We are now past the primary, so we have whittled down the field a bit and gotten a better idea about how some of the candidates that we hope will be strong challengers are doing with fundraising. The January 2026 reports are here, the October 2025 reports are here and here, the July 2025 reports are here, and the April 2025 reports are here.
James Talarico – Senate
Colin Allred – Senate
Jasmine Crockett – Senate
Shaun Finnie – CD02
Evan Hunt – CD03
Lizzie Fletcher – CD07
Leticia Gutierrez – CD09
Caitlin Rourk – CD10
Bobby Pulido – CD15
Christian Menefee – CD18
Al Green – CD18
Kristin Hook – CD21
Marquette Greene-Scott – CD22
Katy Padilla Stout – CD23
Kevin Burge – CD24
Jon Buchwald – CD24
William Marks – CD25
Ernest Lineberger – CD26
Henry Cuellar – CD28
Sylvia Garcia – CD29
Justin Early – CD31
Julie Johnson – CD33
Colin Allred – CD33
Vicente Gonzalez – CD34
Maureen Galindo – CD35
Johnny Garcia – CD35
Melissa McDonough – CD38
Dist Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
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Sen Talarico 40,284,109 30,425,243 0 9,858,865
Sen Crockett 11,092,295 10,459,209 0 633,086
Sen Allred 7,462,453 7,459,793 0 2,660
02 Finnie 2,560,873 1,017,792 1,871,000 1,543,080
03 Hunt 336,981 305,935 78,338 31,046
07 Fletcher 1,229,656 795,424 0 1,750,893
09 Gutierrez 5,999 3,515 0 2,484
10 Rourk 243,993 188,133 0 55,859
15 Pulido 1,620,305 1,217,311 0 402,993
18 Menefee 3,262,576 3,006,718 0 255,858
18 Green 1,184,699 1,139,214 200,000 264,570
21 Hook 154,022 106,520 0 51,859
22 Greene-Scott 41,012 40,531 0 116
23 Stout 238,440 92,429 7,392 145,758
24 Burge 149,621 127,433 0 22,187
24 Buchwald 191,410 186,600 168,684 4,809
25 Marks 78,754 61,323 30,000 17,431
26 Lineberger 122,134 122,059 36,000 3,568
28 Cuellar 1,620,505 904,427 238,000 764,036
29 Garcia 903,166 1,099,257 0 175,662
31 Early 89,298 81,616 56,892 7,682
33 Johnson 2,075,048 1,818,698 50,000 487,253
33 Allred 6,433,742 5,754,873 0 678,869
34 Gonzalez 2,907,549 1,293,622 0 1,895,986
35 Galindo 9,451 11,389 0 2,169
35 Garcia 247,432 205,329 8,918 42,103
38 McDonough 47,897 33,294 113,239 37,302
We’ve already discussed Talarico’s huge haul, so I won’t belabor the point. He’s also spent a lot of money, but that’s all gone towards campaigning, and I’m fine with that. There’s no way to know what Jasmine Crockett’s numbers would look like if she had prevailed in March, or if they had improbably wound up in a runoff. It’s a little hard to think she’d have matched Talarico, but she did quite well as it was, and I see no reason not to think of her as the current frontrunner to take on Ted Cruz in 2030, if she keeps herself busy and visible and wants to do that. I won’t report on her or on Colin Allred, whose Senate account is now basically empty anyway, going forward.
I feel very confident about Katy Padilla Stout as the Democratic candidate in CD23. Any questions I had about where she was with fundraising as of January have been answered affirmatively, and she has stepped it up a notch since the primary. She may not win, in November or whenever the special election may be, but by all I can see she’s the best candidate we could have gotten for this race, and that’s all anyone can ask for. The same is true and then some for Bobby Pulido, who is running a great campaign in CD15. Putting those two Republican-held seats in play, in a cycle where Republicans had dreams of taking away five Democratic-held seats, is phenomenal.
I wish I could be as excited about CDs 09 and 35, both of which project to be tossups going by 2018 numbers. Maureen Galindo came out of nowhere and has the support of the other two candidates from that primary, and that says something good about her. I’m just disappointed that her non-existent fundraising didn’t pick up at all following her making it into the runoff. Same for Leticia Gutierrez, whose outright win in CD09 in that large field is at least as impressive. I don’t know what those situations are, and I get that Johnny Garcia has his share of establishment support in CD35, but one way or another they both need some help. It is in everyone’s interest, and that goes double, triple, quadruple for the incumbent Congressional Democrats whose chances to be in the majority increase if these two campaigns become financially viable. I cannot stress enough that Leticia Gutierrez and whoever emerges from CD35 need to be supported so they can run real campaigns. You cannot win a Congressional race with this little money to spend.
Beyond that, candidates in some other races that could be competitive in this increasingly blue environment have raised some money but don’t have much in the bank, outside of Sean Finnie, who is in a tougher district. Props to Evan Hunt and Caitlin Rourk, who I hope can either get a handle on their expenditures or raise enough to not have to worry so much about them. I’m not sure who to root for in the CD24 runoff, but that’s another one where some investment by incumbent Dems, who do have some money to splash around, would be worth at least some heavy thinking. Thanks to CDs 15 and 23 we have some offensive opportunities, but we’re potentially leaving some hold chances on the table, and we’re not doing anything yet to expand the field. Basically, we don’t have 2018 vibes in this context just yet. We can get there, but if we’re not there by the July report then what we have now is probably as much as we’ll get. For a national view, see The Downballot for more.