Democratic Rising Star Outraises Colin Allred After Announcing Texas Senate Run

State Rep. James Talarico, a rising star in the Democratic party, has outraised Colin Allred in the three weeks since announcing a Senate run in Texas.

The Texas Tribune reported that Talarico raised $6.2 million in the three weeks since he made the announcement, already outpacing the first numbers by other contenders.

The outlet noted that he has already more funds in hand than Rep. Colin Allred, who said he had raised $4.1 million in the three months since he announced his campaign on July 1. It added that Beto O'Rourke took nine months to raise that sum in 2018.

The donations came from over 125,000 individual contributors across the state and the country. 98% of them were $100 or less, with teachers making up the largest share of donors. Talarico is a former public school teacher.

"We're underdogs in this fight against billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians, but more than one hundred thousand people have answered the call to build a new kind of politics," Talarico said in a statement.

The outlet added that Talarico has gained notoriety for debating Republicans in the Texas House and on cable television. He has frequently gone viral on social media for his performances, as well as criticizing the influence of megadonors in Texas politics, particularly from the right.

However, over 40% of Texas Democrats said in a recent poll by the Texas Politics Project that they didn't know of him.

Allred has received money from more than 100,000 donations, averaging $32. When announcing his campaign, Allred said the Trump administration has been increasing costs for Texans, who are "working harder than ever, not getting as much time with their kids, missing those special moments, all to be able to afford less."

"And the people that we elected to help, politicians like John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, are too corrupt to care about us and too weak to fight for us," Allred adds, acknowledging that he could end up running against the Texas attorney general.