Here are the Q2 fundraising reports for Texas Democratic Congressional candidates. I’ll sum up the data below, but here’s the Trib with some highlights.
After Democratic challengers outraised four Texas Republicans in Congress earlier this year, some Republicans recaptured fundraising momentum in the third quarter – but not all of them.
Campaign finance reports for federal candidates covering July through September were due on Saturday. The reports show signs of of Democratic enthusiasm continuing, though U.S. Reps. Pete Sessions of Dallas and Will Hurd of Helotes, both Republicans, posted strong third quarters.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, barely outpaced his challenger, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, and two GOP congressmen saw Democratic challengers raise more money.
Hurricane Harvey may have depressed fundraising overall, with many incumbents and challengers posting lukewarm quarterly hauls.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate and certainly not tasteful to raise money from people who’ve been devastated and lost everything,” said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican who was outraised by two of his Democratic challengers.
Democratic numbers were also smaller, suggesting candidates who announced earlier this year picked off the low-hanging donors in their previous campaign reports. And candidates who entered races only recently had less time to raise money.
But also, there was a larger dynamic at work. Ali Lapp is the operative who oversees the super PAC that supports Democratic House candidates, said donors are holding back from challengers because of the crowded nature of the Democratic primaries.
“With so many good Democratic candidates running in primaries, it’s no surprise that many Democratic donors are waiting to give direct candidate donations until after the field shakes out a bit, or even until after the primary is concluded,” she said.
The Chron focuses in on CD07, which has the largest field and the most money raised so far. We’ve seen the aforementioned dynamic in other races, where some people and groups want to wait and see who the frontrunners or runoff participants are before jumping in. The danger is that the candidate or candidates you like may not then make it into the runoff, but that’s a bit esoteric right now. The fact remains that we haven’t had this level of activity in Democratic Congressional primaries since Dems were the dominant party in the state. That’s pretty cool.
So without further ado, here are links to forms of interest and a summary of who did what:
Todd Litton – CD02
Ali Khorasani – CD02
Jana Sanchez – CD06
Alex Triantaphyllis – CD07
Lizzie Fletcher – CD07
Laura Moser – CD07
Jason Westin – CD07
James Cargas – CD07
Joshua Butler – CD07
Dori Fenenbock – CD16
Veronica Escobar – CD16
Joseph Kopser – CD21
Derrick Crowe – CD21
Elliott McFadden – CD21
Jay Hulings – CD23
Gina Ortiz Jones – CD23
Christopher Perri – CD25
Chetan Panda – CD25
MJ Hegar – CD31
Richard Lester – CD31
Christine Mann – CD31
Ed Meier – CD32
Colin Allred – CD32
Lillian Salerno – CD32
Dayna Steele – CD36
Jonathan Powell – CD36
Dist Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
=========================================================
02 Litton 256,222 26,250 0 229,872
02 Khorasani 8,904 8,555 0 348
06 Sanchez 75,113 56,169 0 16,439
07 Triantaphyllis 668,300 132,792 0 535,507
07 Fletcher 550,833 147,634 0 403,198
07 Moser 401,675 129,689 0 271,986
07 Westin 252,085 95,046 10,365 167,393
07 Cargas 46,752 43,091 0 10,078
07 Butler 28,685 25,352 0 3,332
16 Fenenbock 499,262 193,800 100,000 405,462
16 Escobar 332,836 35,780 0 297,056
21 Kopser 417,669 198,249 0 219,419
21 Crowe 69,443 45,068 0 24,375
21 McFadden 49,614 29,923 0 19,690
23 Hulings 200,207 10,752 0 189,455
23 Ortiz Jones 103,920 30,238 0 73,681
25 Perri 61,868 42,603 7,140 26,405
25 Panda 59,853 42,200 0 17,652
31 Hegar 93,459 39,789 0 53,670
31 Lester 52,569 33,061 0 19,507
31 Mann 21,052 8,764 0 0
32 Meier 585,951 147,537 0 438,414
32 Allred 242,444 180,791 25,000 86,653
32 Salerno 150,608 30,870 0 119,737
36 Steele 105,023 62,699 1,231 43,555
36 Powell 50,653 20,817 10,000 39,789
Notes:
– Unlike other campaign finance reports, the FEC reports are cumulative, which is to say that the numbers you see for Raised and Spent are the totals for the entire cycle. For all the other races we look at, these numbers represent what was raised and spent in the specific period. It’s useful to have these totals, but you have to compare to the previous quarter if you want to know how much a given candidate raised or spent in that quarter.
– There are eight candidates in this summary who were not in the Q2 roundup – Khorasani, Escobar, Hulings, Ortiz Jones, Panda, Hegar, Lester, and Salerno. Christopher Perri filed for CD21 last quarter but is shown in CD25 this quarter. Not sure if one or the other is an error – he wasn’t listed as a candidate in a recent story about CD25 – but do note that Congressional candidates are only required to live in the state, not in a particular district. Debra Kerner had been listed in CD07 before but she has since ended her candidacy.
– Not all candidates in all races are listed. I pick ’em as I see fit.
– It’s really hard to say how much of an effect Harvey may have had on fundraising. As the Trib story notes, it may be that many candidates have largely tapped their easiest sources, and it may be that some donors are keeping their powder dry. We may get some idea when we see the Q4 numbers in January. In the meantime, remember that there’s a long way to go.
– One candidate who does appear to have had a change of fortune, and not for the best, is Colin Allred in CD32. No idea why, again we’ll want to see what the next report looks like.
– Still no candidates of interest in CDs 10, 22, or 24. Sure would be nice to either have someone with juice file, or for someone who is already running to step it up.
“Not all candidates in all races are listed. I pick ’em as I see fit.”
Is this also the basis for ignoring Tom Wakely’s gubernatorial campaign?