WASHINGTON — Joseph Kopser, an Austin entrepreneur running for San Antonio Republican Lamar Smith’s open congressional seat, is raising money at a rate more than five times greater than any Democratic rival, his report to the Federal Election Commission will show.

Kopser will report this month that he raised more than $260,000 in the last quarter of 2017 and has $330,000 on hand, giving him what he sees as a significant advantage in reaching voters in the runup to the March 6 primary and beyond.

“We are the only campaign with the message and the machinery to be able to compete in this gerrymandered district and win the general election,” he said.

Former congressional staffer Derrick Crowe, of Austin, said he will report around $45,000. Elliott McFadden, also of Austin, said he raised roughly $35,000 during the period, and Mary Wilson, a fourth Austin Democrat in the race, said her proceeds were “a few thousand.”

The Democrats declared their candidacies before Smith, a 30-year House veteran and ardent conservative, declared in November that he won’t seek re-election. More than a dozen Republicans are vying for their party’s nomination in the district, which stretches north from San Antonio and includes significant portions of Austin and a large swath of rural territory.

Kopser, 47, is an Iraq war veteran and successful businessman who developed a transportation app called RideScout. He sold his company to Daimler AG, the Mercedes-Benz maker, and started another company before becoming a candidate for Congress.

In an interview, he cited the importance of a healthy campaign treasury as a counterweight to the political experience of his rivals.

“I didn’t spend time working in the Democratic Party and holding down jobs from precinct chair all the way through different levels. I don’t have the personal connections that go back 20 years as those people do,” he said.

His opponents scoff at the notion that Kopser’s money will make the difference among liberal-leaning voters in a Democratic primary. They routinely note that the moderate Kopser once was a Republican.

McFadden, 43, CEO of Austin B-cycle and a former Travis County Democratic Party executive director, referred to the ample resources of failed Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in a Georgia special congressional election last year.

“He raised $30 million, he didn’t really stand for much, and he lost,” McFadden said.

“When we talk about a Democratic primary in this district, we’re talking about 30,000 voters who are probably going to vote. I think that is a voting population that we can contact, door-to-door or on the phone,” he said.

Crowe, 37, is a former small-business owner and Capitol Hill staffer who worked for U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and other Democrats.

This week, he called out Kopser for lifting several passages, fully or in part, from magazines and online sources for position papers, calling it Kopser’s “cut and paste policies.”

“I think we’re in a moment in the campaign when we’re trying to establish trust with voters. That makes it important that we not plagiarize other content when spelling out our positions,” Crowe said.

Of Kopser’s money advantage, he said: “Money can buy you a lot of things in an election but it can’t buy you grass-roots enthusiasm.”

Regarding the GOP in his past, Kopser said: “In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan was my president. All my family were Republicans and so I considered myself as a Republican as a kid. I also thought parachute pants were cool.”

Ian Rivera, Kopser’s spokesman, attributed the lifted passages to “a little sloppy staff work. Joseph does take ownership of that process and has taken great care to ensure we fixed it quickly.”

blambrecht@express-news.net