Gina Ortiz Jones, the Texas Democrat running for the House seat left open by retiring Rep. Will Hurd (R), announced on Tuesday that she raised $1 million in the third quarter.
The figure is a huge haul in what is expected to be one of the most competitive House races in the 2020 cycle.
{mosads}”I’m honored by the groundswell of support we’ve received and together we’re building a grassroots campaign to stand up to the corporate special interests and bring commonsense priorities like quality, affordable health care and lower prescription drug costs to Washington, D.C.,” Jones said in a statement.
Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer, launched her House campaign in May. She narrowly lost to Hurd in 2018 by 926 votes in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, which stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border between San Antonio and El Paso.
Democrats, who already had their sights set on the seat after the tight race last year, were given a boost in August when Hurd announced he would retire after his term is up, one of a parade of Texas Republicans who said they would not seek reelection.
The district has a history of electing both Democrats and Republicans, flipping between parties five times since the 1990s. The district voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the same year Hurd won reelection to his second term.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, rates the race as “Lean Democratic,” but the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) expressed confidence that the seat would remain in the GOP’s hands.
“Contrary to what the pundits will tell you, this is an R+1 district and we will fight tooth and nail to ensure it remains in Republican hands in 2020,” Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who chairs the NRCC, said in a statement after Hurd’s retirement.