Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) introduced Tuesday that he has raised greater than $30 million over the previous three months in his battle in opposition to incumbent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), reflecting broad want amongst Democratic donors to defeat one of many Senate’s most distinguished conservatives.
To this point, Allred, a former NFL linebacker who was elected to the Home in 2018, has raised $68.7 million for his Senate marketing campaign.
His third-quarter fundraising haul, which covers July, August and September, is sort of $9 million greater than the $21 million that Cruz reported for a similar interval.
“From the $5 grassroots donors to the families knocking doors together each weekend, this campaign is about bringing Texans together and holding Ted Cruz accountable for only caring about himself,” Allred marketing campaign supervisor Paige Hutchinson mentioned. “This November, Colin Allred will send Ted Cruz packing for good.”
Allred’s big fundraising quantity matches comes near matching Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who final week reported elevating $30.6 million within the third quarter of this 12 months.
Cruz’s allies had anticipated in current weeks that Republicans would spend between $50 million and $100 million to defend the incumbent GOP senator, and that Democrats would spend $100 million to $150 million to defeat him.
An Emerson Faculty/The Hill/Nexstar Media ballot of Texas voters revealed late final month discovered Cruz main Allred by 4 factors, 49 p.c to 45 p.c, with 6 p.c undecided.
The ballot discovered that fifty p.c of voters within the state have an unfavorable view of Cruz, whereas 48 p.c have a good view of him.
Forty-four p.c of voters view Allred favorably, 40 p.c have an unfavorable view of him and 15 p.c mentioned they hadn’t heard of him.
The Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee (DSCC) introduced final month it will launch a multimillion-dollar tv promoting marketing campaign in Texas and Florida focusing on Cruz and susceptible Florida incumbent Sen. Rick Scott (R).
The Allred marketing campaign on Tuesday reported gathering 1.8 million particular person contributions and $68.7 million in complete receipts since its launch. It additionally reported receiving contributions from 252 of Texas’s 254 counties and a mean donation of $36.57.
Allred’s big fundraising complete is paying homage to the $80 million then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) raised in opposition to Cruz within the 2018 Texas Senate race.
Cruz narrowly beat O’Rourke that 12 months, successful with 50.9 p.c of the vote to O’Rourke’s 48.3 p.c.
Allred is on tempo to surpass O’Rourke’s spectacular fundraising haul. O’Rourke had raised $61 million by the tip of the third quarter of 2018; Allred was already $7.7 million previous that mark on the finish of September.
