From .
Democrat Beto O鈥橰ourke so far this year from 141,000 contributions in his race to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The Cruz camp hasn鈥檛 released fresh numbers yet, but a filing deadline is coming up April 15.
翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 is expected to help close an earlier fundraising gap with Cruz 鈥� but in the end, will it make a substantive difference?
, a government professor at the University of Texas in Austin, says 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 fundraising boost gives him a louder microphone for his message.
鈥淧erhaps even more important is that he鈥檚 getting that from lots of different sources, and a lot of those sources are in Texas,鈥� Theriault says. 鈥淪o there鈥檚 no doubt that those are all really good signs.鈥�
Still, Theriault says, 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 fundraising doesn鈥檛 mean he鈥檚 likely to win.
鈥淭o the extent that he is raising money indicates that this could become a competitive race,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut a lot of things are going to have to break his way over the course of the campaign. So with the war chest tells us 鈥� the money war chest 鈥� is that there鈥檚 enough for us to keep talking about this story. There鈥檚 no reason we shouldn鈥檛 be covering this as a potentially competitive race.鈥�
Written by Jen Rice.
