2018 media darlings Stacey Abrams, Beto O'Rourke having trouble recapturing 'magic' in the press

foxnews.com:

Democratic gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and Beto O'Rourke became liberal media darlings in their 2018 bids for statewide office in red states Georgia and Texas.

They lost, but their futures as national stars appeared set. Four years later though, after countless media profiles, national interviews and endless hype, the excitement seems to be wearing off, and the press has taken notice.  "The vibe is different" this time around, Politico reported last month, saying the once "shiniest stars" of the party are no longer as exciting.There seems to be a simple reason: their respective bids for governor have not caught fire in the polls.They're also running in a more difficult environment; in 2018, they had the benefit of political winds at their backs in President Trump's first midterm, but now it's a Democrat in President Biden who's facing the common historical prospect of his party losing seats in his first midterm. "Their anointment as the future of the Democratic Party — young, dynamic and erudite — led to glossy magazine profiles and soft press coverage that may have burnished their national profiles, but did little to advance their prospects among voters who weren’t already inclined to support them," Politico's Calder McHugh wrote.

Since their 2018 defeats, O'Rourke mounted an ill-fated bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, dropping out months before the Iowa caucuses.

Abrams helped Biden win Georgia in 2020 and was floated as a possible vice-presidential candidate, but her rhetoric about losing a "stolen" election in 2018 has come back to haunt her with unwanted comparisons to Trump.