WASHINGTON — The top U.S. Senate candidates in Texas have raised nearly $170 million between them, helping to finance a tidal wave of campaign ads.
Being an incumbent has its advantages. Fundraising carries over from one election to the next. Since he narrowly won reelection six years ago, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has raised more than $86 million.
His Democratic rival, Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, has kept up, reeling in more than $80 million. Outside advocacy groups and political action committees supporting the candidates have raised tens of millions more.
“Texas is far and away the largest state where there is a competitive Senate race this cycle, and with 20 media markets, including two that are in the top 10 — Dallas and Houston — and another two that are in the top 40 — Austin and San Antonio —it’s just very expensive to campaign in the Lone Star State,” said Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University.
One of those groups supporting Cruz is the Truth and Courage PAC, which has spent more than $25.3 million, according to the group OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending. Many of the Truth and Courage PAC ads focus on border security and transgender youth participation in sports. One of its most recent ads features Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and touched on both topics.
“As governor, my job is to keep Texas, Texas, and Colin Allred just isn’t Texas,” Abbott said in the ad.
Jones said the Cruz campaign is not only aligning itself with popular Republicans but is seeking to shape voters’ perceptions of Allred.
“When this race started off, Allred was an unknown quantity for about half of Texas voters. One of the things that both he and the Cruz campaign spent quite a bit of money doing was trying to define Colin Allred in the eyes of likely voters, with the Allred campaign going to try to define him in a positive way as a pragmatic centrist who worked on behalf of Texans and Cruz trying to define him as a far-left progressive,” Jones said.
Political analysts rate Cruz as more likely than Allred to win, but polls show that Allred has been within striking distance. Now, national Democrats see it as the Senate race most likely to produce an upset that could potentially offset the loss of one or more blue seats. That would enable the party to keep its Senate majority.
WinSenate PAC, which supports electing Democrats to the Senate, has spent more than $4.4 million on the race, according to OpenSecrets. The spending includes ads decrying the effect of Texas’ anti-abortion law on women.
“As an emergency physician, I can tell you, Texas women are in danger because of Ted Cruz,” the ad said.
Jones said that Democrats have been focusing on abortion rights in an effort to try to peel off moderate or undecided voters and turn out younger voters.
“One of the principal messages Republicans are making is that many Democratic policies, say in the area of transgender children participating in women’s sports, are out of touch with where a majority of Texans are. Democrats are trying to make the same argument with abortion. That is that Texas’s abortion legislation is too extreme for where a majority of Texans would like it to be.”
Experts caution that money only goes so far. Former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke kept pace with Cruz’s fundraising six years ago, but still narrowly lost to him.
“Money tends to cancel out money,” Jones said. “Overall, the impact of money is generally to keep the other side from having an advantage in terms of money.”
Money can also help campaigns identify potential supporters and make sure they vote. In a race as tight as this one, both sides are looking for any advantage they can get.