I've finally got every Texas House candidate who will be on the ballot in November updated in the database at christackettnow.com. Now that it's all in, it gives us an interesting look at how the parties have raised money through the run-offs. #txlege /1
Let's start with the overall. $30 million has gone into Texas House races since 01/01/2017. Your top contributor to House races is Empower Texans, with $2.3MM, which is 8% of the total. Here are the top 20 in a pie chart (including the overall total) and bar chart #txlege /2
As I have mentioned before, I see Texas not with two parties, but with three parties: Republicans, Empower, and Democrats. This is due to the extreme lack of crossover between donors in the R and E camps. When you look at this way, the money splits get interesting. #txlege /3
Republican Texas House candidates (99 of them) received $15.8MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 36% of that total amount ($5.6MM). Top donor is Assoc Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund with $1.3MM #txlege /4
Empower Texas House candidates (42 of them) received $8.6MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 67% of that total amount ($5.79MM). Top donors are Empower Texans ($2.3MM) and Texas Right to Life ($1.09MM) #txlege /5
Democrat Texas House candidates (126 of them) received $5.7MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 18% of that total amount ($1.05MM). Top donors are Border Health PAC ($132k) and TREPAC ($127k). #txlege /6
I hear fear mongers on the right talking about "George Soros" coming in & funding a blue wave to steal away the state. That is absolutely not true. You just have to look at the numbers. Contributions to R & E candidates totals $24MM. Contributions to D's totals $5.7MM #txlege /7
The largest contributor to Dem Texas House candidates so far is Border Health PAC. They have given $132k. The largest House donor overall is Empower Texans, who have given $2.3MM. Empower has given more than 17x the largest Dem contributor. #txlege /8
When you look at the top 20 donors to the Republican, Empower and Democratic parties on the same scale, it becomes very obvious who is trying to overwhelm house races (hint: it isn't the Dems) #txlege /9
Thinking about the three parties and who has candidates who are more likely to listen to their home districts and not just a few special interests in West Texas, the pie charts of the donors makes it obvious (hint: you want to see lots of light green. Sorry Empower) #txlege /10
The next round of campaign financing reports come out in mid-July. Many candidates who didn't have an opponent in the primaries haven't reported since the mid-Jan report. This will be the first chance to see how the special interests have swarmed over them. Be ready. #txlege /end
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