Updated April 10 at 12:30 p.m. to reflect Lillian Salerno's fundraising total.

Colin Allred's first-place finish in the March 6 primary is netting lucrative results. Since the Democratic primary election, he's raised $220,000 for his campaign, and he raised over $400,000 for the first three months of the year.

"People are ready to take on Republicans in the fall ,and they are looking for a candidate to get behind," Allred told The Dallas Morning News. "When they saw our first place finish, they knew I was the best choice to take on Pete Sessions."

Allred, the former NFL player turned civil rights lawyer, is in a May 22 runoff against former Department of Agriculture Secretary Lillian Salerno.

On Tuesday Salerno's campaign announced that she had raised $284,000 for the quarter and $100,000 since March 6.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, the longtime Republican incumbent and chairman of the House Rules Committee, hauled in nearly $600,000 for the period and has $1.5 million on hand for the general election, according to his aides.

On March 6, Allred finished at the top of a seven-person field with 38 percent of the vote. Salerno was a distant second with 18 percent.

Since the first round, he has gobbled up support from several Democrats and groups, including former U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and national Democrats who run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" program.

"Since we began our campaign, our grassroots supporters have been our foundation and lifeblood," Allred said in a news release about his campaign's finances.

The race for Congressional District 32 is one of only three competitive House races in Texas and is expected to be one of the costliest contests in history.