Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has fundraised more than $5 million over the past three months as the race for his senate seat amps up.
According to Fox News, Cruz raked in $5.4 million from July to September 2023, an increase from the $4.4 million he raised earlier in the year, from April to June.
Cruz’s campaign reported that they entered October with more than $6.7 million cash on hand.
These figures demonstrated a sharp increase in Cruz’s fundraising efforts from January to March, when his campaign only garnered $1.8 million.
The campaign also reported that Cruz had more than 34,000 unique donors, which includes 10,000 first-time supporters. The donations came from 240 of Texas’ 254 counties and individuals in every state nationwide.
“The momentum and excitement to re-elect Senator Ted Cruz could not be more tangible. With $5.4 million raised in Q3, we are seeing more and more Texans animated to re-elect Ted Cruz and ensure that Texas remains the nation’s model state for conservative values and ideas. Democrats better gear up, because Senator Cruz is ready for a hell of a fight to keep Texas, Texas,” Cruz spokesman Nick Maddux told Fox News.
Next year, Cruz will face a currently undetermined Democrat opponent in his fight for a third six-year U.S. Senate term.
The Democrat primary field for Cruz’s seat is already crowded with three challengers, including U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, former Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, and State Rep. Carl Sherman Sr.
Allred came under fire earlier this month after a video from 2018 resurfaced, featuring Allred calling the border wall “racist” and vowing to “tear it down.”
“I wanna briefly talk about this racist wall,” said Allred. “The symbol of this country cannot be a fence with barbed wire on top of it. It has to remain the Statue of Liberty. I’ll tell you what. If they build that wall, my generation will be the one that tears it down. We will not have this in this country. We will not have this wall in our country. We are not going to waste billions of dollars on a racist campaign promise and we are not going to turn the symbol of this country into a wall with barbed wire on top of it.”
Gonzalez took a swipe at Cruz during his announcement video, saying that when Cruz left during the 2021 winter storm, Gonzalez was on the front lines protecting citizens from price gouges.
Gonzalez became DA in 2016, campaigning to eliminate jail time for minor offenses and pledging to be more transparent about evidence and the district attorney’s relationship with law enforcement.
According to Transparency USA, Sherman donated $10,000 to Beto O’Rourke’s failed gubernatorial campaign in 2022. He also received $6,000 from the pro-gambling Texas Sands PAC.
Sherman has also earned a career ‘F’ rating on Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s index. His current rating for the 2023 legislative session is 29 out of 100.
