Crenshaw’s fundraising at top of list for Texans
Nobody in Texas is raising more money this year to run for Congress than U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Although he’s been in Congress just seven months, the former Navy SEAL has parlayed his rising political star into an eye-popping $1.4 million fundraising haul during his first six months in office. The Houston Republican has raised more money this year than any of the 145 candidates running for the U.S. House from Texas.
That gives him a dramatic early financial advantage over the only Democrat who has filed to run against him in 2020. Navy veteran Elisa Cardnell has raised just $77,000 in her bid to unseat Crenshaw in the 2nd Congressional District, which runs from West Houston up to Spring and loops over to Atascocita and Humble.
Crenshaw finished June with a flurry of donations including from Republican mega-donors such as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Industries political action committee. Adelson and his wife Miriam combined to give Crenshaw $11,200. The Koch Industries PAC gave him $2,500.
National Democrats have made Texas one of their biggest targets heading into 2020. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has opened a Texas office and announced it is targeting six Republicans — all of whom narrowly won their re-elections to Congress in 2018.
That list included U.S. Reps. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land; Kenny Marchant, RCoppell; and Will Hurd, RSan Antonio, who have since announced their retirements.
Crenshaw is not on the target list. His district has historically been solid Republican territory but has been trending toward Democrats, like others in and around Harris County. In 2016, then-U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, an Atascocita Republican, won his re-election by 24 percentage points. But last year, Crenshaw defeated Democrat Todd Litton by just 7 percentage points.
Crenshaw has raised $245,000 of his nearly $1.4 million from PACs.
Cardnell’s campaign manager Nick Meier said she is refusing that kind of influence. “Instead we’re running our campaign differently, we’re not taking a dime of corporate PAC money,” Meier said.
Crenshaw’s overall fundraising puts him just ahead of Hurd, who raised $1.2 million before announcing earlier this month that he is no longer seeking re-election in the 23rd Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and includes hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Right behind Hurd are U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, and Colin Allred, D-Dallas. Both raised about $1.1 million as they prepare for tough reelection battles in districts that were held by Republicans last year.
Rounding out the top five fundraisers in Texas this year is U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands. The former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee raised nearly $1.1 million for his re-election.
Crenshaw, 35, stunned the political world in 2018 when his underfunded campaign beat out Republican Kathleen Wall, who spent more than $6 million of her own money and had the backing of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. Heading into the primary in 2018, Crenshaw had raised just $173,000, yet he still made it into a runoff that he ultimately won.
Crenshaw, a retired lieutenant commander, spent 10 years in the Navy SEALs, including tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He lost his right eye when he was injured by an IED blast in Afghanistan that put him into a coma for five days.
With Hurd not seeking re-election, the top fundraiser in the 23rd Congressional District race is now Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones. In the first six months of 2019, Ortiz Jones has raised nearly $600,000 for her campaign — the most of any non-incumbent candidate for the House in Texas.
Ortiz Jones lost to Hurd in 2018 by just 926 votes.