WASHINGTON – El Paso Democrat Beto O'Rourke raised more than $2.4 million in the last three months of 2017 for his U.S. Senate challenge against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, who raised just over $1.9 million in the same period.
O'Rourke's haul, the best fundraising quarter of his campaign so far, brings his total up to $6.4 million at the start of Texas' marquee 2018 political contest.
But he still trails Cruz, who raised more than $7.1 million in 2017, raising his campaign war chest up to nearly $7.3 million.
At last count, at the end of September, Cruz had reported a campaign war chest of $5.6 million, compared to $2.8 million in cash on hand at the time for O'Rourke, a three-term congressman who has vowed to run without taking money from political action committees, or PACs.
Given the GOP's long dominance in Texas, which has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, O'Rourke has sought to demonstrate spirited grassroots support capable of matching – or beating – Cruz's fundraising prowess.
O'Rourke boasted of 55,567 individual contributions made over the last three months, nearly three-fourths of them from Texas.
"Putting 100 percent of our faith and focus in the people of Texas is proving to be more than a match for the PACs, special interests and corporations who have captured, corroded and corrupted Congress for far too long," O'Rourke said in a statement Sunday night announcing his latest fundraising numbers.
O'Rourke's fundraising bested Cruz's in the first fundraising quarter of the race in 2017, though Cruz bounced back on top in the money chase between July and September.
O'Rourke has been aggressively traveling the state and maximizing his exposure on Facebook Live and other social media. He was buoyed by a poll last week showing him within single digits – striking distance – of Cruz.
A internal poll released by Cruz at the end of the year showed the former Republican presidential candidate up by 18 points.