Gov. Rick Perry rode a wave of anti-Washington animosity to victory in the GOP primary, managing to cast one of Texas’ most popular politicians, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as a D.C. villain.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White didn’t need campaign gimmicks to secure the Democratic nomination for governor. His experience and careful, understated message were enough in a race filled with under-qualified opponents.

Now, with a Perry-White match-up set for November, both gubernatorial contenders must recalibrate their messages and give voters a clearer sense of their visions for the next four years.

For Perry, it’s time to move beyond the “Everything’s swell in Texas” mantra that he used to outlast Hutchison and upstart Debra Medina.

While Hutchison’s coalition-building skills earned her this newspaper’s recommendation, the state’s longest-serving governor proved again that he’s effective on the stump. Perry’s Texas-pride theme may have played perfectly with his conservative base, but he now must connect with a wider swath of voters and get real about looming challenges.

Balancing the state’s budget is a significant one, as state leaders brace for a projected shortfall that could reach $15 billion. Perry essentially has said: Trust me, I’ve done this before. He now must offer more than vague bravado.

The governor also managed to win despite saying relatively little about issues such as education, energy and social services. To attract voters who don’t reside in the GOP’s right wing, he needs to go beyond his “Texas good, taxes bad” message.

White, too, will need moderates and independents. The former mayor represents Democrats’ best chance to win the governor’s office since the Ann Richards years, but he faces a rough road in a Republican-leaning state. His challenge will be to show Texans that he will govern from the middle, much as he did in Houston, where he managed to offer ideas that were good for both business and the environment.

White is a policy wonk in the best sense, but he has a tendency to get mired in minutiae and “on the one hand, on the other hand” answers, leaving voters wondering. In the coming months, White must develop a more precise platform and commit to specific strategies for urgent problems like transportation funding.

White faced less-than-credible challengers on his way to the Democratic nomination. And Perry triumphed in the Republican contest primarily by casting Washington as the bogeyman. Both candidates now must explain to voters what Texas would look like under their leadership.