Here’s The “Cash On Hand” South Texas Congressional Candidates Started October With
Money is power. As election nears, this is especially true in congressional districts where races are tight. Quarterly fundraising reports from each campaign through the end of September are in.
We’re seeing media coverage focused on total amounts raised in the last quarter.
From Patrick Svitek for The Texas Tribune:
Republicans outraised Democrats over the summer in all three congressional races in South Texas that the national parties are contesting, according to new campaign-finance reports.
The three GOP nominees hauled in a combined $4.3 million over the past three months, while their Democratic opponents collected $2.4 million together. Two of the Democrats — incumbents Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — still ended the period with more on cash on hand than their challengers, though Gonzalez had only a slight edge.
But for some candidates, a lot of those funds are already spent and gone. So how much spending power is each campaign starting with heading into the election in October?
Let’s take a look.
For more stories from the Rio Grande Valley, Pablo De La Rosa is a reporter for Texas Public Radio and NPR. You can follow him on Twitter or find more links at pablodelarosa.com.
Even though Republican candidates in the region out-raised Democrats in total, they also spent a lot more. On October 1, collective spending power across all candidates compared by party was almost identical — a difference of just over $1,000 of cash on hand.
Republican contenders Mayra Flores, Monica De La Cruz, and Cassy Garcia reported a collective cash on hand amount of $1,955,470 while Democrat nominees Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez, and Michelle Vallejo come into October with $1,956,735 all together.
We’ll see how much cash each campaign will spend and how.
