State officeholders and candidates were required to file their July semiannual reports yesterday. Here we look at the statewide candidates’ results. We looked at key legislative races here. Please see our Crib Sheets for the latest numbers.
GOV: Democratic nominee Lupe Valdez has made more unwanted history. Following the historically low turnout for a Democratic gubernatorial runoff, Valdez has raised the smallest amount of money for a Democratic gubernatorial nominee since at least the beginning of modern campaign finance reporting in 1993.
Valdez reported $336K in contributions since May 13, bringing her total for the 2017-18 election cycle to $788K. As of this point in their respective campaigns, Valdez has raised barely more than a third of what former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell (D-Houston) had raised for his 2006 challenge of then-Gov. Rick Perry (R).
She also lags behind the fundraising pace of 1998 nominee Garry Mauro, who had raised $2.5M by this point in the campaign calendar. Bell and Mauro received 30% and 31% of the vote, respectively.
Valdez reported having $222K on hand, which is about a third as much as Bell had on hand as of the same period of time in 2006 and one fortieth the amount then-Sen. Wendy Davis had on hand as of June 30, 2014. Valdez faces a $28.7M cash-on-hand deficit, which is only slightly larger than the $26.8M deficit Davis faced in 2014. However, as we noted yesterday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) spent $16.2M to reserve television advertising time a few days before the period closed. Had that expenditure occurred a week later, Valdez’s deficit would have been $44.9M.
So far this election cycle, Abbott has raised nearly $32M more and spent nearly $38M more than Valdez. Abbott out-raised Davis by just $7M for the 2013-14 election cycle, and Perry out-raised former Houston Mayor Bill White (D) by $13M during the 2009-10 election cycle.
Incidentally, Abbott raised $7.3M since May 13, more than $21 for every $1 raised by Valdez during the same period of time.
LTGOV: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) out-raised Democratic challenger Mike Collier, $4.5M to $266K, since February 25, and the incumbent has a $13.8M advantage in cash on hand.
Justin
Nelson
Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton
AG: Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton (R) out-raised Democratic challenger Justin Nelson, $2.5M to $755K, since January 1, and the incumbent has a $6.1M advantage in cash on hand. Nelson’s $1.1M cash-on-hand total is more than the rest of the Democratic statewide field combined.
COMP: Comptroller Glenn Hegar (R) has nearly $5M on hand, which is nearly $5M more than Democratic challenger Joi Chevalier.
LAND: Comm. George P. Bush out-raised Democratic challenger Miguel Suazo nearly 10-to-1 since February 25, and the incumbent has an $885K to $153K advantage in cash on hand.
AGRIC: Democratic challenger Kim Olson out-raised Comm. Sid Miller (R), $171K to $63K, albeit over a longer reporting period. Olson was unopposed in the primary while Miller faced primary opposition. She also has an edge in cash on hand, $171K to $138K.
RRC: Comm. Christi Craddick (R) out-raised Democratic challenger Roman McAllen, $411K to $8K, since February 25. She reported having just shy of $1.5M on hand. McAllen reported having less than $2K on hand.
SC4: Democratic challenger R.K. Sandill more than doubled the fundraising total of Justice John Devine, $191K to $83K, since January 1, and the challenger holds a $337K to $213K advantage in cash on hand.
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