James Talarico, the Democrat running for Senate in Texas, raised $64 million in the third quarter of this year, according to his campaign, which said that is the most any Senate candidate has ever raised in that period.
The haul brought Mr. Talarico’s fund-raising total to more than $134 million since he announced his bid last year. “Grassroots contributors from across Texas are coming together to end billionaire control over our politics and bring down costs for working families,” Mr. Talarico said in a statement.
The Texas Senate race could end up being the most expensive nonpresidential political contest in U.S. history. Ad spending has surpassed $500 million, and the gap between the two candidates is only tightening. Mr. Talarico narrowly led his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, in the latest polls.
Mr. Talarico’s haul was far more than the $18 million that Mr. Paxton, the state’s attorney general, brought in for the third quarter. But outside funding that doesn’t show up in candidate fund-raising totals has played a major role in the ad spending: Republican advertisers accounted for more than $368 million of the outlay in the state, according to AdImpact.
Mr. Talarico recently returned to the campaign trail from a highly publicized hiatus after recovering from a severe case of the flu. On Wednesday, he spoke at a CNN voter town hall in Fort Worth, where he had a national platform all to himself because Mr. Paxton has not agreed to any debates.
Mr. Talarico spoke about a wide range of issues, including his call for an end to “big money in our politics,” as well as his opposition to total state bans on abortion and his Christian faith. Questioned about his stance on gender-affirming surgeries for transgender children, he said he wanted to balance protecting children and parental rights.
“If there’s something that’s going to endanger a child or a minor, certainly something that could cause permanent damage, then I’m always going to try to err on the side of protecting those kids,” he said.
Pressed by an audience member who said lawmakers should not intervene in the decisions of a parent, their child and a doctor, Mr. Talarico returned to the power of wealthy individuals, a central theme of his campaign.
“Powerful people are using small minorities in our community to distract from their corruption,” he said.
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