Democrat Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke has bragging rights today that his campaign raised more money than incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott for the second consecutive reporting period. No other opponent of Greg Abbott has ever done that.
The Dallas Morning News (DMN) uses the word “unprecedented” in its headline. However, I caution readers to look at the full picture. O’Rourke did outraise Abbott again but it was by a small amount, given the amount of money we’re talking about. Most importantly, Abbott’s donors are mostly Texans while O’Rourke relies heavily on donors from outside the state. DMN admits the fundraising totals are close.
Still, O’Rourke only narrowly outpaced Abbott in contributions, $25.18 million to “nearly $25 million,” according to news releases the gubernatorial rivals issued Tuesday.
The bragging competition via news release came just hours before they had to disclose their campaigns’ contributions and expenditures between July 1 and Sept. 29.
Abbott’s campaign stressed that since the start of 2021, the two-term Republican incumbent “has raised nearly $95 million from more than 418,000 donations.” Since O’Rourke announced his gubernatorial bid last November, he’s raised $66.1 million.
The former El Paso congressman, meanwhile, emphasized how just in the latest period, he received nearly 475,000 contributions. Abbott said he collected donations from “nearly 45,000 contributors” — less than 1/10th as many — in the nearly three-month period.
Abbott is known as a masterful fundraiser. O’Rourke brags about support from all parts of the state but Abbott’s campaign chairman, Gardner Pate, points out that 81% of Abbott’s contributions come from within Texas. He has received contributions from all 254 counties during the 2022 cycle. Pate noted that O’Rourke’s campaign is also relying on outside dark money airing negative ads against Abbott.
“Governor Abbott’s campaign is proud that the vast majority of his support comes from within Texas and not from out of state liberals like George Soros or from shady dark money groups hiding their donors from public disclosure,” Pate said.
He was referring to Coulda Been Worse LLC, whose donors are unknown. Since Aug. 1, the group opposing Abbott has spent $15.3 million dollars on advertising, according to AdImpact.com, an ad-tracking service. In the same period, Abbott has spent $38 million on ads; and O’Rourke, $20.2 million. Coulda Been Worse has provided rough parity for O’Rourke’s viewpoint in the ad wars as the Nov. 8 election approached.
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“We’re confident we will have the resources we need to ensure all Texans know Governor Abbott’s strong record on job creation, supporting our police and securing the border,” which contrasts with O’Rourke’s “extreme liberal policies,” Pate said.
Make no mistake, Abbott will be re-elected on November 8, 2022. Robert Francis O’Rourke will be a three-time loser. Democrat hopes are fading fast that Texas will turn blue this time. The great Democrat hope, O’Rourke, is consistently polling behind Abbott by about 8 points. It’s a fact that Abbott isn’t used to having strong competition in his political races. He won his first re-election campaign in 2018 with over 56% of the vote. He outraised his opponent by 18 to 1. He received 42% of the Hispanic and 16% of the African American vote. This time around, Abbott predicts he will receive more than 50% of the Hispanic vote.
Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to do better with the state’s growing Hispanic population and frequently points to how his administration has created an economy that has led to historic low unemployment numbers for Hispanics.
“Every year that I’ve run for governor, I got about 45 percent of Hispanics,” Abbott said at an event in San Antonio earlier this year. “That’s good. But let me tell you what’s going to happen this year, I will get more than half of the Hispanic vote in the state of Texas in my campaign.”
Abbott’s wife, Cecilia, is the first Latina First Lady of Texas.
O’Rourke’s campaign is bringing in Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” next week. He will headline a free rally for O’Rourke at a Latin music nightclub on Tuesday night. Perhaps Miranda can do a little re-writing of Texas history while he’s in Houston. Kidding. Kinda. Sorta.
That event will include Democratic attorney general candidate Rochelle Garza and Luis Miranda Jr., the father of Miranda who has a long history in Democratic politics dating back to being an adviser for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.
He won’t have any trouble filling up a nightclub in deep blue Houston. What it shows, though, is that O’Rourke continues to depend on outsiders, preferably celebrity outsiders, to help him in his campaigns. Remember how O’Rourke was the darling of the entertainment world when he ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 and then when Oprah encouraged him to run for president in 2020? Hollywood dollars rolled in. For whatever inexplainable reason, they still think this time he’ll win. It’s Lucy and the football. Oh well.
Republicans are making inroads into growing the Hispanic vote in Texas. Since Trump’s presidency, Hispanic voters have shifted to voting for Republicans, more so than in past elections. There is no reason to think this trend will stop now. Biden is unpopular in Texas, the Biden border crisis has border communities under seige, inflation is outpacing wages, and crime is on the rise. Rep. Mayra Flores won a special general election in June in CD-34 and the race against her Hispanic Democrat opponent, also a sitting member of Congress, is a toss-up. Texas Congressional District 34 had been controlled solely by Democrats for over 100 years. The point is, while Democrats keep thinking that they are just about to turn Texas back into a blue state, Texas is getting a little more red. That’s good news.
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