SD19 special: Former Rep. and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) out-raised Pleasanton retired game warden Pete Flores (R), $369K to $307K, between July 22 and September 8, according to their runoff campaign finance reports.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s (R) campaign contributed $172K, all but $10K in kind, to Flores, making him the largest single contributor in the race. Patrick and six Republican senators accounted for 57% of Flores’s contributions for the period. Empower Texans PAC ($25K) and Land Comm. George P. Bush ($10K) rounded out the top three contributors. Gallego’s top three contributors for the period were the Texas Trial Lawyers Assoc. PAC ($50K), Arnold & Itken LLP ($25K) and Charles Butt ($25K).

Gallego holds a 3-to-1 advantage in cash on hand, $153K to $49K. Gallego nominally outspent Flores, $271K to $106K, but they are about even once in-kind contributions are factored into those totals. However, it’s clear from the cash-on-hand totals that Gallego could have outspent Flores by at least $100K more heading into early voting.

SEN: A new Crosswind Media poll shows U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) leading U.S. Sen. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso), 47%-44%. Cruz’s favorability rating is 51/43 (34/33 “very” favorable/unfavorable) while O’Rourke’s rating is 50/38 (33/26 “very”). The poll found that 15% of self-identified Republicans said they intended to vote for O’Rourke. The poll of 800 “likely voters” was in the field September 6-9 and has a stated margin of error of ±4%.

GOV: The same Crosswinds poll shows Gov. Greg Abbott (R) leading former Dallas Co. Sheriff Lupe Valdez (D), 52%-39%.

Primary Turnout: A greater percentage of New Hampshire’s registered voters cast ballots in today’s primary election there, dropping Texas to 41st out of the 48 states that have held primaries so far this year. Rhode Island holds its primary tomorrow (Wednesday), and New York holds its second primary on Thursday, when it has the opportunity to leapfrog over Texas. Louisiana uses the general election as its primary.

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