On Friday, Texas’ two gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Beto O’Rourke and incumbent Republican Greg Abbott, announced their fundraising hauls for the Feb. 20 and June 30 reporting period.
O’Rourke raised $27.6 million in contributions while Abbott raised $24.9 million.
O’Rourke’s haul came from more than 511,000 donors with an average contribution of $54, according to the campaign. By comparison, O’Rourke raised $7.2 million in the first 46 days of his campaign, Nov. 15 through Dec. 31.
Abbott’s contributions came from 113,000 donors, the campaign said. The governor’s campaign currently has $46 million cash on hand. Abbott has promised to spend $100 million against O’Rourke.
In a prepared statement O’Rourke said he was grateful to everyone who had helped raise the $27.6 million, which he said will support the campaign’s 78,000 volunteers.
“We’re receiving support from people in every part of Texas who want to work together to ensure our state moves beyond Greg Abbott’s extremism and finally leads in great jobs, world class schools, the ability to see a doctor, keeping our kids safe and protecting a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, health care and future,” O’Rourke said.
Polling between the two candidates has tightened as of recently. The incumbent governor leads O’Rourke by an average of six percentage points according to an aggregate of four polls that surveyed voters in June.
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
