Republicans dominate fundraising in final weeks of Texas House battles

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Republican candidates in competitive Texas House races are outraising their Democratic opponents by lopsided margins, according to a new round of campaign finance reports that show a major resource advantage for GOP legislative candidates heading into Election Day.

The cash infusion is helping Republican House nominees pay for more TV and online ads, direct mail, canvassing and polling in the closing weeks of the campaign, as the GOP looks to protect several of its vulnerable incumbents and perhaps even expand its majority in Austin.

Across a dozen of the most competitive state House districts in Texas, Republicans raked in more than $11 million over the last month, compared to the nearly $3.5 million collectively raised by their Democratic counterparts. In all but two of those districts, GOP nominees outraised their Democratic foes by a ratio of more than 3-to-1 — much of it coming in the form of what are known as in-kind contributions, or when donors pay for ads, mailers or other campaign functions on a candidate’s behalf.

The latest reports, covering campaign spending and fundraising activity from late September through Saturday, continued to reveal a decisive financial edge for Republicans in three Democrat-controlled state House districts in South Texas, where GOP nominees Denise Villalobos and Don McLaughlin, Jr., are angling for the seats left open by retiring Democratic Reps. Abel Herrero of Robstown and Tracy King of Uvalde. Both Republicans have consistently outraised their respective Democratic opponents, Solomon Ortiz, Jr. and Cecilia Castellano, in recent months.

And in a sprawling border district running from El Paso to Eagle Pass, Gov. Greg Abbott continued dipping into his war chest to help Republican Robert Garza, a former Del Rio mayor, try to unseat state Rep. Eddie Morales, D-Eagle Pass.

Though Republicans are confident enough to expand the battlefield and target Democratic districts, most of the latest GOP spending went toward defending seats the party already controls — suggesting the party brass may see some of their incumbents as vulnerable.

The biggest GOP haul was in North Texas, where state Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Richardson, raked in more than $1.6 million over the last month, easily outpacing her Democratic foe, Averie Bishop. GOP State Rep. Morgan Meyer of University Park — one of two Republicans, along with Button, representing Dallas County in the Texas House — also significantly outraised his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Ginsberg, hauling in more than $1.5 million.

No matter how next week’s elections shake out, Republicans are all but assured of holding onto their majority in the state House, where they control 86 of 150 seats. But Democrats are hoping to flip just enough House seats to regain a bipartisan majority of members who oppose private school vouchers, or policies that allow public money to be used to pay for private education. Abbott has claimed to have the votes to pass a voucher measure in the House after leading an all-out push to oust anti-voucher GOP lawmakers in the primaries earlier this year.

Democrats have their sights set on a San Antonio district held by one of those ousted Republicans, state Rep. Steve Allison, who was defeated by hardline conservative Marc LaHood in March. Allison is crossing party lines to urge voters to support LaHood’s Democratic challenger, Laurel Jordan Swift. But in the fundraising wars, LaHood took in nearly $1.2 million over the last month, to Swift’s $278,000.

Across the competitive House races, nearly three-quarters of the GOP fundraising came from five major sources, led by Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a high-powered tort reform group that is one of the state’s leading political groups, and Texas Defense PAC, a group funded by GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson, who took the helm of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire following the death of her husband, Sheldon Adelson. The other top funders were Associated Republicans of Texas, a well-funded group aligned with the GOP’s mainstream, business-oriented wing; Abbott; and House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont.

Those five donors gave nearly $1.3 million to state Rep. Janie Lopez, R-San Benito, accounting for more than 80% of the fundraising haul she reported over the last month in her South Texas district and giving her a massive edge over Democratic challenger Jonathan Gracia.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said voters would be turned off by the source of the GOP’s fundraising advantage.

“In the final days of this election, Texas Republicans prove yet again that they’re bought and paid for by billionaires who want to defund our schools, raise taxes on the middle class, and enforce the most extreme abortion ban in the nation without exception to rape and incest,” Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, said in a statement. “Voters will see through that in November.”

The Republican margin was not as lopsided in every district. In another San Antonio contest, Democrat Kristian Carranza raised more than $1.6 million, outpacing state Rep. John Lujan, R-San Antonio, who raised nearly $1.5 million in combined cash and in-kind contributions. Carranza also outspent Lujan by more than $600,000. About three-quarters of her fundraising came from Leaders We Deserve PAC, the group led by Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg, who has been increasingly active in Texas legislative races.

A number of Democrats are throwing their weight behind Carranza in the closing days: Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg endorsed Carranza earlier this week, and former gubernatorial nominees Beto O’Rourke and Wendy Davis are joining her for a rally this weekend.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, continued to dominate the fundraising picture in her North Texas district, hauling in nearly 10 times as much as her Republican challenger, Steve Kinard. And in the state’s only competitive state Senate race, state Sen. Morgan LaMantia, D-Palm Valley, overcame Republican Adam Hinojosa’s fundraising edge with another $1 million loan from her family, which owns a beer distribution business and had already loaned her campaign more than $4 million this cycle.

Disclosure: Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.