A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday showed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz leading Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke by 9 points, while a recent New York Times/Siena survey showed Cruz up 8 points. | Loren Elliott/Getty Images Elections O'Rourke raises record-smashing $38 million in third quarter

Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke raised a record $38.1 million in the third quarter for his underdog campaign to defeat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas.

O’Rourke’s massive haul easily surpassed the previous single-quarter record, set by Republican Rick Lazio in 2000, when he raised about $22 million in one quarter for his losing New York Senate bid against Hillary Clinton, who was then the first lady.


Cruz previously told reporters that he raised $12 million in the final quarter before the election — one of the best fundraising performances of 2018. But O'Rourke’s fundraising, fueled by online donations, still tripled the Republican incumbent’s.

“The people of Texas in all 254 counties are proving that when we reject PACs and come together not as Republicans or Democrats but as Texans and Americans, there’s no stopping us,” O'Rourke said in a statement announcing the haul.

O’Rourke’s campaign said that it received over 802,000 individual contributions this cycle, with the majority coming from Texans.

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This most recent quarter more than doubles O’Rourke’s total fundraising. As of last quarter, he raised over $23.3 million, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Despite O’Rourke’s fundraising advantage, Cruz has the edge in public polling, which has shown him with comfortable leads. A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday had the incumbent leading O’Rourke by 9 points, while the recent New York Times/Siena survey showed Cruz up 8 points.

Even with a lead in the polls, a handful of outside groups are helping Cruz shore up his seat as O’Rourke’s fundraising has gone into overdrive.

The Center for Responsive Politics has tracked more than $5.3 million either supporting Cruz or opposing O’Rourke. The single biggest spender is the Texans Are PAC, whose biggest funder is Lee Roy Mitchell and his wife Tandy, who founded the Cinemark movie chain. Shipping magistrate Richard Uihlein, who has also funded insurgent Republicans across the country, is also a significant donor.

Club for Growth Action and End Spending Action Fund, two other Republican super PACS, have also both spent north of $1 million on the race.

“We’re solidly behind the senator, and I would like to think most Texans are. I believe they are,” Lee Roy Mitchell told POLITICO in August. “But there’s a tremendous amount of money being poured in here to change people’s opinions.”

There’s been a little over $300,000 in either pro-O’Rourke or anti-Cruz outside spending.

Top Republican officials have also swarmed to Cruz’s side. Sen. John Cornyn, the state’s senior senator and the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, has tapped into his network to raise money for Cruz, POLITICO reported in September.

“We’re not bluffing, this is real, and it is a serious threat,” Cornyn said at the time. “If Ted does his job and we do ours, I think we’ll be fine. But if we have donors sitting on the sidelines thinking that, ‘Well, this isn’t all that serious,’ or ‘I don’t need to be concerned,’ then that’s a problem.”

Cruz has also papered over his at-times rocky relationship with President Donald Trump, who has pledged to rally in support of Cruz this month.

“I’m picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find,” the president tweeted in August. “As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas - weak on Second Amendment, Crime, Borders, Military, and Vets!”

No more details on that rally have been publicly announced, but the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., and Vice President Mike Pence each held separate rallies for Cruz earlier this month.

“He’s fought alongside of my father ever since on every major vote, for every policy piece — for everything,” Trump Jr. said at the rally.

Democrats across the country have been announcing big fundraising hauls, driven by strong online numbers. In August alone, O’Rourke raised more than $9 million online on the fundraising platform ActBlue, which is widely used by Democratic candidates. In August, more than 221,000 individual donors gave to his campaign.

The strong Democratic fundraising has also carried through to House races. The chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s House arm, said 60 Democratic candidates raised at least $1 million in the third quarter.