Race for Texas’ only competitive congressional seat heating up

by Abby Livingston The money race for Texas’ only competitive congressional seat is heating up.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, raised about $432,000 in a seven-week stretch in February and March, overpowering the $312,000 haul of his rival, Democratic ex-U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego of Alpine.

The two men are squaring off for a rematch in November to represent the sprawling 23rd Congressional District in southwest Texas. Hurd defeated Gallego by a two-point margin in 2014.

Hurd reported to the Federal Election Commission on Friday that his campaign had spent about $100,000 and had $1.35 million in cash on hand. Gallego had yet to file a report as of press time, but his campaign said on Thursday he had $620,000 in cash on hand.

It is Gallego’s strongest campaign report since he entered the race. Hurd had bigger quarters in early 2015, but this is an abridged reporting period because federal candidates were required to file campaign finance disclosures ahead of the March 1 primary.

Hurd is clearly leveraging the powers of incumbency, as he now has a more than two-to-one cash-on-hand advantage over Gallego. His reports also indicate he has hired two of the state’s top GOP fundraisers, Susan Lilly and Alison McIntosh.

Several U.S. House colleagues also contributed to Hurd’s campaign from their own coffers, including Texas Reps. Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, Bill Flores of Bryan, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, all Republicans.

The district is incredibly competitive and will garner intense outside spending and national attention in the fall. But candidate fundraising will remain important in this race because federal candidates secure lower television advertising rates than super PACs and party campaign committees.