Texas Senate: Ted Cruz rakes in $1 million

The lines of the battle for the Texas Senate seat up for grabs next year may have just changed dramatically. Former state solicitor general Ted Cruz, a staunch conservative Republican, announced today that he has raised $1 million in 10 weeks. And the contributions are coming from more than a thousand sources.

Demonstrating tremendously broad grassroots support, we received more than 1,100 contributions from 122 Texas cities and 37 states. Seventy percent of the contributions were made online at www.tedcruz.org.

Most watchers have seen this Senate primary on the Republican side as really two primaries, a big money race and a grassroots race. In the big money race, Lt Gov David Dewhurst has been the prohibitive favorite, being both the sitting Lt Gov as well as a billionaire who can self-finance a statewide run in a state the size of Texas, which has 254 counties and five major broadcast markets. Last week former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, one of the other two big money race combatants (Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones being the third) announced that he had raised a respectable $1.1 million. Leppert’s base of support is concentrated on Dallas, which is politically to the left of most of the state.

This is a big win for Cruz. Cruz’s haul puts him in the big money race, though up to now he has been seen as one of two horses in the grassroots race where he’s battling former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams. With speculation around Austin that Dewhurst may shift out of the Senate race and into the 2014 governor’s race, the whole Senate race may be getting rearranged. Cruz has shown over the past several years that he can generate major grassroots enthusiasm. He is one of the most popular figures in Texas conservative circles, and one of the most effective stump speakers in the state. Now Cruz has shown that he can raise enough money to compete in the massive air war to come.

The pressure is now on the Williams camp to show that their candidate, who is also among the most respected Texas conservatives, can do the same. The next disclosure deadline is April 15.

Update: Here’s the official press release from the Cruz camp.