Change is coming to Texas. Beto O’Rourke, who won the Democratic primary with 91.41% of the votes, is currently outraising the incumbent Republican governor, who only managed to win 66.48% against his primary opponents in March 2022. As announced this morning, Beto set a new record for a single reporting period for a state office as he raised more money in the late February through June 2022 reporting period than any Texas candidate has ever raised!
On top of that, “O’Rourke’s campaign emphasized that since February they have received $27.6 million from more than 511,000 contributions, averaging $54 per donation — a sign they say of how their campaign is being supported by small-dollar donors and not big money interests.” (Update: Abbott’s campaign claims his donations came from “nearly 113,000 contributions.”)
Although Gov. “It-could-have-been-worse” Abbott had a financial advantage coming into the race, his extreme policies have been making him increasingly unpopular. But enough about him.
Beto’s fundraising record is wonderful news on the day when so many of our elected officials and candidates will be speaking at the Texas Democratic Party Convention!
In talking with new Democratic voters in elections from 2014 through today, though, one dynamic that has become apparent is that they, like me initially, struggle to learn more about our candidates, in large part because there are so many races on every Texas ballot in even-numbered years. Looking up candidates for races here can be a time-consuming task, and an increasing number of Texans I know began contacting me to ask about where to find reliable information about more Democratic candidates.
In 2018, I began keeping a spreadsheet that enables me to quickly send links to those who ask or seem interested in learning about various downballot races and candidates. Now, I’m sharing part of my spreadsheet here in hopes of helping other Texas Democrats share information regarding our fantastic candidates for statewide office in 2022.
(As always, please bring any errors in the table to my attention.)
Just imagine how much we can help if each of us follows and regularly amplifies messaging for some or all 7 of these candidates, not just for Beto!
Beyond that, though, fundraising now is important for all of our candidates. As Beto and his wife Amy explained in a fundraising appeal at the end of June (my emphasis),
We raised a ton of money in the Senate race. And we’re grateful — many of you gave us your hard-earned 25-50 bucks to make sure that we could compete and very nearly beat Ted Cruz in 2018.
The challenge was half of the money that we raised came in in the last 6 weeks of that race. It was very hard to turn that money around and spend it effectively and thoughtfully and intelligently and get to the voters that we needed to reach.
Donating now means that we reach voters right now.
Donating even small amounts now or monthly means that our candidates can pay for venues, gas, and campaign literature in addition to all of the regular monthly expenses of a campaign.
Many of these candidates have been pooling their money to reserve venues and appear at events together in addition to appearing at Beto’s events whenever possible.
Getting to hear from candidates in addition to Beto matters because it has a multiplying effect. The video excerpt below is talking about the June 26th rally for reproductive rights in Austin where Beto, Mike Collier, Rochelle Garza, and so many other Democratic candidates spoke after the Dobbs decision.
As Beto pointed out, “When she saw Rochelle Garza on that stage, she said ‘You know what? I use to think that I didn’t care about politics, that I didn’t want to be involved, that this wasn’t for me.’ On the spot she signed up to host a (block walking) canvas.”
Thanks to everyone who has been pitching in to help elect Beto O’Rourke and as many other Texas Democrats as we possibly can!