Texas race to watch; Beto O’Rourke raises more money than Ted Cruz in 2018

Texas has long been a solid Republican state. But CNN has just moved Texas from solid Republican to likely Republican in the network’s Senate race ratings.

Experts say the race to watch is the one predicted between El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

O’Rourke, a Democrat, is still considered an underdog but some political experts say he is giving Cruz a run for his money. And speaking of money. O’Rourke has raised more this year.

“This race is going to turn on an air war and that is incredibly expensive,” said Dr. Richard Pineda, a professor at UTEP.

The 2018 primary elections aren’t until March 6, but political experts predict O’Rourke and Cruz will be the last two candidates in the race.

“I think as soon as the general election campaign process starts, if the Republicans at the national level are nervous at all about a Democrat winning Texas, you are going to see a mobilization of money probably like we have never seen before in the state of Texas,” Pineda said.

Cruz is trailing O’Rourke in fundraising for the U.S. Senate seat so far this year. The latest numbers provided by the candidates show Cruz raised $800,000 through Feb. 14, while O’Rourke raised $2.3 million.

Overall, Cruz still has more money in his campaign account than O’Rourke. The Houston Chronicle reports O’Rourke had about $5 million in his main campaign account, while Cruz had about $6 million.

“I think Cruz is probably surprised. The internal reaction has to got to be a little bit of shock given how much O’Rourke has moved across the state and gone into areas where there really hasn’t been a lot of Democratic campaigning. But Cruz knows the numbers favor Republican,” Pineda said.