The bill Ms. Davis sought to block will soon be passed, but that is not the only comedown liberals here will have to contend with in the months to come.

Texas Democrats, moribund for a generation, look at the response to the senator and the inexorable changing face of the state on the horizon and find reasons for optimism. Yet for all the energy that Ms. Davis, 50, has injected into her party, and before that all the chatter about the impact of Texas’ shifted demographics on the state’s politics, Democrats face a daunting challenge in trying to win the governorship next year.

The problem: Texas is still a very conservative state.

Ask Democrats in Austin if they can win the governor’s race next fall and the answers betray that reality. Euphemisms like “long-term process” and “nothing happens overnight” are uttered as stand-ins for a simple affirmative reply.

Democrats have not won the governorship for nearly a quarter-century, not since Ms. Richards’s mother, Ann, was elected in 1990. They have not captured any statewide office since 1994. Next year, they will most likely face Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who already has more than $20 million in the bank. And, as they always do when there is a Democrat in the White House, they will have to walk a tightrope between distancing themselves from an unpopular president and not angering their pro-Obama base.