Abbott, running for another term as governor, built up a bankroll of money before O’Rourke even entered the race last November and the likely Democratic nominee unlikely to catchup financially.
Voting is just beginning in the Democratic and Republican primaries, but political observers are already looking ahead to a fall matchup between Beto O’Rourke and Gov. Greg Abbott.
"Well the difficulty for Beto O'Rourke is giving Democrats hope that he can actually be victorious," said Mark P. Jones, Baker Institute, Rice University. "Beto needs to go to [donors] and convince them of why they should invest in his campaign, where right now what his campaign is showing is that it’s likely to lose and the only real question is does it lose in the high single digits or low double digits," Jones said.O'Rourke has trailed Abbott in fund raising the last two reporting cycles. The Beto team is asking grassroots supporters for donations as small as $3 with a goal of $250,000 raised by Saturday.
"He was able to raise money both from people who thought he had a realistic chance of defeating Cruz as well as people who were angry with Trump," Jones said. "This time around, having Biden in the White House is dampening Democratic support."SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson says O'Rourke won't ever match Abbott's war chest, but said he doesn't need to.