If the Texas governor’s race were determined by a national election, it might be Wendy Davis’ to lose. The state senator’s filibuster of abortion legislation last year went viral, giving her the celebrity and momentum to attract Democratic donors from coast to coast.

Davis succeeded in nationalizing the governor’s race, with Democrats from Alaska to Florida and from Hawaii to New York sending dollars her way for a race that will have no direct effect on them. A comprehensive analysis of Davis’ campaign finance data by the American-Statesman reveals a remarkable influx of nearly 30,000 donations from individuals outside of Texas, accounting for $6.2 million, or nearly 21 percent of her total haul — $30.5 million in donations and in-kind contributions.

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Governor money race

Governor money race

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Plot her donations on a map of the United States, and it looks more like a campaign for president than governor.

“I’m wearing my Wendy Davis T-shirt here in Alaska,” said Sarah Josephson, an attorney in her 40s who donated $100. “I saw her filibuster, and I just thought she was incredibly intriguing and strong.

“But I guess it’s not really looking good for her.”

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Governor race individual contributions outside Texas

Governor race individual contributions outside Texas

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Indeed, Davis’ renown might be of little consequence in Texas, where Republican opponent Greg Abbott holds a 16-point lead according to the latest poll. While Davis reeled in more than twice as many contributions as Abbott — about 93,000 contributions compared with 41,000 — the data show Abbott has attracted more money from more of Texas.

In total contributions, Abbott has outpaced Davis by nearly $6 million, for a total of $36.1 million.

Win or lose, Davis’ signal achievement as a candidate was building a broad donor base in Texas and nationally, which put Democratic money into Texas, as opposed to more winnable races elsewhere.

“Wendy Davis is a national figure,” said John Alford, a Rice University political scientist. Come what may, he said, Davis planted the seed in the American mind that Texas could elect a Democrat.

“It’s on the national radar,” Alford said, “and it wasn’t before.”

But that success could potentially be upended by a loss on Nov. 4 and bring with it lasting hurt to Democrats, said Daron Shaw, a University of Texas political scientist.

“You wonder at the back end,” he said, “if she does lose, and she loses in double digits, does that make the donor base even less likely to fund any more candidates in Texas?”

The donor breakdown

The Statesman reviewed hundreds of thousands of transactions from July 1, 2013, to Sept. 25, the end of the most recent campaign finance reporting period, for the governor and lieutenant governor races.

In the lieutenant governor race, Republican Dan Patrick, a state senator from Houston, has raised more than $12 million in donations and in-kind contributions, but much of that was spent in a contentious Republican primary and runoff. Meanwhile, Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, a state senator from San Antonio, has raised $5.5 million and is trailing in the polls by double digits. Out-of-state individual donations aren’t a significant factor for either candidate.

In the governor race, the analysis found Davis attracted about 14,000 donors from states other than Texas, many of whom gave more than once. Abbott netted about $1.4 million in individual out-of-state donations, or less than 4 percent of his total. The figures don’t include contributions from political action committees, or other entities such as law firms or trusts.

Davis collected nearly $1.6 million from donors in California, about $1.1 million from New York and nearly $1 million from Massachusetts. Abbott donors in those states gave a total of about $345,000.

It’s no surprise that Davis is a national figure, and Abbott, the state attorney general, is not, says Sherri Greenberg, a UT political scientist.

“Nobody knows about Abbott outside of Texas,” Greenberg said. “The number of contributors is what I find interesting.”

In Texas, where Abbott out-raised Davis $29 million to $18.6 million in individual donations, his donor map blankets the state, while she failed to garner contributions from wide swaths of conservative Texas. Yet Davis, making her first run for statewide office, received many more individual contributions in Texas — about 64,000 to Abbott’s 38,000.

Abbott enjoyed a monumental head start, with nearly $21 million in the bank on June 30, 2013, to Davis’ $1 million, enabling the Republican to outspend Davis even as her three fundraising arms strained to nearly keep pace.

Since July of last year to the end of this September, the Abbott campaign spent $30.5 million, and the Davis campaign spent $26.4 million.

Dane Strother, a Democratic media strategist in Washington, says those numbers don’t show the hidden victory in Davis’ underdog campaign. She produced a treasure map of sorts.

“So much of politics is about voter files and contributor lists,” Strother said. “She has built a national list. If she gets beaten badly does that hurt that list? Sure it does, but it’s better to have it than not.”

But Jennifer Stevens, a Republican strategist based in Austin, said the utility of those lists are likely to wilt if the campaign fails.

“That love at first sight kind of thing fades,” Stevens said.

Big and small money

Both Davis and Abbott collected slightly more than $5.5 million from political action committees and other special interests, though Davis collected more from entities beyond state lines — about $2.2 million.

Abbott’s money came from the usual thick array of Republican business and political interests, many with dealings before the state of Texas, where it’s been 20 years since Republicans have lost a statewide election. Abbott’s top individual contributor was Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who donated a total of $900,000 before his death in December.

Davis’ top donors included Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List, which back abortion rights and together gave more than $1 million to Davis in cash and in-kind services. Attorneys Steve and Amber Mostyn, the state’s top Democratic donors, gave her nearly $2 million in money and in-kind donations.

But small donations were a major factor for both candidates. For both the Davis and Abbott campaigns, more than half of their individual donors gave less than $50 per donation.

Davis’ strategists are among those whose innovations helped the successful campaign that elected President Barack Obama, which along with social media, cultivated a vast network of small donors willing to give more later.

Davis’ fundraising filings are replete with that kind of small-dollar “tithers.”

In Bethel, Alaska, a town of about 6,000, it is Dr. Scott Walker, who set up direct withdrawals from his account online, giving $100 in six payments.

Walker said he donated because he saw Davis’ filibuster and thought she “was somebody who had reached her limit and wasn’t afraid to do something so confrontational.”

“I follow it closely,” he said of the race. “I know that she’s behind.”

Then there’s Casey Lutton in Nashville, Tenn., who makes his living moving drums and amps for session players; he signed up a year ago to give Davis $25 a month.

“It seemed to me like she had a pretty severe uphill battle against the Republicans in Texas, and she was going to need all the help she could get,” Lutton said. “Since Citizens United, there are a lot of those wealthy people who have a lot to give, and I think it’s kind of up to a whole lot of little guys to band together and give a little.”

In Texas, Abbott has tithers of his own.

Judy Scarbrough, a retired elementary school teacher, in Andrews, in the oil and gas stronghold of the Permian Basin, has been giving Abbott $50 a month since this time last year.

“I really like him; I talked to him,” Scarbrough said. “And I don’t like his opponent.”

She’s seen Abbott twice, at campaign appearances at a hamburger place in Midland and at an air terminal between Midland and Odessa.

“We met at some kind of company that builds compressors. That’s our way of life, and he went to the heart of our way of life,” Scarbrough said. “He seems to care about people in West Texas.”