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Governor Greg Abbott continues to set state fundraising records. He reported raising $19.7M in his January semiannual reports, which covered the second half of 2023. This is the most ever raised by an officeholder for a semi-annual period in a non-election year, breaking his previous record of just under $19.0M raised during the second half of 2021. |
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The green and purple bars represent Abbott’s half-year contribution totals from 2005 to 2023. The green bars indicate contributions for Jan 1-Jun 30, 2023 and the purple bars represent Jul 1-Dec 31 for each year. |
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The orange and pink bars represent Abbott’s semi-annual report cash on hand totals from 2005 to 2023. The orange bars represent the totals for Jun 30, 2023 semi-annual and the pink bars represent Dec 31 for each year. |
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His total was bolstered by a $6M contribution from Jeff Yass, founder and managing director of Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna International Group. Yass, who is believed to be one of the country’s largest political donors, is a school choice advocate. It is the largest single contribution to a state political campaign in state history, excluding self-funded candidates and transfers between a candidate’s campaign committees. Yass’s contribution eclipses the $4M contribution to Abbott by the Republican Governors Association’s Right Direction PAC in November 2022. Abbott raised $34.9M during 2023, which is the first non-election year following his 2022 re-election. This figure is almost as much as he raised in 2019 and 2015 combined. These also were the first years after being elected governor. It is the second-most ever raised by an officeholder in a non-election year, trailing only the $37.7M Abbott raised during 2021. Even though he will not be up for re-election until 2026, Abbott was responsible for raising just over half of all funds raised by all Republican candidates and officeholders during 2023, and Abbott collected $4 out of every $9 raised by any legislative or statewide candidate or officeholder during 2023. Abbott by himself out-raised every Republican House and Senate candidate combined by $12.3M during the year. Abbott has raised just over $350M since July 1995, when the earliest campaign finance report currently available online was filed. Abbott has raised over $260M since becoming governor in January 2015 and raised over $303M since he announced he was running for governor in 2013. He has raised $144M in the last three years alone. Abbott reported having $32.4M on hand as of December 31. This is $1.2M less than his cash on hand at the same point in 2019, which was the year after his previous re-election, but is nonetheless the 15th highest cash on hand figure ever reported by a state candidate. Abbott’s campaign has reported the 24 biggest cash-on-hand totals by a state candidate in state history. He has reported having at least $20M on hand 27 times. The highest-ever cash-on-hand figure reported by a candidate not named Greg Abbott is the $27.0M figure reported by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as of June 30, 2022. Patrick has reported having at least $20M on hand eight times. Only one other state candidate has ever reported having at least $20M on hand: Beto O’Rourke, who had $23.9M on hand as of June 30, 2022. On several occasions, Abbott has had more cash on hand than the entire Congressional delegation. As of September 30, the state’s U.S. House incumbents (excluding Democrat Candidate Colin Allred, who is challenging US Sen. Ted Cruz) had $36.3M on hand combined, only about $4M more than Abbott. With primaries coming up, it’s likely Abbott will once again have more on hand than the delegation. We’ll find out when the congressional year-end reports are filed. They’re due January 31. |
