In fundraising, O’Rourke likely still trails GOP incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not released any numbers. But at the very least, the Democrat’s huge push means he’ll be able to consistently advertise in the state’s 20 media markets this fall. It also means O’Rourke is likely to mount at least as well-funded a bid for governor as former Fort Worth Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis did eight years ago. At one point, O’Rourke has raised nearly 15 times what former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez took in during her entire 2018 gubernatorial bid ($1.86 million). O’Rourke received more than 511,000 contributions — 98.9 percent of them online — in the more than four months his report to the Texas Ethics Commission will cover, his campaign said. The most frequently cited occupation among O’Rourke’s contributors was teacher, his campaign noted approvingly in a press release. The average contribution was $54, he said. O’Rourke’s spokesman, Chris Evans, did not immediately respond to a question about what percentage of the contributors were in-state residents. O’Rourke, who raised more than $80 million when he nearly unseated U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, ran unsuccessfully for president the following year. However, it has developed an extensive national following. Since announcing in November that he would try to prevent Abbott from winning a third term, O’Rourke has surprised observers with underwhelming initial fundraising efforts. He continued to have many small donors, but failed to take advantage of Texas’ lack of limits on the size of contributions in state elections. It won’t be clear until O’Rourke’s report is filed how many major donors he has attracted lately. “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,” O’Rourke said in a written statement. “We’re getting support from people in every part of Texas who want to work together to make sure our state moves past Greg Abbott’s extremism and ultimately leads to great jobs, world-class schools, the ability to see a doctor, keep kids keeping us safe and protecting a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions about her body, her health care and her future.” Evans, O’Rourke’s spokesman, said Abbott’s previous high for the reporting period was $20.87 million — in the first six months of last year. Mark Miner, an Abbott campaign spokesman, said late Thursday that there were no plans to report the governor’s fundraising totals before Friday’s midnight deadline for electronic filings. On Wednesday, Abbott strategist Dave Carney predicted O’Rourke would report $30 million in contributions. Carney said he based the estimate on state-by-state fundraising activity already disclosed by ActBlue, a progressive nonprofit political action committee. Abbott had about $50 million in the bank when his campaign last reported its finances, in a report taken eight days before the March 1 primary in which he dispatched seven GOP rivals running to his right. Abbott won nearly two-thirds of the vote, avoiding a runoff. Last month, his campaign announced that it had made nearly $20 million in prepaid advertising placements, including television, radio, digital and what it called a record investment in Spanish-language media.
