Rep. James Talarico
State Rep. James Talarico raised $6.2 million in the first three weeks of his bid for Senate, his campaign announced Wednesday, a massive haul that far outpaces the earliest fundraising numbers tallied by recent Democratic statewide hopefuls.
The staggering total establishes Talarico as an immediate fundraising juggernaut and gives him an early edge over his rival in the Democratic primary, former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who announced a $4.1 million haul over the three months since his July 1 campaign launch.
Last cycle, when he kicked off his challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Allred took two months to bring in the $6.2 million Talarico raised in three weeks. Beto O’Rourke, who set a new standard for Democratic fundraising in his 2018 run against Cruz, needed nine months to raise that same amount.
Talarico’s donations came from more than 125,000 individual contributors across more than 230 Texas counties and all 50 states, according to his campaign. Almost every contribution — 98% — was for $100 or less, with teachers making up the largest share of donors. Talarico’s campaign said it was the most a Senate candidate of either party has raised in the first quarter of their campaign in Texas history.
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Allred’s haul came from more than 100,000 donations averaging $32 each, according to the former Dallas congressman’s campaign, which reported zero corporate PAC donations.
“Colin’s campaign is powered by working people, not special interests,” Allred campaign manager Dan Morrocco said in a statement. “This is a grassroots movement with real staying power.”
See here for the background. Give Talarico his props, that’s a lot of money in a short period of time, and it suggests he will have the ability to raise a lot more. Allred’s total isn’t bad either, and would be reasonably impressive on its own without Talarico in the race. Another way to look at this is that the two of them have combined to raise over $10 million in Q3, and that sure sounds like some enthusiasm on our side to me. Maybe Terry Virts can make that even more impressive, we’ll see. Now we need for some of that – okay, a lot of that – to trickle down to the other races. We can do this. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the Q3 fundraising reports. The Barbed Wire has more.