Here’s how much Ted Cruz and Colin Allred raised in their U.S. Senate race

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

In 2024, Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred have collectively raised almost $193 million for the U.S. Senate race, making it the most expensive Senate race in the nation. In the end, Cruz defeated Allred by over 8 percentage points.

The Texas Tribune tracked contributions and cash on hand for both candidates since January 1, 2023. The data from the Federal Ethics Commission is as of Nov. 25, 2024.

How much have the candidates raised?

Between Jan. 1, 2023 and Nov. 25, 2024, Allred raised almost $8 million more than Cruz, according to a Tribune analysis of the candidates' main campaign accounts and other entities that are part of their fundraising networks.

About $69.3 million of the money that Cruz raised was through Ted Cruz for Senate, his main reelection campaign committee. He also raised about $23 million through his two joint fundraising committees, Ted Cruz Victory Committee and Ted Cruz Victory Fund, along with his leadership PAC, Jobs, Freedom, and Security.

Meanwhile, Colin Allred raised $90.6 million through his main campaign account, Colin Allred for Senate, and about $9.7 million coming from his joint fundraising committee, Colin Allred Victory Fund.

However, Cruz ended the race with more cash on hand with a combined total of $4.1 million among all of his fundraising entities. Allred ended with about $846,900.

Donations to federal campaign accounts are limited by law to $3,300 per individual per election. By using joint fundraising committees, federal candidates can increase that limit to the combined maximum for each group, allowing individual donors to cut bigger checks. However, some of money raised by these committees is spent on behalf of other candidates. Joint fundraising committees have gained popularity in recent years.

Since January 2023, Allred had raised only slightly more than Cruz. But starting around September, he started outraising the incumbent Senator by an increasing amount. Allred announced his candidacy back in May 2023 and won his primary against eight other Democrats last March.

How is fundraising going compared to 2018?

Six years ago, Cruz was in a very close reelection race with former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who proved to be a masterful fundraiser. This election cycle, Cruz raised a lot more than he did in 2018.

As of November, Cruz and his joint fundraising committees raised a total of $92.4 million in the 2024 election cycle. This is nearly twice the amount he raised during the same period during his 2018 Senate reelection bid after adjusting for 2024 inflation. In total, Ted Cruz raised $48.8 million during the 2018 election cycle.

In the latter half of 2018, O'Rourke pulled in a historical amount of cash. Allred raised slightly lower than that amount.

As of November, Allred and his joint fundraising committee raised a total of $100.3 million in the 2024 election cycle. This is only about $28,000 less than O’Rourke raised during the same time period during his 2018 bid for Senate after adjusting for 2024 inflation.

O’Rourke’s fundraising skyrocketed halfway through 2018 – raising a record-smashing $38.1 million from July to September.

How about small or out-of-state donors?

It’s difficult to compare which candidate had more small donations or out-of-state donors because federal law doesn't require candidates to disclose donors who give less than $200. This does not apply to donors who give through conduit fundraising platforms like WinRed or ActBlue.

Still, this means that Allred and Cruz received over $41.5 million and $29.1 million, respectively, in contributions from donors who don’t have to disclose the amount they gave or where they reside.