Likely Republican nominee Greg Abbott’s ability to raise money continues to dominate the 2014 race for governor. Abbott’s campaign raised over three times the amount of money Wendy Davis’ campaign was able to collect in January.
In the last three months of 2013, Democratic candidate Davis’ campaign had taken in more money than Abbott during the last three months of the year. That celebration was short-lived as Abbott’s campaign showed they were able to raise more than $3 million dollars in January -- Davis’ campaign raised just under $1 million.
Professor Jim Henson, who heads up the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said no matter how well the Davis campaign does, she will never catch up.
"You can expect the Abbott campaign to do better and do better by quite a bit and there’s not much the Davis campaign can do," he said.
Henson said there are strategies that can still help her though.
"The Davis campaign will be likely to play this in a combination of two ways," Henson said. "We are raising more money than Democrats have in the past (and) we have a war chest, but it’s urgent that we keep going, you keep giving because we are going to be outspent by our opponents."
Henson said at this point Abbott could afford to start with a paid media campaign, leaving Davis under the threat of being outspent early in the race.
"Do you let these attacks go answered in paid media and then not have money left for the general election campaign when people are really paying attention and risk being framed early?" Henson asked. "Or do you spend the money, hope that efforts raise more money and hope that you don’t get outspent."
Henson said neither one of those choices are good, he thinks what the Davis campaign will be forced to do is use newer and cheaper media to counter any type of political attacks.
