In what has rapidly evolved into one of the biggest political stories of the last few days, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee and Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke recently reported raising $38 million in the last quarter—the most ever raised by a Senate candidate anywhere for a quarterly period.
The figure is about three times that raised in the same period by incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Most significantly, the O’Rourke campaign pointed out, the $38 million figure is almost exclusively made up of small donations and all of it comes from individuals (unlike Cruz, O’Rourke refuses to take money from political action committees).
Reports of O’Rourke’s new fundraising record came less than a week after an Emerson College poll showed Cruz leading the Democratic hopeful by 47 to 42 percent statewide.
Republicans in the Lone Star State are still confident Cruz will overcome the charismatic O’Rourke, who has been likened in the national press to Robert Kennedy and Barack Obama.
Austin attorney Howard Hickman, an activist among Texas conservatives since Ronald Reagan’s winning 1976 primary, told us flatly: “O'Rourke could fool rich left wingers to give him $380 million and he will still lose.
"Fear of O'Rourke is a good thing that will get conservatives out to vote. Spending the left wing money in Texas is a mistake that will make it easier to win in other states. Given the differences between Republican and Democrat voting numbers in the primary, where are the Democrats going to get the votes?"
“[O’Rourke] is solidly in favor of abortion, national health insurance, and the football players who ‘take a knee’ rather than stand for the national anthem,” former State GOP Chairman Tom Pauken told Newsmax. “That’s not the record of a true Texan. If Ted Cruz gets that message out, he’ll win.”