Hey, remember politics? You know, races and finance reports and stuff like that? Yeah, it’s still happening, weird as that may seem right now. As we are well into April, the Q1 Congressional finance reports for 2020 are in, and thankfully for me the number of candidates whose reports I need to review is much smaller. Let’s have a look. The January 2019 roundup is here, which closed out the 2017-18 election cycle, the April 2019 report is here, the July 2019 report is here, the October 2019 report is here, and the January 2020 report is here. For comparison, the January 2018 report is here and the April 2018 report is here. The FEC summary page for Congress is here and for the Senate is here.
MJ Hegar – Senate
Royce West – Senate
Lizzie Fletcher – CD07
Colin Allred – CD32
Hank Gilbert – CD01
Sima Ladjevardian – CD02
Sean McCaffity – CD03
Lulu Seikaly – CD03
Stephen Daniel – CD06
Elizabeth Hernandez – CD08
Mike Siegel – CD10
Pritesh Gandhi – CD10
Adrienne Bell – CD14
Rick Kennedy – CD17
David Jaramillo – CD17
Wendy Davis – CD21
Sri Kulkarni – CD22
Gina Ortiz Jones – CD23
Kim Olson – CD24
Candace Valenzuela – CD24
Julie Oliver – CD25
Carol Ianuzzi – CD26
Christine Eady Mann – CD31
Donna Imam – CD31
Dist Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
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Sen Hegar 4,830,038 3,781,873 0 1,095,647
Sen West 1,363,387 1,242,563 242,162 242,162
07 Fletcher 3,375,004 723,963 0 2,693,107
32 Allred 2,370,113 555,774 0 1,917,783
01 Gilbert 190,941 44,804 50,000 146,136
02 Ladjevardian 1,133,296 930,810 50,000 202,485
03 McCaffity 387,506 313,098 0 74,407
03 Seikaly 252,591 232,038 3,000 20,552
06 Daniel 196,861 187,942 7,500 8,918
08 Hernandez
10 Siegel 664,291 542,317 10,000 125,464
10 Gandhi 1,011,877 948,927 0 62,949
14 Bell 84,724 71,740 0 16,061
17 Kennedy 65,908 59,041 11,953 8,294
17 Jaramillo 20,681 17,864 0 2,816
21 Davis 3,047,765 1,094,009 0 1,953,755
22 Kulkarni 1,564,263 1,226,088 0 365,942
23 Ortiz Jones 3,310,358 1,024,041 3,024 2,377,835
24 Olson 1,231,183 1,028,804 20,000 202,378
24 Valenzuela 647,105 506,708 0 140,397
25 Oliver 464,623 427,972 2,644 36,651
26 Ianuzzi 82,254 63,909 47,032 18,344
31 Mann 277,815 278,885 44,500 367
31 Imam 363,194 223,126 100,000 140,068
Some real separation in the Senate race, as MJ Hegar approaches five million total raised. She is in a much stronger position for the runoff than Royce West, though there’s still time for him to raise a few bucks. Hegar has a long way to go to be on par with John Cornyn, but she’s at least putting herself into “reasonably viable for a statewide candidate” range. For what it’s worth, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez and Amanda Edwards did eventually top a million dollars raised, and in the end they both spent nearly all of it. I still don’t know why Tzintzún Ramirez was unable to do better in this department, but that’s water under the bridge now.
As was the case in 2018, everyone in all of the interesting races is raising a ton of money. The two incumbents are doing what they should be doing. Six challenger candidates have now topped a million dollars raised, with Wendy Davis and Gina Ortiz Jones both over three million. Pritesh Gandhi and Kim Olson still have to make it through the July runoff, by which time their runoff opponents – Mike Siegel and Candace Valenzuela – may have also topped that mark. Of course, right now is kind of a lousy time to be raising money, so hold that thought for a minute. We’re at a point where it’s basically routine for everyone to pile up big money-raised numbers, so let me note that the thing that stands out here is the amount that some of these candidates have spent. It’s more than a little mind-boggling that four candidates so far have spent over a million bucks, and some people, even the big moneybags, have left themselves a bit bereft in the cash-on-hand department. I’m glad to see both CD31 candidates finally start to get on the board, but that’s quite the hole Christine Eady Mann left herself in cash-wise. I’m going to do a separate post with a direct comparison to April 2018 later, but let’s put a pin in that. We don’t know what the fundraising environment is going to be like over the next few months. Dems benefited from a lot of Congressional cash in 2018. We had every reason to believe the same thing would happen this year as of the last report, but that was in the Before Times. Now, who knows?
We can take a little peek at how the fundraising environment may be. Everyone had to report their totals as of February 22 as well, thanks to the March primary. So here’s a look at how the Raised totals varied from January to April:
Dist Candidate Jan01 Feb22 Apr01
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Sen Hegar 3,225,842 3,864,201 4,830,038
Sen West 956,593 1,134,953 1,363,387
07 Fletcher 2,339,444 2,481,687 3,375,004
32 Allred 2,370,113 2,577,348 2,370,113
02 Ladjevardian 407,781 660,853 1,133,296
03 McCaffity 267,288 308,240 387,506
03 Seikaly 109,870 173,031 252,591
06 Daniel 148,655 179,330 196,861
10 Siegel 451,917 527,802 664,291
10 Gandhi 786,107 869,277 1,011,877
21 Davis 1,850,589 2,186,063 3,047,765
22 Kulkarni 1,149,783 1,246,943 1,564,263
23 Ortiz Jones 2,481,192 2,684,696 3,310,358
24 Olson 861,905 967,032 1,231,183
24 Valenzuela 333,007 442,351 647,105
25 Oliver 325,091 387,523 464,623
31 Mann 170,759 198,783 277,815
Donna Imam did not have a February 22 total when I went looking for these numbers, so I omitted her from this table. Honestly, it doesn’t look like there was much of a slowdown in March, which is what I had been afraid of. Hell, Wendy Davis raised nearly a million bucks just in the last five weeks of the period. With the primaries over, the federal contribution limits get reset, so I think Davis and at least a couple other candidates who emerged victorious reaped a benefit from becoming the official nominee. Certainly Sima Ladjevardian and Gina Ortiz Jones took in a decent haul in the latter half of the filing period. Julie Oliver and Stephen Daniel did not get such a boost, however. I don’t have much more to say about this, I was just curious about how this went. We’ll see what the next quarter brings. As always, let me know what you think.