AUSTIN — Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico says his campaign raised $30 million in the second quarter of the year, far outpacing the $9 million reported by Republican rival Ken Paxton.
It marked the largest fundraising quarter of Talarico’s campaign, which previously said it pulled in $27 million in the first three months of the year.
“We are uniting Texans onto one team to change this broken, corrupt political system and bring down costs for working families,” Talarico, an Austin state representative, said Wednesday in a statement.
Meanwhile, Talarico announced he will begin a 750-mile bus tour, starting Friday in El Paso. Numerous events on the “Frontera Tour” are planned along the border, with a final stop Wednedsay in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Border communities are the gateway to our state’s economy but for too long, politicians have taken them for granted,” Talarico said, adding that Paxton “hasn’t been to a single border community” during the campaign.
On fundraising, the Paxton campaign posted its strongest quarter, saying the vast majority of its donations came after the attorney general ousted Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff in late May.
The Paxton campaign said its haul reflects donor enthusiasm to “send a proven conservative fighter” to the Senate and to defeat Talarico, “the most radical and well-funded Democrat running in Texas history.”
Talarico has repeatedly rejected Republican efforts to portray him as an extremist, saying he is focused on kitchen-table issues that matter to Texans.
The candidates’ official reports are due next week.