New year, new finance reports. You know the drill. This is the busiest report of the cycle, the one that shows who’s who in the primaries. I’ll be doing the usual with the other offices as well. The July 2025 reports for Harris County are here and the January reports are here.
Lina Hidalgo – Harris County Judge
Annise Parker – Harris County Judge
Letitia Plummer (Authorization for filing) – Harris County Judge
Matthew Salazar – Harris County Judge
Aliza Dutt – Harris County Judge
Oscar Gonzales – Harris County Judge
Marty Lancton – Harris County Judge
Warren Howell – Harris County Judge
Rodney Ellis – Commissioner, Precinct 1
Adrian Garcia – Commissioner, Precinct 2
Richard Vega – Precinct 2
Raquel Boujourne – Precinct 2
Tom Ramsey – Commissioner, Precinct 4
Lesley Briones – Commissioner, Precinct 4
Audrie Lawton Evans – Harris County Attorney
Abbie Kamin – Harris County Attorney
Jacqueline Lucci Smith – Harris County Attorney
Teneshia Hudspeth – Harris County Clerk
Michael Wolfe – Harris County Clerk
Lynda Sanchez – Harris County Clerk
Carla Wyatt – Harris County Treasurer
Hayley Hagan – Harris County Treasurer
Marilyn Burgess – District Clerk
Jose Maldonado – District Clerk
Darrell Jordan – District Clerk
Pernell Davis – District Clerk
Rozzy Shorter – District Clerk
Desiree Broadnax – District Clerk
Donna Glover – District Clerk
Chris Daniel SPAC – District Clerk
Chris Daniel – District Clerk
Angellia Dozier – District Clerk
Carlis Lollie – District Clerk
Sean Teare – District Attorney
Ed Gonzalez – Harris County Sheriff
Annette Ramirez – Harris County Tax Assessor
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=======================================================
Hidalgo 1,888 284,086 0 344,873
Parker 416,172 156,657 0 332,475
Plummer
Salazar 0 2,496 0 0
Dutt 42,500 183,247 118,200 161,942
Gonzales 2,235 4,289 1,650 107
Lancton 501,628 119,658 200 362,202
Howell 4,439 82,825 173,150 106,156
Ellis 137,313 253,326 0 7,783,681
Garcia 249,110 403,620 0 2,544,776
Vega 70,380 11,480 2,000 59,395
Boujourne 4,364 70,962 140,000 139,432
Ramsey 550,800 84,056 0 2,032,612
Briones 1,322,486 477,520 0 4,058,292
L Evans 101,810 9,857 0 76,562
Kamin 587,041 7,751 0 572,019
L Smith 4,500 2,840 25,000 1,708
Hudspeth 29,285 12,654 0 17,147
Wolfe 0 1,250 0 0
Sanchez 1,000 913 0 1,000
Wyatt
Hagan 665 1,534 1,317 524
Burgess 1,025 16,087 5,207 26,240
Maldonado 578 75 0 0
Jordan 60,040 50,948 39,500 9,091
Davis 38,305 3,499 0 33,317
Shorter 21,790 14,449 2,000 7,341
Broadnax 9,755 2,298 0 1,462
Glover 2,405 2,017 0 388
Daniel SPAC 22,425 9,927 25,000 12,833
Daniel 0 3,469 0 0
Dozier 3,115 3,728 1,000 0
Lollie 2,695 4,369 0 796
Teare 71,243 70,857 0 14,291
Gonzalez 1,804 10,493 0 90,573
Ramirez 1,275 3,896 0 5,775
Outgoing Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is spending down her cash. I didn’t see any single big expenditure, but there were a number of entries totaling at least five figures each for consulting, polling (?), and travel. Annise Parker had a good but not overwhelming haul, well above her previous amount with more time to do the raising. In a continuation of the most puzzling and annoying trend in local politics, I still have no idea what Letitia Plummer’s campaign finances look like. She stopped filing city reports in 2023, and somehow only got around to filing an authorization for electronic filing on January 12. What the hell, man? I do not understand this and I do not like it.
Aliza Dutt’s fundraising dropped off considerably from July. My assumption is that it’s because Marty Lancton is the new shiny object for Republicans. About $120K of his haul, nearly a quarter of the total, came from various firefighter PACs, including $50K from the HPFFA, of which he had been the leader. Dutt and Warren Howell have enough money thanks to their loans to keep Lancton occupied. We’ll see if he can avoid a runoff.
Lesley Briones is the top dog this cycle, with Tom Ramsey the runnerup. The main difference is that Briones and Adrian Garcia are spending a lot more money. Neither Ramsey nor Rodney Ellis are on the ballot but Ellis is also spending. I suspect Ramsey will join in after March.
About $468K of Abbie Kamin’s contributions are a transfer from her City Council campaign fund, so she and Audrie Lawton Evans raised similar amounts. I’ve seen some online ads for Kamin and a couple of judges, so far that’s the bulk of campaign spending I’m seeing.
I’ve gotta say, there’s more money in the District Clerk races than I’d have expected. Former County Court Judge Darrell Jordan received $10K from Rodney Ellis, but it looks to me like he counted his loan money in with his contribution total. Pernell Davis got $5K from Adrian Garcia, so a little intra-Court competition there. He also got $2500 from State Rep. Ron Reynolds. Rozzy Shorter collected $18K from six individuals, but none of them were names I recognized. I’ve lost track of how many times Chris Daniel has run for District Clerk – he did serve two terms in that office, winning in 2010 and 2014 before being wiped out in 2018. The expenditure from his non-“Friends of” account came from personal funds. His PAC received $10K from two women with the surname Beck in Sugar Land, and another $5K from a retired person in Florida whose name was not listed in the report.
Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt did not have a report in the system. Candidates for that office seldom raise much money, but maybe now would be a good time for her to go out of her way to follow all the rules.
And that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be going through federal and city reports soon, and will do something with state candidate reports. As always, let me know what you think.
Anyone else think that there’s way too much money in political races?