Eight Republicans Have Seven-Figure Hauls
for House Races with 50 Topping $250,000

Capitol Inside
February 24, 2026

1 Fred Tate (R) $2,406,847 2 Marc LaHood (R-Inc) $2,395,732 3 Kat Wall (R) $2,319,516 4 Armin Mizani (R) $1,665,593 5 Ken King (R-Inc) $1,439,345 6 Angelia Orr (R-Inc) $1,347,739 7 Stan Kitzman (R-Inc) $1,294,600 8 Jeff Leach (R-Inc) $1,017,743 9 Chris Turner (D-Inc) $951,669 10 Stan Gerdes (R-Inc) $913,818 11 Candy Noble (R-Inc) $887,601 12 David McArthur (R) $845,435 13 Morgan Meyer (R-Inc) $843,154 14 Jerry Patterson (R-Inc) $830,622 15 Josh Bray (R) $824,459 16 Nathan Watkins (R) $801,886 17 John Browning (R) $759,584 18 Angie Button (R-Inc) $758,419 19 Mike Olcott (R-Inc) $732,665 20 Jay Hardaway (R) $730,872 21 Pat Curry (R-Inc) $728,077 22 Terri L. Wilson (R-Inc) $695,498 23 Cody Harris (R-Inc) $677,305 24 Cecil Bell Jr. (R-Inc) $663,606 25 Andy Hopper (R-Inc) $643,740 26 Willie NG (R) $624,461 27 Will Metcalf (R-Inc) $599,155 28 Chris Spencer (R) $597,080 29 Desi Martinez (R) $577,775 30 Holly Jeffreys (R) $575,004 31 K. Richardson (R-Inc) $551,685 32 D. Geesaman (R) $534,194 33 Jay Dean (R-Inc) $515,420 34 Rocky Thigpen (R) $485,909 35 Jorge Borrego (R) $473,608 36 Tom Butler (R) $472,081 37 Jackie Schlegel (R) $434,808 38 Cole Hefner (R-Inc) $418,710 39 Liz Campos (D-Inc) $408,165 40 Cheryl Bean (R) $408,165 41 Mark Dorazio (R-Inc) $404,197 42 Janie Lopez (R-Inc) $403,741 43 Lacey Hull (R-Inc) $369,929 44 Rocky Thigpen (R) $350,755 45 Scott Bowen (R) $325,460 46 Brian Harrison (R-Inc) $324,739 47 Bob Mitchell (R) $297,950 48 Philip Cortez (D-Inc) $292,127 49 Mary A. Perez (D-Inc) $282,751 50 Harris Davila (R-Inc) $277,277 51 Kelly Peterson (R) $270,244 52 Pooja Sethi (D) $268,490 53 Montserrat Garibay (D) $261,498 54 Kristen Plaisance (R) $261,375 55 Jamie Haynes (R) $258,830 56 Venton Jones (D-Inc) $254,017 57 Alan Blaylock (R) $253,819

The fundraising records could be falling again on the Texas House battlefield after no less than 50 candidates for the GOP qualified for the quarter-million dollar club with the war chests they'd amassed up until the final week before Tuesday's primary election.

Eight Republicans - five incumbents, two contenders in the same open race in Tarrant County and a challenger from the Waco area Texas - each reported seven-digit hauls for House bids in round one with three surpassing the $2 million mark by the time they filed campaign finance statements with the state this week.

Thirty-two GOP contenders had raised more than $500,000 apiece for House primary showdowns with a week still to go before the election. A total of eight Democrats - five incumbents and three contenders in open races - made the money list for primaries after raising at least $250,000 for contested primaries. State Rep. Chris Turner was the number one fundraiser for Democrats with the 9th largest haul for the primary when both parties are taken into account.

Southlake Republican Fred Tate soared to the top of the leaderboard for Texas House races in the opening half of the 2026 midterm elections - eclipsing GOP State Rep. Marc LaHood of San Antonio as the leading fundraiser in primary fights for the west wing in Austin up to now.

Fueled by contributions topping $1.7 million for an open House District 98 contest in the past month, Tate vaulted to the top spot on the money list for House races with a total take of $2.41 million since launching a bid for the seat that State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake isn't seeking again this year.

But it was close - with LaHood raising almost $2.4 million for his first re-election race as the most heavily-armed incumbent in the countdown to the primary vote early next week. LaHood appeared to take his foot off the gas some in recent weeks amid perceptions that he appeared to be on track to beat challenger David McArthur at the polls six days from now in House District 121.

But the rookie representative from the Alamo City still corralled $712,000 and change from donors between January 23 and February 21 for a bout with McArthur in a battle that's been a proxy fight between trial lawyers who support LaHood and the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC. McArthur dropped out of the top 10 on the House money list when he added only $124,000 to his total during the same period.

Kat Wall - a Bellmead resident who ran for Congress twice in the Houston area - ranks third on the lower chamber money board with more than $2.3 million for a campaign for the seat that GOP State Rep. Angelia Orr of Itasca is fighting to keep. The lion's share of Wall's money has come in the form of loans that she made to her campaign. Wall loaned her campaign $450,000 more in the past month when she reported contributions of $204,000 as well.

Keller Mayor Armin Mizani ranks 4th overall in the campaign cash tally with almost $1.7 million for a GOP primary fight with Tate in HD 98 in Tarrant County's northeast suburban corner. The HD 98 race has the potential for a runoff with a third candidate who hasn't been competitive on the GOP ballot as well in round one.

The GOP establishment in Austin is doing everything possible to block Mizani's path to the House - with Governor Greg Abbott campaign for Tate in the stretch before the election and the TLR PAC and the Associated Republicans pouring money into his bid in HD 98. Abbott appears to be buying in to the far-right's campaign to stop Mizani, who's Puerto Rican, with attempts to tie him to Islam and terrorists through support he's received for the House race. The Texas governor has been leading the crusade against Muslims with an array of actions he's taken in recent months. All but $30,000 in Tate's war chest has come from donors while Mizani has reported loans of $200,000 for the race.

The HD 98 has been ranked as the number open contest for the state House on the Capitol Inside Races to Watch list for the primary election in 2026 since it materialized late last year. But the HD 121 contest that pits LaHood against McArthur has fallen from the number one spot for races with incumbents all the way down to 7th in light of the advantage that the incumbent appears to have as the race winds to a close.

The rankings of Texas House races with members on defense have first-round race with the four incumbent Republicans who GOP Speaker Dustin Burrows has been most concerned about in the weeks leading up to the vote. The contest at the pinnacle of the current list has GOP State Rep. Stan Kitzman of Pattison trying to stave off a challenge from Dennis "Goose" Geesaman of Flatonia in House District 85. Kitzman has had a significant advantage in fundraising with a total take of almost $1.3 million for the race. But Geesaman has had more than enough to be seriously competitive with an overhaul haul of $534,000 that's included some loans as well.

The fight between Orr and Wall in HD 12 is second on the reshuffled House rankings for incumbent races in a district where the incumbent has raised more than $1.3 million and still trails her big-spending primary foe in total fundraising by a million dollars. The HD 13 race has the second highest combined price tag so far at almost $3.7 million - with the HD 98 clash as the most expensive at nearly $4.1 million when the Tate and Mizani fundraising efforts are added together.

Powerful State Rep. Ken King's fight for survival in the Panhandle is ranked third going into the election with Plainview's John Browning coming on like gangbusters in the past month after a slow start in the campaign dollar chase in House District 88. Browning raised almost $688,000 between the last week in January and the first three this moth with almost all of that coming from the far-right group Texans United for a Conservative Majority - the leading voice for Christian nationalists in the Lone Star State. TUCM contributed six-figure sums to Wall and Kristen Plaisance as the challenger who's trying to unseat State Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. of Magnolia in the primary election in House District 3. The conservative organization donated $55,000 apiece to GOP challenger Jeff Forrester in the suburbs north of Dallas and Texarkana Republican Chris Spencer for an open race in deep Texas in House District 1.

The HD 1 is the second highest-ranked open House race on the watch list with Spencer rounding up nearly $700,000 in a second consecutive bid for the seat that first-round foe Josh Bray of Paris may have the best shot at winning in the fall after a total haul of almost $825,000 heading into the week before the vote. The GOP primary fights that feature King and Bell on the defensive in races that are top-level priorities for Burrows are ranked third and fourth on the incumbents contest list.

more to come ...