Wow.
Rep. James Talarico
State Rep. James Talarico raised $27 million in the first three months of 2026 in his bid to flip Texas, according to his campaign.
The Austin Democrat’s haul is the largest-ever sum for a Senate candidate — in any state — in the first quarter of an election year. He outraised other Democrats this cycle who posted impressive hauls of their own in competitive Senate races where Democrats have better odds, including Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, and more than doubled the totals of former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola.
Talarico significantly outpaced Texas’ last two Democratic Senate candidates to win their primaries outright — both strong fundraisers. Colin Allred raised over $9.5 million in the first quarter of 2024, and Beto O’Rourke brought in $6.7 million in 2018 — though both ultimately lost.
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Talarico spent much of the first quarter in a tight primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, contributing to his massive haul. But his campaign says he raised over $10 million since the March 3 primary.
The $27 million quarter brings Talarico’s total fundraising for the race, since he got in last September, to over $40 million. Talarico’s campaign said that over the course of the race, he has received donations from over 540,000 individual contributors, and from 246 of Texas’ 254 counties, according to his campaign.
Talarico also continued his streak of outraising his potential Republican opponents. Sen. John Cornyn, who is locked in a bitter runoff battle with Attorney General Ken Paxton, raised nearly $9 million in the first quarter across his fundraising apparatus, including $3.4 million in the weeks after the primary, his campaign announced. Paxton has not yet reported his first quarter total, but has trailed Cornyn in every quarter this cycle.
Texas’ record for U.S. Senate fundraising is O’Rourke’s 2018 third quarter, when he posted a $38 million haul.
Talarico had raised $13 million as of the January report, so he’s definitely cruising along. The reports aren’t on the FEC website yet so I can’t say what Rep. Jasmine Crockett raised in the same period, but it’s safe to say Talarico outraised her. For sure it takes more than money to win, and we’re talking about a statewide race in Texas with all that means, but still. It’s much harder to win if you don’t have the financial resources to run a full-fledged campaign.
As delighted as I am by this, I remain hopeful that other statewide candidates, especially Gina Hinojosa and (assuming she wins the runoff) Vikki Goodwin can also raise a few bucks, so that the whole ticket isn’t dependent on the Senate candidate, as we were in 2018. I asked Rep. Goodwin about that in my interview with her, which I hope you will listen to if you haven’t yet, it was a great conversation. She too is aiming to raise some real money, with a goal of around $5 million. That’s small for the big picture, but enough to be a real contributor with Talarico doing the heavy lifting. We’ll check on that in July.