Soros made the donation on June 23 as part of O’Rourke’s record-breaking fundraising haul from late February through the end of June.
In the end, O’Rourke raised $27.6 million, outpacing Gov. Greg Abbott’s $24.9 million.
After announcing his haul, the O’Rourke campaign wrote in an email, “Our grassroots donors have finally outpaced Abbott’s corporate mega-donors — right as new polls show his lead shrinking to just 5 points (a 10-point drop) and a growing majority of Texans say they disapprove of the direction Texas is heading in under his failed leadership.”
“More than ever, it is clear that we have the momentum to defeat Greg Abbott.”
The haul came from over half a million contributions, per the campaign.
But after the money raised and spent, O’Rourke has just $23.9 million cash-on-hand compared to Abbott’s $45.7 million.
Abbott’s campaign spokesman, Mark Miner, said of the donation, “It’s no surprise Beto O’Rourke received a $1 million campaign contribution from billionaire George Soros, liberal Democrats’ favorite check writer, given they both support defunding our police, open borders and radical energy policies.”
This isn’t the first time Soros has jumped in on behalf of Texas Democrats. He contributed $500,000 to the opposition against Austin’s 2021 campaign to set a minimum staffing level for its police force — which Austinites voted down by a wide margin.
He also donated $650,000 to then-candidate for Travis County District Attorney José Garza, who won his 2020 race against incumbent Margaret Moore.
Soros’ only other Texas donation this year was $19,000 to the Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC, which is supporting Albert Roberts for Tarrant County District Attorney.
In 2020, billionaire and former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg donated $2.6 million to Chrysta Castañeda’s unsuccessful bid for Texas Railroad Commissioner.
Soros is the third million-dollar contributor to O’Rourke’s campaign. The other two are donors Tench and Simone Coxe, who live in West Lake Hills.
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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.
