The gubernatorial campaign of Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) trumpeted "record strength" in its first fundraising report since Davis joined the race this past October.
In a Tuesday press release, Davis announced that her campaign and a joint effort with a Texas Democratic group had raised a combined total of more than $12.2 million from 71,843 individual contributors between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2013. Eighty-five percent of the donations were $50 or less.
About $3.5 million of that amount was donated to the Texas Victory Committee, a group created to elect Davis governor and support her "commitment to running an historic grassroots campaign," the press release noted. The victory committee is a joint effort of Davis' campaign and Battleground Texas, which seeks to make that state competitive for Democrats.
Greg Abbott, the state's attorney general and Republican frontrunner in the gubernatorial race, revealed the fruits of his own fundraising efforts on Tuesday. His campaign brought in $11.5 million in the second half of 2013.
Davis' campaign received support from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a December fundraising email. The senator described Davis as "not afraid of a tough fight."
"The GOP knows that Wendy Davis is special," Warren wrote, "and they are scared that her victory in 2014 could turn the tide against Republican victories in Texas."
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