Colin Allred keeps raking it in.
Colin Allred
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred raised $30.3 million for his Senate campaign in the third quarter of the year, outpacing U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s haul over the same three-month period, according to figures announced by both campaigns.
Cruz, the Republican incumbent, raised more than $21 million across his three fundraising accounts, which include a leadership PAC that cannot spend directly on Cruz’s reelection and a joint fundraising committee that sends money to Cruz’s main campaign account and his leadership PAC.
The fundraising deficit is nothing new for Cruz, who has struggled to keep pace with Allred this cycle after being vastly outraised by 2018 Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. Before the latest fundraising quarter, Allred had raised $38 million to Cruz’s $23 million across their main campaign accounts. When including affiliated PACs, Allred held a narrower advantage: $41.2 million to Cruz’s $40 million.
Cruz closed out the quarter — which ran from the start of July through the end of September — with $16.2 million cash on hand across his three accounts, according to the GOP senator’s campaign. Allred’s campaign did not say how much cash he had in his accounts.
Allred’s $30 million haul is a massive sum, though short of the record $38 million O’Rourke raised in the third quarter of 2018. The Dallas Democrat has raised nearly $69 million since the start of the campaign, however, surpassing the $61 million O’Rourke had collected by the same point.
The two campaigns have combined to spend way more money than was spent in 2018, so you’re going to keep being inundated by ads as you try to watch the MLB playoffs or football on the weekend. Keep that remote handy. I’ll have a comprehensive roundup of the finance reports next week or so; the FEC reports pages aren’t usually up to date until the 15th of the month. In the meantime, Mother Jones ran its own “can Allred win?” article, similar in nature to the Trib story but with some different quotes.
On a side note, I love this pairing of Ted Cruz story headlines now on the Houston Chronicle homepage as I draft this:
Ted Cruz goes all in on transgender attack ads in his Senate race
With his Senate seat on the line, Ted Cruz is selling a softer side
That’s some “softer side”. Anyone who buys that idea is soft in the head.
The Trib looks at where the parties are spending their money in the few State House battlegrounds.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican political groups are pouring money into three Democrat-controlled state House districts in South Texas, giving the GOP a financial edge and raising the prospect that the party could widen its majority in the lower chamber.
Between early July and late September, the period covered by campaign finance reports released this week, Republicans massively outraised their Democratic opponents in the races to succeed retiring state Reps. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, and Tracy King, D-Uvalde. And in House District 74, a sprawling border district that runs from El Paso to Eagle Pass, Democratic state Rep. Eddie Morales was outraised by GOP nominee Robert Garza, a former Del Rio mayor — though Morales, an Eagle Pass attorney, headed into the final stretch with significantly more cash on hand.
Across the three districts, Republican candidates raked in more than $1 million, dwarfing the $243,000 reported by their Democratic foes. Taken together, the fundraising suggests Republicans see an opening to make modest gains this fall across a House landscape where few seats are in play.
The lack of competition is by design: Republicans redrew the state’s political maps in 2021 to shore up incumbent districts where GOP support had eroded. Republicans control 86 of 150 seats in the Texas House. And while they face little danger of losing their majority, any gains in South Texas could offset losses elsewhere in the state — and help the GOP continue its push to make inroads in the historically Democratic region.
Democrats are going on offense themselves in several House districts across Texas, viewing a chance to flip a handful of GOP-controlled seats that Democrat Joe Biden would have carried over Republican Donald Trump in 2020 if the new boundaries had been in place then, according to Texas Legislative Council data. In most of those districts, too, Abbott and top GOP groups helped their targeted incumbents largely keep pace with a barrage of Democratic fundraising in the latest reporting period — with some exceptions.
Rep. King’s district is HD80; it’s the one Democratic-held district that was carried by Trump in 2020. If Don McLaughlin wins, Dems will need a fourth flip to maintain anti-voucher numbers. Rep. Eddie Morales’ HD74 was made a little bluer in the 2021 redistricting. Rep. Herrera’s HD34 is the bluest of the three districts and is being pursued by a former State Rep. I think those two are likely Dem, while HD80 is lean GOP.
The main Dem targets cited are ones we’re familiar with: HD112, with Averie Bishop, HD37 in Cameron County with Jonathan Gracia, and HD118 in Bexar County where Rep. John Lujan is a terrible father, among other things. Kristian Carranza is the Dem there. Both HDs 37 and 118 were carried by Biden in 2020, while HD112 was barely won by Trump. There’s also HD121, where moderate and anti-voucher Republican Rep. Steve Allison was ousted in the primary; the Republican nominee now is being backed by the usual consortium of evil billionaires. Laurel Swift is the Dem there, I’ll have an interview with her for next week. Control of the House is in Republican hands, but control over whether vouchers have a glide path to Greg Abbott’s desk is still up in the air.
I’m befuddled about who, at this point, is still an undecided voter – you’d almost have to have been living in a cave or under a rock to to have no knowledge of the GOP’s platform and movement, nor any knowledge of the Democrat’s idealogy or ‘policies’.
I see both Cruz’s and Allred’s ads multiple times a day and can honestly say they both need to come up with something new – some new commercial, a new message, new graphics or facts or figures, etc., if they want to influence the cave dwellers who are three weeks away from casting a ballot.
CL, who would you vote for if all the political news you got were the commercials?
Talking to a neighbor who would have voted for Trump in 2020, this year, he said they are both worthless and won’t do anything to help the middle class.
He is not voting; guess where he gets his information?
I’d vote for you, Manny.
Most of the culture war squabbles could be deal with by following Tim’s law: Mind your own damn business!”
For what remains, we need adults in the room, not attention whoring bullies.
I am the only reason my neighbor votes when I run for the civic club board. The last time someone ran against me, they lost by 40%. I have been elected Democratic Precinct Chair three times; no one has run against me. Maybe next time.
Kuff, one of the questions is about a website; what would happen if we filled that out?
I guess I will fill it and find out.
C.L.,
People who are labeled ‘undecided’ are probably third party voters and those who are unsatisfied with both parties and candidates. This doesn’t mean uninformed, it probably means they’re well informed and realize that what they have to choose from is not great. ‘Undecided’ is probably better than ‘independent’, or ‘third party voter’ because that’d make them sound like there’s another choice than the same old same old.