TEXAS HOUSE RACES TO WATCH CASH

Two Dozen House Battlefield Hot Spots
Have Mind-Blowing Price Tags in 2020

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
October 29, 2020

The Texas House battlefield is immersed in unfathomable oceans of cash with the major party candidates in two dozen top target races having raised more than $63 million combined as the GOP fights to salvage the majority with a potentially perfect storm brewing on the horizon.

The Republican candidates in the 24 House districts that have appeared to be the most competitive had scored more than $38 million as a group by the end of September when their Democrat opponents had countered with a $25 million contributions haul of their own in a quest to take the chamber back after 18 years in exile.

The GOP money lead in the majority clash is mostly a measurement of how far the Republicans are afraid they're behind and how little time they have left for an unprecedented circling of the wagons in the face of ever-plunging odds. But the Republicans are unleashing their checkbooks in a furious bid to hang on to the wheel of power in the Capitol's west wing during the 2021 redistricting session.

Twenty-one of the two dozen Republicans in the hottest House races have reported contributions of more than $1 million each during the past 22 months - a staggering figure fueled in part by Governor Greg Abbott's pumping of $2 million into the most competitive races on top of huge sums from party establishment forces.

But 13 of the 24 Democrats in the swing fights have joined the seven-digit society as well thanks to the largess of trial lawyers and national Democratic interests that smell blood in the waters with President Donald Trump leading the ticket in a re-election race that's been tantamount to a kamikaze mission down the stretch.

Nine of the GOP nominees in the top two dozen House battles rounded up more than $1 million apiece in the past month alone. Six of those are endangered incumbents who appear to be running even with Democratic challengers if they're not underdogs.

But the Republicans are spending elaborately on a two-part damage control strategy that features challengers in duels with freshmen Democrats in seven out of the 24 districts that the GOP might have a chance to get back if the devastation isn't as bad as expected.

The GOP challengers in those seven contests had raised almost $12 million collectively by the end of the reporting period that expired on September 24. The rookie Dems in the payback bouts had donations of less than $5 million combined for races that the incumbents are all favored to win barring a significant shift in the national climate before Tuesday.