Wendy Davis Raises An Incredible $16 Million, Still Losing In The Polls

Wendy Davis is a fundraising dynamo. Ms. Davis has collected about $16 million total, $3.6 million of which comes from out-of-Texas contributors. According to the Wendy Davis Campaign, she has contributors in every state. Unfortunately, dollars don’t vote, Texans do.

Ms. Davis is the Texas state Senator who made the headlines with her passionate 11-hour filibuster to block Texas Senate bill 5, which would create more restrictions on abortion. Ultimately, her filibuster failed; the Lt. Governor declared that Senator Davis had gone off topic and had to leave the floor. The senate then passed the bill.

Nevertheless, Wendy Davis continued her political fight. She leveraged her new-found fame and the appeal of her cause to become the Democratic nominee for the governor of Texas. She is running against Attorney General Greg Abbott and she is losing.

At least, mainstream polls give Greg Abbott a statistically significant lead on Wendy Davis.

As with most campaigns that don’t create momentum, Wendy Davis is changing her tactics.

Last week, she replaced her campaign manager Karin Johanson, described as a respected Democratic political operative. The new manager will be a Texan state representative Chris Turner, a Democrat with plenty of experience appealing to Texas voters.

The message has been getting a revamp as well.

Instead of a pure stand for reproductive rights, Wendy Davis has been slowly re-imaging her filibuster to be about women’s health issues. Senate Bill 5 would have also made certain procedures, like cancer screenings, more difficult for some women to get.

Retooling the campaign to appeal to Texans only makes sense, but for Wendy Davis that might prove difficult. What about all those out-of-state contributors who paid for a reproductive-rights warrior that struggles against conservative Texan society, rather than acquiesces to it.

Trying to walk a tight-rope.

Eric Cantor, the third most powerful Republican in congress, lost his House Seat to David Brat, Tea Party-backed candidate. The most shocking part of the story: Eric Cantor raised about $5.5 million; David Brat raised a little over $100,000. What does that mean for Wendy Davis? Money isn’t everything.

In the end, Wendy Davis’ campaign might prove that being a liberal superstar is completely incompatible with being a Texas Governor.

Until then, Senator Davis will have to try to keep her current economically generous supporters happy, while appealing to a broader conservative audience. It will be a treacherous tight-rope to walk.

If Wendy Davis moves too far to the right, she’ll lose her liberal spotlight. If she doesn’t move at all, she probably won’t be governor.