POTOMAC FALLS, Va. — Facing a group of suburban women in Virginia on Thursday, with gun control advocate and former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords at her side, former state Sen. Wendy Davis spoke of regrets about her campaign for Texas governor.

During a tough battle in 2014 against Greg Abbott, the Republican who defeated her for the job, Davis supported open carry laws for handguns. She took a “qualified position,” she told the crowd, one that would allow municipalities, private businesses or hospitals a choice in whether to allow guns. But today, she says she wishes she had been a stronger proponent of gun control during the race.

“The problem is that I missed an opportunity to have a conversation with voters," she said. "I could have played a pivotal role on educating voters on an issue that matters,” to help influence public opinion on gun reform.

Davis is appearing with Giffords and other Democrats this week in Virginia, a battleground state in the presidential race, in a bid to make gun law reform a key issue in the campaign and to push for candidates who support those efforts. Chief among them: Hillary Clinton.

Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, is on a 14-state "2016 Vocal Majority Tour" to urge voters in favor of gun reform to go to the polls. Thursday's event in Loudoun County, Va., is part of a direct appeal to suburban women in key swing states during the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (second from right) appeared Thursday in Loudoun Co., Va., with former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords in a push for gun law reform and for candidates who support those measures. From left to right: Pia Carusone, head of Americans for Responsible Solutions; Jessica O'Connell, executive director of Emily's List; Virginia state Delegate Kathleen Murphy; Giffords; LuAnn Bennett, Democratic candidate for a Virginia congressional seat; Davis; and Lori Haas, Virginia state director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. (Katie Leslie / Staff)

Pia Carusone, with whom Giffords co-founded the Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, said the goal is to build a coalition strong enough to push back on powerful gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association. It's a message they hope will resonate in states like Virginia, where a mass shooting occurred in 2007 at Virginia Tech.

Gun violence and women, Carusone noted, made it to the forefront of the presidential race this week as Clinton and Republican Donald Trump clashed over the issues in their third and final debate Wednesday.

Trump boasted that he has the backing of the NRA and that, if elected, he will appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will “not do damage to the Second Amendment.” And he took Clinton to task for her previous criticisms of the 2008 Supreme Court ruling in the District of Columbia vs. Heller case, which affirmed an individual’s right to bear arms.

Clinton responded that she supports the Second Amendment and sees no conflict between the law and enacting gun control measures, such as expanded background checks on gun buyers.

The gun issue surges to national prominence with each high-profile shooting. After the June massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Democrats staged a dramatic sit-in to push for new gun restrictions, including expanded background checks and banning sales to people on federal terrorism watch lists. Both parties unveiled gun reform legislation of varying degrees, but the measures went nowhere amid Republican concerns that some of the proposed laws would infringe upon Second Amendment rights.

Davis, who has stumped for Clinton throughout the year, said she believes that many Texas lawmakers privately support some change in gun laws, such as prohibiting the sale of guns to people on terrorism watch lists. But many lawmakers fear backlash among die-hard gun-rights voters and lobbyists, she said.

“Voters who vote on gun issues will show up at the polls in every election," Davis said. "Only when candidates and officeholders believe that voters of a different mind are going to likewise show up in force, voting on that issue as their primary and important cause, are we going to see the needle move.”

The Texan, who rose to national attention for her roughly 12-hour filibuster of Texas’ abortion laws in 2013, has been floated as a potential Democratic challenger to Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race.

On Thursday, she reiterated that she hasn't ruled out the possibility and suggested that the results of the presidential race in Texas could influence her decision.

“I’m very anxious to see what happens in the presidential [race] and how Texas performs,” she said. “We need to field someone for that race, and I’ll be happy to support whoever it is who comes forward.”