“She’s not doing as well as people had hoped, expected or wanted”

“She’s not doing as well as people had hoped, expected or wanted,” said Bill Miller, an Austin lobbyist who works with both Democrats and Republicans and who is a friend of Ms. Davis’s. “I think there were unrealistic expectations. Most people didn’t know who she was until she stood up on that floor and did her filibuster. It’s like being shot out of a cannon in that situation. Nobody lives their life shot out of a cannon. It’s a grind. She’s grinding. They’re expecting a rock star, and she’s finding her stage voice.”…

Skeptics note her poor performance in largely Hispanic South Texas in the Democratic primary in March; she lost at least 16 counties near the border to Ray Madrigal, a small-town judge who did little, if any, campaigning. It was a minor glitch in the primary fight, which she won easily, but it illustrated the larger difficulty Ms. Davis has had honing her identity and vision beyond her abortion filibuster and the party’s liberal base.

“I think you could really say it’s in a place where it’s gotten away from them, where it really probably is impossible to bring it back,” said a Democratic strategist who worked for the Davis campaign in its early stages and who did not want to be identified because of continuing involvement in Democratic politics. “It’s such a failure to take advantage of the opportunities that they were presented with, and really translate that into something. The campaign has never been as good as Wendy is.”