Colin Allred Outpaces Ted Cruz in Third-Quarter Fundraising for U.S. Senate Race

U.S. Representative Colin Allred has reportedly raised $30.3 million for his Senate campaign during the third quarter of the year, surpassing the amount collected by the current U.S. Senator Ted Cruz over the same period. This information was released by the respective campaign teams of both political figures.

Senator Ted Cruz, representing the Republican Party, managed to gather over $21 million through his three fundraising channels. These include a leadership Political Action Committee (PAC) that is not permitted to directly fund Cruz’s re-election efforts, alongside a joint fundraising committee that allocates resources to Cruz’s main campaign fund and his leadership PAC.

The scenario of being outraised is not novel for Cruz. In the current election cycle, similar patterns were observed, comparable to the fundraising disparity experienced with his 2018 Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke. Prior to the latest quarter, financial records indicated that Allred amassed $38 million compared to Cruz’s $23 million in their main campaign accounts. When factoring in their associated PACs, Allred maintained a slight lead with $41.2 million, opposed to Cruz’s $40 million.

By the conclusion of the quarter, which spanned from the beginning of July until the end of September, Cruz’s campaign reported having $16.2 million in reserves across his various accounts. However, Allred’s campaign has not disclosed any specifics regarding the cash available in their accounts at this time.

Although the Dallas Democrat Allred’s $30 million collection is substantial, it does not eclipse the record $38 million raised by Beto O’Rourke in the corresponding quarter of 2018. Nonetheless, Allred has accrued nearly $69 million since the initiation of his campaign, exceeding the $61 million collected by O’Rourke by the same phase during his campaign against Cruz.

This development in fundraising emerges amidst a tightly contested race where Allred is making gains against Cruz, who has maintained a lead since the race’s inception. Allred is reportedly polling within the margin of error against Cruz, with national Democrats indicating plans to include Texas in a significant advertising strategy funded by the Senate campaign arm. Expert election forecasters have recently adjusted their predictions for the race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.”

The latest fundraising figures indicate that Cruz and Allred have collectively raised over $132 million since the Senate race began, surpassing the close to $90 million raised by Cruz and O’Rourke at a similar stage in their 2018 contest, which concluded with Cruz narrowly winning by less than three percentage points.