As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) runs for another term of six years in a campaign where he’ll be appearing before voters next year, he already has a prominent Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred (Texas) — and Allred’s primary campaign has reported accumulating a staggering donation total across the second quarter of this year after only kicking into gear roughly midway through that period.
From May 3 through the end of June, when the second quarter ended, Allred’s campaign for Senate raised almost $6.2 million, with millions also transferred from coffers associated with Allred’s House campaign operation. Adding those millions puts Allred’s total for the second quarter at $8.6 million. The Texas Tribune noted that Allred is already flying past the fundraising totals seen by the last high-profile Democratic campaign that targeted Cruz, which had former Congressman Beto O’Rourke finishing behind Ted by a margin only in the low single digits. O’Rourke needed three fundraising quarters to hit the donation total that Allred already reached, meaning the total funds the Dem Congressman’s campaign accumulated before adding that House campaign money.
Allred’s fundraising numbers for the second quarter of this year started to circulate before figures from the Cruz campaign, which still had some time to report their latest financial numbers to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). For the first three months of this year, meaning the first quarter, the total receipts at Cruz’s Senate campaign — meaning the overall total in money accumulated — was about $1.3 million. It’s probably safe to assume Cruz’s campaign is at least somewhat picking up the pace in his fundraising for 2024, though.
Also according to the Tribune, some of the transfers reported from Allred’s House operation to his Senate campaign were in-kind contributions, meaning support not in the form of cold, hard cash. Though Democrats face what’s generally considered a relatively tough Senate map this time around, with the party needing to defend seats in swing states — or states that have lately been mostly Red — Cruz’s path to another term isn’t secured. Inside Elections, a source for political analysis, puts Cruz’s spot in the Senate in the category of “battleground Republican” seats, meaning elections where it’s expected results will be closer in 2024.
