“Late-train” money is flowing into close Congressional races but largely ignoring state races as the election campaign nears its end.
Part of this disparity is due to the dates covered. Congressional candidates began disclosing contributions in “24-hour” reports on October 18. Only since October 28 have contributions to state and legislative candidates required a daily report.
More than $3.2M has been contributed directly to candidates in Congressional races we rated “lean Republican” or “toss up” since October 18:
- SEN: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) $777K, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) $617K
- CD7: U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R) $250K, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher (D) $239K
- CD22: Sri Preston Kulkarni (D) $105K, U.S. Rep. Pete Olson (R) $47K
- CD23: Gina Ortiz Jones (D) $168K, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R) $153K
- CD31: M.J. Hegar (D) $240K, U.S. Rep. John Carter (R) $100K; and
- CD32: U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R) $281K, Colin Allred (D) $262K
That’s an average of $231K a day, and that total excludes independent expenditures or contributions received by joint fundraising committees (such as the Ted Cruz Victory Committee).
State and legislative candidates in races with the same ratings have raised an additional $170K total ($57K a day), nearly 40% of which has gone to one race:
- SD10: Beverly Powell (D) $51K, Sen. Konni Burton (R) $16K
- SD16: Sen. Don Huffines (R) $8K, Nathan Johnson (D) $5K
- HD47: Vikki Goodwin (D) $9K, Rep. Paul Workman (R) none
- HD52 open: James Talarico (D) $4K, Cynthia Flores (R) $3K
- HD102: Rep. Linda Koop (R) $7K, Ana-Maria Ramos (D) none
- HD105: Terry Meza (D) $11K, Rep. Rodney Anderson (R) $1K
- HD108: Rep. Morgan Meyer (R) $3K, Joanna Cattanach (D) $1K
- HD113 open: Rhetta Bowers (D) $11K, Jonathan Boos (R) $3K
- HD114 open: Lisa Luby Ryan (R) $10K, John Turner (D) $10K
- HD115: Julie Johnson (D) $5K, Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R) none
- HD134: Allison Sawyer (D) $3K, Rep. Sarah Davis (R) none; and
- HD136: Rep. Tony Dale (R) $7K, John Bucy (D) $2K.
Neither candidate in the two other seats rated “lean Republican,” HD112 (Button) and HD138 (Bohac), have reported contributions yet.
In the governor’s race, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has reported raising $43K in daily reports. He reported a total of $146K prior to the 2014 general election. Meanwhile, former Dallas Co. Sheriff Lupe Valdez (D) has reported less than $7K in contributions since the 8-day-out reporting period. Four years ago, then-Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) reported raising nearly $1M via “telegram reports,” which is what daily reports used to be called.
Late-train money used to hold much more significance, but its influence has declined as early voting has grown in popularity. A late cash infusion does a campaign less good if a majority of voters have already gone to the polls.
©2018 Texas Election Source LLC
