Beto O'Rourke has raised more than $6M for race against Ted Cruz State Rep. Moody takes joins O'Rourke's campaign as political director

Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Houston. The little-known El Paso congressman, 44, announced Friday that he is challenging incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2018, in an uphill battle in a state that has no elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle ) less Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Houston. The little-known El Paso congressman, 44, announced Friday that ... more Photo: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Beto O'Rourke has raised more than $6M for race against Ted Cruz 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

For a candidate who is supposed to be a longshot, Beto O'Rourke sure is raising a lot of money.

The Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful announced Sunday night that he had raised $2.4 million in the last three months of 2017 - more than incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. That comes on top of the nearly $4 million O'Rourke raised from March 2017 to October.

To put that in perspective, in 2012 Democrat Paul Sadler raised just $683,000 for the entire campaign against Cruz in his first campaign for the Senate. And in his 2014 race against incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn, Democrat David Alameel raised less than $50,000.

O'Rourke, 45, has also raised his more than $6.4 million in the campaign so far without the help of any political action committees, as the El Paso Democrat tries to make a statement about big money in politics.

"Putting 100 percent of our faith and focus in the people of Texas is proving to be more than a match for the PACs, special interests and corporations who have captured, corroded and corrupted Congress for far too long," O'Rourke said in a statement to the media.

"We raised over $2.4 million from more than 55,500 donations, most of which came from Texas, every single one of them made by real people to take back our state and our country with everything we care about on the line in this election."

The next campaign finance reports are supposed to be reported to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. O'Rourke, a member of the U.S. House since 2012, released his fundraising totals early.

Cruz's campaign announced he raised $1.9 million in the final three months of 2017.

From the start of the campaign, national political watchers in D.C. have considered O'Rourke a long shot and Cruz good money to return to the U.S. Senate. But O'Rourke has been getting notice. On Saturday Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told donors at a Houston fundraiser the O'Rourke is rising star.

"There is going to be a big wave," Schumer said after introducing O'Rourke. "You are going to see it in Texas."

In another development, in a move that could shore up O'Rourke's credentials in Austin, state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, is joining the Democrat's campaign as political director.

Moody is chairman of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.