Additional Campaign Finance Results of Interest

TXElects July 17, 2018

This article is preserved from the TXElects archive. For current coverage, read The Political Spotlight.

We discovered additional campaign finance results of interest after our initial passes through the July semiannual reports today (Statewide, Legislature):

LTGOV: Libertarian Kerry McKennon reported having $97K on hand, which is more than Democratic challenger Mike Collier reported ($61K). Both are far behind Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has $13.8M on hand.

RRC: Though not up for re-election until 2020, Comm. Ryan Sitton raised $442K during the first half of 2018, bringing his total for the 2017-18 cycle to $1.1M. He has $1.3M on hand. Comm. Wayne Christian reported raising $89K and has $126K on hand. He is not up for re-election until 2022.

SD6 (special): Looking ahead to a likely special election should Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) win election to Congress, Rep. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) out-raised Rep. Ana Hernandez (D-Houston), $220K to $165K, since January 1. Alvarado has a $449K to $185K advantage in cash on hand.

SD8 open: Republican nominee Angela Paxton raised $688K but spent $987K since February 25, and she finished the first half of the year with $476K on hand. Democratic challenger Mark Phariss raised $220K since February 25 and has $129K on hand. Phillip Huffines, who lost to Paxton in the March primary, reported spending an additional $2.3M on the race after February 25, bringing his total expenditures to $8.4M. Combined, Huffines and Paxton raised $3M and spent $12.1M on their primary race and its immediate aftermath.

SD19 special: The candidates’ July semiannual reports cover just the last eight days of June because of the timing of the emergency special election. For this brief period, Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) out-raised former Rep. and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), $80K to $64K, and outspent Gallego, $60K to $6K. Gutierrez has the edge in cash on hand, $145K to $109K. Rep. Tomas Uresti (D-San Antonio) raised $15K, and Republican Pete Flores raised $12K.

HD129: Democratic challenger Alex Karjeker out-raised Rep. Dennis Paul (R-Webster), $60K to $31K, since January 1, and the challenger holds a narrow $35K to $33K advantage in cash on hand.

Speaker Straus: Texans for Joe Straus spent $1.6M since January 1 while reporting no contributions. The current Speaker’s PAC has nearly $8.5M on hand.

Empower Texans PAC: After spending $4.7M during the first three quarters of this election cycle, the Empower Texans PAC reported having just $10K on hand.

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