President Donald Trump demonstrates grit on arrival back at White House after Covid hospital stay. © Win McNamee

TEXAS HOUSE RACES TO WATCH CASH

Texas Dems Ride Record National Infusion
to Summer Fundraising Lead in House Bid

Capitol Inside
October 7, 2020

The Democrats are winning the campaign cash chase on the Texas House battlefield with a deluge of donations coming in five and ten dollar chunks from all over the country in the most extensive national effort here by far in history.

With the Democratic Party just nine seats away from taking the majority back, Democrats rounded up almost $7.8 million in the past three months for the 20 hottest House fights that will be on the ballot in a general election that's only four weeks away.

Their GOP foes weren't far behind with more than $7.3 million in collective contributions during the same span of time this summer when candidates for both sides were forced by the COVID-19 crisis to make the transition from the Austin Club to the less intimate confines of Zoom.

But the gap was substantially larger in the top 10 contests on the Capitol Inside Texas House Races to Watch in 2020 with the Democratic candidates raking in more than $5.1 million combined from July 1 to September 24 when their Republican opponents raised just over $3.9 million collectively.

This is the first time that Democrats have scored more donor dollars for competitive legislative races in a Lone Star State since the GOP seized control of the Legislature's lower chamber 18 years ago. Republicans had sizeable war chest advantages when Democrats picked up Texas House seats in 2006, 2008 and 2018 when they flipped a dozen in an election that had been a referendum on President Donald Trump's first two years in office.

The Democratic challengers and nominees in open races raised more than a handful of freshmen Democrats who are dueling Republicans in districts that they wrestled from the ruling party two years ago.

That could be a sign that the Democrats in Washington who are directing this show see the state House seats that turned in 2018 as relatively safe in an upcoming election with another golden opportunity to move as many as 20 seats or more to their column with the potential for a down-ballot apocalypse for the GOP.

The unprecedented national infusion in state House races can create a rising tide effect that pushes Joe Biden into the winner's circle here with the help of more than $6 million that his campaign has earmarked for Texas as the only remaining swing state that he isn't leading.

Four endangered incumbents - GOP State Reps. Angie Chen Button of Garland, Sarah Davis of Houston, Jeff Leach of Allen and Morgan Meyer of Dallas - all reported contributions to the Texas Ethics Commission of more than $500,000 this summer.

The Democratic challengers in the districts where they're seeking new terms - Brandy Chambers of Garland, Ann Johnson of Houston, Lorenzo Sanchez of Dallas and Joanna Cattanach of Dallas - raised more than a half-million dollars each on average with seemingly endless campaign finance reports with the most single and double digit contributions in the history of any state.

Sanchez raised more campaign cash than Leach in the three summer months with donations of almost $693,000 compared to less than $532,000 for the incumbent.

Chambers and Button reported contributions of $533,00 and $518,000 respectively between July and October while Fort Worth Democrat Elizabeth Beck topped half-million this summer as well for a bid aimed at unseating GOP State Rep. Craig Goldman.

Democrats Sharon Hirsch of Plano raised almost $418,000 in three months for a bout with Republican State Rep. Matt Shaheen, who listed donations of less than $254,000 in the same time period.

Democrats Akilah Bacy of Houston, Sarah DeMerchant of Sugar Land and Jeff Whitfield of Euless rounded up more money in the same span than GOP foes in open races for House seats that Democrats are confident about flipping this fall.

With contributions of almost $631,000 in the past three months, Bacy raised more money that any of the other candidates on both sides of the aisle in the 20 top House races to watch with the exception of Sanchez.