PREVIOUSLY:
State offices
Rodney Ellis
Adrian Garcia
Tom Ramsey
Leslie Briones
Ed Gonzalez
Vergil Ratliff
Joe Inocencio
Mike Knox
Joe Danna
Paul Day
Glenn Cowan
Christian Menefee
Umeka Lewis
Jacqueline Lucci Smith
Annette Ramirez
Danielle Bess
Jerry Davis
Desiree Broadnax
Claude Cummings
Michael Wolfe
Steve Radack
Teneshia Hudspeth
Carla Wyatt
Marilyn Burgess
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=======================================================
Hidalgo 184,138 206,978 51,400 70,973
Ellis 92,813 180,802 0 5,241,377
Garcia 523,203 472,312 0 1,051,258
Ramsey 497,875 112,004 0 1,376,882
Briones 341,574 208,905 0 1,375,896
Ogg 282,274 97,634 48,489 455,755
Teare 278,817 237,522 0 550,792
Simons 0 12,910 15,000 2,090
Gonzalez 154,778 72,506 0 143,882
Ratliff 3,515 4,448 0 307
Inocencio 500 2,066 100
Knox 14,370 24,425 10,000 3,448
Danna 49,387 61,349 35,452 1,922
Day 4,641 3,133 2,243 2,582
Cowan 46,160 7,760 0 41,595
Menefee 47,415 75,524 0 397,800
Lewis
Smith 2,556 1,250 0 1,306
Ramirez 18,081 11,266 0 23,283
Bess 15,175 0 0 15,175
Davis 22,817 5,114 5,000
Broadnax 5,840 1,700 1,000 4,140
Cummings 0 0 0 0
Wolfe 200 3,168 0 0
Radack 0 49,220 0 715,239
Hudspeth 20,500 4,188 0 16,426
Wyatt 290 0 0 3,698
Burgess 4,904 13,667 5,207 7,211
The July 2023 reports for Harris County are here. Some reports didn’t show up until I looked one last time on Friday, though the system showed they had been posted on time or close to it. These things happen sometimes.
Judge Hidalgo has time to build up her campaign finance account before she’s on the ballot again, but she’s going to need to raise more than she spends to do that. I thought it might have been mostly legal expenses, but while she did drop about $18K on legal fees, the large majority of her expenditures were for various forms of political consultancy, including $4K per month for compliance services. I don’t know what the situation is but I do know math, and this math isn’t going to work for her. I hear whispers of a more formidable primary opponent for 2026, so this is not a situation I’d sleep on.
The other Commissioners did more or less as I’d expect. I fully expect Rodney Ellis to spend money on countywide turnout efforts. I won’t be surprised if Commissioners Garcia and Briones join him.
The story of July was how Sean Teare had greatly outraised Kim Ogg for DA, though that was largely due to a couple of large individual donations for Teare. Both raised similar amounts this period, and with Teare spending more they have similar amounts on hand. I can’t say for sure that Teare didn’t have some big individual contributions this time around because hie report was 183 pages long and I didn’t feel like scrolling all the way through it, but I did see numerous small donations – five dollars, ten dollars, 25 and 50 dollars – in the pages I did look at. That may have been in response to the criticism of his July report, I don’t know.
For Sheriff, it’s incumbent Ed Gonzalez and a lot of not much else. Mike Knox was never a big fundraiser as a Council member, and he’s still not much of a fundraiser. Joe Danna’s fundraising is always weird and includes a lot of in kind donations. Chron endorsee Glenn Cowan raised a few bucks but he’s going to need more than that. For County Attorney, Christian Menefee has a decent amount of cash, Umeka Lewis has not report I could find, and Republican Jacqueline Lucci Smith did little more than pay her filing fee.
Yes, that’s former Commissioner Steve Radack running for Tax Assessor. Some people don’t know how to retire, I guess. He will have far more cash available than any Democrat, but it doesn’t really matter. As I’ve said to a couple of folks, that’s a race that is almost entirely dependent on the overall partisan environment. If that race is competitive enough where his money or name ID might matter, we’re already in deep trouble. As for Michael Wolfe, he’s filed a report but as far as I can tell is not on the ballot even though his expenditure appears to be a filing fee. Some people don’t know how to stay away.
I’ll look at reports for the City of Houston and for Senate/Congress; those come online later than the local and state ones. Let me know if you have any questions.