We discovered additional campaign finance results of interest after our initial passes through the July semiannual reports today (Statewide, Legislature):
LTGOV: Libertarian Kerry McKennon reported having $97K on hand, which is more than Democratic challenger Mike Collier reported ($61K). Both are far behind Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has $13.8M on hand.
RRC: Though not up for re-election until 2020, Comm. Ryan Sitton raised $442K during the first half of 2018, bringing his total for the 2017-18 cycle to $1.1M. He has $1.3M on hand. Comm. Wayne Christian reported raising $89K and has $126K on hand. He is not up for re-election until 2022.
SD6 (special): Looking ahead to a likely special election should Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) win election to Congress, Rep. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) out-raised Rep. Ana Hernandez (D-Houston), $220K to $165K, since January 1. Alvarado has a $449K to $185K advantage in cash on hand.
SD8 open: Republican nominee Angela Paxton raised $688K but spent $987K since February 25, and she finished the first half of the year with $476K on hand. Democratic challenger Mark Phariss raised $220K since February 25 and has $129K on hand. Phillip Huffines, who lost to Paxton in the March primary, reported spending an additional $2.3M on the race after February 25, bringing his total expenditures to $8.4M. Combined, Huffines and Paxton raised $3M and spent $12.1M on their primary race and its immediate aftermath.
SD19 special: The candidates’ July semiannual reports cover just the last eight days of June because of the timing of the emergency special election. For this brief period, Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) out-raised former Rep. and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), $80K to $64K, and outspent Gallego, $60K to $6K. Gutierrez has the edge in cash on hand, $145K to $109K. Rep. Tomas Uresti (D-San Antonio) raised $15K, and Republican Pete Flores raised $12K.
HD129: Democratic challenger Alex Karjeker out-raised Rep. Dennis Paul (R-Webster), $60K to $31K, since January 1, and the challenger holds a narrow $35K to $33K advantage in cash on hand.
Speaker Straus: Texans for Joe Straus spent $1.6M since January 1 while reporting no contributions. The current Speaker’s PAC has nearly $8.5M on hand.
Empower Texans PAC: After spending $4.7M during the first three quarters of this election cycle, the Empower Texans PAC reported having just $10K on hand.
©2018 Texas Election Source LLC
