Wendy Davis’ new memoir details the Texas candidate’s abortions

The political memoir is a strange thing. For politicians seeking major office, it’s almost a requirement, and it’s governed by some unwritten rules: It should be relatively uncontroversial, it should feature stories about the candidate rising above adversity and, if possible, it should have a picture of the politician’s photogenic family, preferably with a golden retriever.

That’s why the political world was shocked when it was revealed that Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor, writes about undergoing two abortions in her new memoir “Forgetting to Be Afraid,” in stores Tuesday. Both pregnancy terminations, Davis writes, were for medical reasons.

It’s hard to overstate how unusual this is. Candidate memoirs are banal by design; the vast majority of them are, as Casey N. Cep writes in Politico, “a yellow brick road where heartless prose, brainless policy prescription and cowardly confession meet.”

One of the only exceptions, as San Antonio Express-News journalist Peggy Fikac notes, also came out of a Texas gubernatorial race. In 1989, then state treasurer Ann Richards published “Straight From the Heart,” a memoir in which she revealed her struggle with alcoholism. Richards was elected governor the following year.

President Obama, of course, revealed his experimentation with marijuana and cocaine in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” But the book was released in 1995, years before he sought major political office.

It’s hard to predict what effect Davis’ memoir will have on the gubernatorial race, but it’s difficult to see how it could help the state senator, who has been consistently trailing Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate, in polls. Texas remains a deep red state, and its voters have been historically hostile to abortion. (This morning, Abbott’s campaign suggested Davis’ memoir, and accompanying book tour, might amount to “illegal corporate contributions.”)

But for Davis’ supporters, of course, that’s not the point. They’re likely to see her revelations as an act of personal courage, devoid of any political calculations. And whether she wins or loses, the memoir is bound to increase her national stature -- which may be why she chose to throw away the rulebook that for decades has governed political memoirs.