pink running shoes to national prominence with an 11-hour filibuster to block an anti-abortion bill last summer, handing her overnight national Democratic celebrity and a clamor for her to seek the governor's office. Texas hasn't elected a Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990, but the two Texas titans are battling it out at a time when a growing number of Hispanics and young people in the state are raising one question – could Texas be on its way to turning blue? Abbott, who's used a wheelchair since a freak running accident in his 20s, has made a name for himself as a solid conservative, battling to the Supreme Court to keep the Ten Commandments on display on the grounds of the state capitol complex in Austin.

THE OUTLOOK

Texas is one of the most reliably Republican states in the nation, with 57 percent of voters choosing Mitt Romney over President Obama in the 2012 election. Davis certainly excites the national and state Democratic base, but Abbott is widely expected to win. The Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report both list the race as solidly Republican. Regardless of the outcome, the 2014 Texas gubernatorial race will offer a glimpse at how far Democrats stand from turning the fast-changing Lone Star State at least purple, if not blue.