Republicans running for state-level offices in Texas vastly outraised their Democratic counterparts in the second half of 2025, raising questions about whether the minority party’s statewide nominees will have enough resources to seize on what is shaping up to be a favorable political climate this fall.
The fundraising disparity, laid bare in campaign finance reports this week, was especially stark among Texas’ gubernatorial candidates. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin, the leading Democratic contender for governor, reported raising $1.3 million in the last 10 weeks of the year, including $300,000 she lent her campaign. Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, took in more than that — $1.6 million — from a single donor, Midland oil executive Javaid Anwar, contributing to a $22.7 million haul from July through December that pushed his war chest to a staggering $105.1 million.
In the lieutenant governor race, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, brought in $368,000 — multiples more than she raised as an incumbent Texas House candidate in 2024, but still less than a quarter of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s $3.7 million take. The three-term Republican had $37.7 million in his campaign coffers at the end of the year, 234 times the size of Goodwin’s war chest.
Democrats’ comparatively meager hauls mean they are entering 2026 with much less cash to get their message across to voters in Texas, a notoriously expensive state to run in because of its size and numerous high-dollar media markets. It also gives Republicans more latitude to use their money to support GOP candidates in down-ballot races, as with Abbott’s plan to turn Harris County red.
Still, Democrats raised more than they did during the same period in the 2018 cycle, the last midterm election with a well-funded U.S. Senate race at the top of the ticket and President Donald Trump in the White House creating headwinds for the GOP. Democrats may also be more competitive in this year’s Senate contest, having so far outpaced the Republican candidates in fundraising. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, said he has raised $13 million since launching his campaign in September.
During the same reporting period in the 2018 cycle, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and eventual nominee Lupe Valdez raised just $55,250, a fraction of Hinojosa’s haul. Mike Collier, the eventual Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, raised just over a third of Goodwin’s take. Both Democrats went on to lose in the general election — and at this point in 2018, Abbott and Patrick each had less than half as much cash on hand as they do now.
Here’s the Harris County roundup. I’ve got others in the works. The bottom line is that I expect both Talarico and Crockett to be prodigious fundraisers, as they have already shown themselves to be, and more or less carry the rest of the ticket as Beto did in 2018. That said, I’m encouraged by Gina Hinojosa’s showing so far. It would be really nice to have more than one candidate be able to raise some money, for many reasons. The Republicans will continue to get plenty of support from the usual gang of billionaires. If there’s ever a year where that may come with its own cost, it will be this one. Having enough candidates with enough money to get that message out, that’s the goal.