Beto O’ Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, is running in a notably competitive race against Republican Ted Cruz. O’Rourke and recently set a new record for fundraising, surpassing Rick Lazio’s $22 million raised against Hilary Clinton in 2000, with a significant $38 million from July to September (Evers-Hillstrom). This is more than three times the size of Ted Cruz’ funds, which were just around $12 million in the third quarter (Evers-Hillstrom). O’Rourke has said that his funds came from over 800,000 individual contributions, and that he has rejected PACs altogether (Evers-Hillstrom).
An online fundraising program, ActBlue, has contributed more than $25 million to O’Rourke (Evers-Hillstrom). Actblue is a democratic fundraising program that has shown massive support for O’Rourke, and since it is just a fundraising program for Democrats, the only agenda they could possibly have for donating is to push Republicans out of office and bring Democrats in. There is also a powerful “Anti-Cruz” sediment, here. Another one of O’Rourke’s top contributors is J Street, a nonprofit liberal group in the United States, whose main goal is to end the Israel/Palestine and Arab/Israel conflicts civilly (Opensecrets). This group, in return, would expect O’Rourke’s support to end the Israel/Palestine and Arab/Israel conflicts- which O’Rourke has publicly expressed compassion for, already. Democracy Engine, has also been one of O’Rourke’s top contributors (Opensecrets). Democracy Engine is another nonprofit online fundraising program that allows civilians to donate to candidates of their choice. Democracy Engine promotes Democratic candidates, and with O’Rourke being considered a liberal, Democratic candidate in opposition to his Republican counterpart, it’s easy to see why Democracy Engine would contribute. These nonprofit organizations allow individuals to donate, and so there are not many underlying motives.
University of Texas has also donated a large sum to O’Rourke, and O’Rourke has recently announced that he will be going on a college tour across Texas soon (Opensecrets). University of Texas has probably donated to O’Rourke primarily for his support for education and his idea that no public tax dollars should be given to private schools. O’Rourke wants to increase Federal aid to public schools, and low income communities while Cruz is an advocate for school vouchers, allowing parents to tap money they pay in taxes, for tuition in private schools (Moritz). Many other schools: Harvard, Standard, University of California, and Rice University have donated to O’Rourke’s campaign as well (Opensecrets).
O’Rourke has primarily received fundraising from nonprofit organizations and superpacs-although J Street does count as a PAC, for it’s support of candidates based on their support of a solution in the Israel/Palestine conflict. However, J Street has said that the PAC did not contribute to O’Rourke, but that J Street bundled individual donations on O’Rourke’s behalf (Cohrs). The obvious expectation of any donors would be the expectation that should their supported candidate be elected, the candidate will vote for legislature that will benefit them. Since O’Rourke has expressed interest in promoting education, specifically public education, it makes perfect sense why schools would contribute to his campaign. The other three contributors listed above (Actblue, J Street, and Democracy Engine) are nonprofit organizations that allow individuals to donate- mostly for their support of a Democratic candidate, and the policies that O’Rourke has expressed support for and advocacy for.
Ted Cruz, the Republican candidate for Senate in Texas, has less than 12x the amount of funding that O’Rourke has received, yet predictors of the race still say he is in the lead. Cruz has Trump and Mike Pence on his side, hoping to push more Republican idealists into office. While O’Rourke mostly accepts funds from superpacs and ‘the people’, Cruz does accept funds from interest groups and billionaire donors.
One of Cruz’s contributors is The National Rifle Association; of course, this has been a huge continuing conflict recently, with the increase of mass shootings (Cohrs). The NRA is a PAC that donates to candidates that support legislature that would continue to allow them to supply the people with rifles. Another PAC that Cruz has accepted donations from is the Senate Conservatives Fund, which strives to bring extreme conservative leadership into office (Opensecrets). This PAC wants to hold onto traditional family values and extremist policies, such as pro-life policies. Cruz has also accepted funds from NORPAC, a PAC group that promotes U.S./Israel relations. NORPAC supports many of Trump’s ideals and conservative values (Opensecrets).
Cruz has also accepted contributions from Berkshire Hathaway as a PAC, and Lockheed Martin, as a PAC (Opensecrets). Lockheed Martin is involved in high-tech military hardware. Lockheed Martin supports Cruz for Cruz’s support of the military and his war ideals. These PACS expect support from their chosen candidate for very specific legislature that will benefit their companies, greatly.
One of the contributors that Cruz has accepted money from is the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Cohrs). Goldman Sachs donated to Cruz in PAC funds, and provides financial services for corporations, financial institutions, and governments. With Cruz being Republican, it is transparent why a financial company such as Goldman Sachs would contribute to his campaign. Instead of supporting small businesses, Goldman Sachs largely supports investment banking. This is similar to how Cruz has received support from Robert Mercer. Criticizers say that billionaire groups are leading Cruz’s campaign (Cohrs).
While Ted Cruz does have some superpac support, he accepts contributions from many PACS. Many of Cruz’s contributors have been investment companies that support corporations or extremist conservative groups, who advocate for traditional values that Cruz, as a conservative Republican, also promotes. Beto O’Rouke has accepted no money from PACS; he has received all of his funding from superpacs and nonprofit organizations that allow individuals to donate; which, is surprising considering O’Rourke has surpassed the record for the amount of funding received in the Senate race, at a whopping $38 million (Evers-Hillstrom). It’s hard to say what effect this campaign money will have on the election; it depends on people’s reactions to PACS. It appears to be a good thing, that O’Rourke has not accepted money from PACS. It shows that his support comes mostly from “the people”; but, it’s difficult to tell if this will have a big enough reaction from civilians to push O’Rourke through to office.
