Cruz-Allred Senate race the most expensive of 2024 election cycle
The race for a United States Senate seat in Texas is the most expensive of this election cycle with both candidates raising, and spending, tens of millions of dollars in the Lone Star State.
Incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has raised more than double his Republican Senate contemporaries with more than $86 million raised, based on the latest filings from the Federal Election Commission. The next closest Republican senator is Rick Scott in Florida with just over $40 million raised.
Cruz's opponent, Rep. Colin Allred ranks third among Democrats in Senate races with just over $80 million raised.
Allred's funds sit behind Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Montana Sen. Jon Tester. They've raised $91 million and $88 million respectively.
Ted Cruz leads Colin Allred by 1 percentage point, new poll shows
A new poll from Emerson College Polling shows Cruz's lead now sits at 1.5%. A poll from the same group showed Cruz with a 4-point lead in September.
Brown and Tester are each locked in battles to hold on to their Senate seats.
Their opponents, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Tim Sheehy in Montana are each well behind their Democratic opponents in fundraising. Moreno's latest filing shows around $24 million raised while Sheehy's raised around $26 million.
The more than $166 million raised by Cruz and Allred stands tall among the 34 Senate races to be decided in 2024. They're also spending those campaign dollars.
Allred has used more than $77 million in his efforts to upset Cruz, who has spent $77 million defending the seat.
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Democrats have seen this Senate race as one of their best opportunities to pick up a seat and protect their razor-thin majority.
Where does this race rank all-time?
Cruz and Allred are locked in the most expensive Senate race that the state of Texas has seen, though Cruz is no stranger to an opponent with a large war chest campaigning against him.
Democrat Beto O'Rourke spent more than $80 million in 2018 in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Cruz. The Cruz campaign spent nearly $46 million that year defending the seat.
The 2018 election cycle was the first time contributions to Senate campaigns surpassed $1 billion.
Nationwide, several Senate races have outraised and outspent Cruz and Allred.
In 2020, Georgia Democratic senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock each raised more than $125 million when they won both of the state's Senate seats over incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
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Perdue raised $102 million, while Loeffler raised $92 million.
In that same election cycle, current Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison raised $132 million in his attempt to upend South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham, who successfully held the seat for Republicans, raised $112 million.
Senate fundraising in 2020 exceeded $2 billion.
The top of the Senate fundraising list belongs to Warnock, who defended his seat against Herschel Walker in 2022. The senator brought in more than $206 million compared to Walker's $73 million.
Overall, Senate candidates have raised more than $1.5 billion in 2024.