Challengers scored some unusually high-profile endorsements headed into the March 3 primary election, but the five San Antonio state lawmakers facing contested primary races are blowing them out of the water in terms of fundraising.
Campaign finance reports covering Jan. 1 through Jan. 22 were due Monday.
They indicated that the biggest spender on the Texas House landscape, pro-business group Texans for Lawsuit Reform, seems to be pumping the brakes on its expensive fight with state Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio).
Meanwhile trial lawyers are still pouring in money to help incumbents from both parties, Gov. Greg Abbott is picking sides the race to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) is helping LaHood raise money, and a pro-charter school PAC is helping Democratic state Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) in his contested primary.
Read about all the candidates for the Texas Legislature running in the March 3 primaries.
The only insurgent candidate who rivaled an incumbent’s haul in the last reporting period was Republican Willie Ng, a security company owner who served on the board of Texas’ largest chamber of commerce and is now running against state Rep. Mark Dorazio (R-San Antonio), a member of the GOP’s conservative wing, in Texas House District 122.
Ng raised $130,000 in the first three weeks of January, compared to Dorazio’s $150,000.
Much of Ng’s haul came from the Associated Republicans of Texas PAC, which has long been a defender of the state’s more moderate, business-centric Republicans. Dorazio, a former Bexar GOP chair known for his socially conservative views, won a four-way primary to replace former moderate Republican Lyle Larson in 2022.
Ng is getting help from the Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s deep-pocketed Texas Defense PAC, which wants to legalize casino gambling in Texas, as well as mail ads and other campaign grassroots services from Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
Dorazio has long been skeptical of casino gambling. He’s also among a number of conservatives who went up against the business community’s legal reform bills in the last legislative session, saying they went too far in shielding big business from being held accountable for wrongdoing.
Like other conservatives in that group, Dorazio’s campaign received money for the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC in January, plus $100,000 from Texans for Truth and Liberty PAC, which gets most of its funding from a single Houston law firm.
Texas House District 121: LaHood is also in the midst of a tort reform-focused primary, thanks to a high-profile rift with Texans for Lawsuit Reform group, which publicly threatened to spend big against him after he killed their priority bills last session.
Spending in LaHood’s reelection race has already topped $1 million, but TLR, which is under new leadership, appears to be pulling back on some of its spending for challengers this cycle, and did not show up on challenger David McArthur’s most recent report.
At the same time, trial lawyers who benefitted from LaHood’s move have helped him outraise McArthur in every reporting period.
Last month the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC spent about $230,000 on mail and TV ads to help LaHood. After the end of the reporting period, LaHood also had a fundraiser with Burrows, a fellow defense attorney, and other colleagues from the legislature who are pitching in to help a popular freshman through his first reelection race.
LaHood brought in about $250,000 in the most recent reports, compared to McArthur’s $150,000.
They each spent about $220,000 on their campaigns, and LaHood reported about three times as much left on hand to spend.
Texas House District 118: In 2022, Abbott spent big helping Lujan flip this Southside, majority-Hispanic district, which is likely to be one of most competitive Texas House races again this November.
Lujan is running for Congress instead of reelection, and in a three-way Republican primary to replace him, Abbott is now helping Jorge Borrego, an education policy expert who worked on Texas’ landmark school voucher-style legislation while working at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Borrego brought in $28,000 on the most recent reports, most of which was in-kind polling help from Abbott, who went to great lengths to install school choice supporters in the Texas House last cycle, and endorsed him last month.
He’s also getting help from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which wants to keep the Republican conference from adding another trial lawyer in his primary opponent, personal injury attorney Desi Martinez.
Martinez is a close friend of Lujan, who put $250,000 of his own money into the race during the last reporting period. This time around, Martinez’s report indicated he’d raised about $10,000, and hired the Austin-based consulting firm Griffin Communications, which works with LaHood and Dorazio.
A third Republican in that race, Joseph Shellhart, has not reported any money raised. The winner will go up against Democrat Kristian Carranza, who is uncontested in her primary.
Democrats: Three Democratic incumbents, state Reps. Philip Cortez, Liz Campos and Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, face challengers who drew unusual endorsements from the state’s largest labor group, AFL-CIO, which represents teachers, communications workers and firefighters.
While that support typically helps candidates with grassroots efforts, challengers still face a very uphill challenge keeping up with money incumbents can raise in the legislature, where donors and PACs can give unlimited sums of money.
For example, Cortez, Campos and Gervin-Hawkins all received checks from the Texas Trial Lawyers Association ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 during the first part of January.
Among the challengers, Gervin-Hawkins’ opponent in Texas House District 120, special education teacher Jordan Brown, raised the most on the last reports. Still, he brought in about $6,400, far below the incumbent’s $30,000 haul.
In Texas House District 117, Cortez brought in $64,000, including $10,000 from the pro-charter school group Legacy 44 PAC, funded by billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Jim Walton.
Cortez’s primary challenger, attorney Robert Mihara, brought in $2,700 during that same span, and loaned his campaign another $4,400.
In Texas House District 119, Campos brought in $54,000 to challenger Ryan Ayala’s $70 haul, though Ayala loaned himself some money earlier in the race.
Texas House District 125: Democrats have a crowded primary in the race to replace retiring state Rep. Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio), but the spending in an open blue seat has been dramatically different from GOP primaries.
SAISD teachers’ union leader Adrian Reyna is getting some help from organized labor, but the most recent reports showed fundraising hauls under $5,000 for all of the Democrats in that race.
Reyna has raised the most overall, $53,000, followed by Lopez’s chief of staff Donovon Rodriguez, with $37,000, and former Bexar County Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela, with about $18,000.
