O’Rourke Raises $6.7 Million in Latest Quarter, a Texas Record for a Senate Hopeful

WASHINGTON— El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the underdog Democrat hoping to defeat Sen. Ted Cruz in November, raised a record-setting $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2018, according to his campaign.Outside of self-funding, that’s more than any Texan has raised in a single reporting period for a U.S. Senate contest in at least three decades, if not in history, according to data provided by the Federal Election Commission.Former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who lost to Cruz in a 2012 Republican primary runoff, reported $9.3 million in the third quarter of 2012, but that included more than $8 million of his own money.O’Rourke’s tally, released by the campaign two weeks ahead of a federal filing deadline, is nearly triple his previous personal best — $2.4 million in the last three months of 2017.And it shows growing momentum. O’Rourke raised $2.3 million in the first six weeks of the year, and won the Democratic primary on March 6.“It’s clearly a sign of how badly Texans want change and want this country ... on the right course,” O’Rourke said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.O’Rourke chalked up the surge in part to his campaign strategy that’s included traveling to 228 of Texas’ 254 counties over the past year, and eschewing the aid of political action committees.The O’Rourke campaign did not provide its latest cash on hand figure, but said the $6.7 million comes from more than 141,000 individual contributions, with 70 percent from Texas donors.“This is totally on the people of Texas, and the people of Texas are standing up and taking ownership of this campaign,” he said, adding: “This is less about a candidate and certainly not about a party, and all about Texas. I’m really just part of something larger that’s going on right now.”  Continue reading...