The July semiannual finance reports show O’Rourke brought in $27.6 million while Abbott raised $24.9 million.
O’Rourke’s haul bests any of Abbott’s single period sums this cycle, the previous best of which was $20 million in the 2021 July semiannual — but O’Rourke has yet to announce his remaining cash on hand. Abbott reported $46 million in cash on hand.
“I’m grateful for everyone who helped us raise $27.63 million in just over four months as we support the powerful work of our organizers and more than 78,000 volunteers,” said O’Rourke.
“We’re receiving support from people in every part of Texas who want to work together to ensure our state moves beyond Greg Abbott’s extremism and finally leads in great jobs, world class schools, the ability to see a doctor, keeping our kids safe and protecting a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, health care and future.”
O’Rourke’s campaign said that nearly 99 percent of the donations came from 511,000 contributions — most of which the campaign says were from teachers. O’Rourke’s campaign has brought in about $38 million during his gubernatorial campaign since last November.
This announcement comes just as O’Rourke begins his 49-day campaign tour to more than 65 counties.
Abbott’s haul came from 113,000 contributions and 86 percent of the total sum came from within Texas.
“Texans continue to show their support for Governor Abbott’s campaign by donating to his campaign. As we move into the heat of the summer campaign, we’re well positioned to fund all our campaign efforts,” said Gardner Pate, Texans for Greg Abbott campaign chairman, in a press release.
So far in the campaign, Abbott has pulled in $68 million and already had a massive war chest at the beginning of 2021. Earlier this month, the Abbott campaign announced $20 million in combined media buys ahead of November.
Pate also pointed to another large expenditure for Abbott, “funding an extensive block-walking program to get voters to the polls this November.”
Recent polling has shown a tighter margin between the candidates. Since the April University of Texas poll that had Abbott up 11 points on O’Rourke, June and July polls indicate a 5-point to 8-point margin. The current RealClearPolitics polling average has Abbott up 6 points.
The start of the summer campaign has been laced with tumult — first with the Uvalde elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead; then the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade; and this week the Texas power grid’s test from the summer heat that resulted in tight conditions but which avoided any kind of blackouts.
Each of these issues has featured prominently in the state’s top race and appears primed to continue that prominence as November nears.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
