Texas State Rep. James Talarico raised over $6 million for his 2026 Senate campaign, emerging as the clear Democratic front-runner less than a month after launching his bid.

Talarico faces a steep uphill battle, with Texas having taken a sharp right turn over the past two elections. But the explosion in cash shows Democrats are bullish on his chances, vastly outpacing his Democratic predecessors. In the last cycle, then-Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) took two months to reach $6 million, while fundraising juggernaut Beto O’Rourke took nine months to reach the total in 2018.

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“We’re underdogs in this fight against billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians, but more than one hundred thousand people have answered the call to build a new kind of politics,” Talarico said in a statement to the Texas Tribune. “This is truly a campaign of, by, and for the people.”

There have been more than 125,000 individual donors across all 50 states, according to data shared with the outlet from Talarico’s campaign. Ninety-eight percent of the contributions were for $100 or less, with many of these coming from teachers.

Talarico’s campaign boasted that the total was record-setting — the most raised by any campaign in the first quarter in Texas history.

Part of the Democratic bullishness for Talarico comes from his ability to appeal to religious Republicans. The former schoolteacher began pursuing a Master of Divinity at a Texas Presbyterian seminary and frequently invokes his faith during political discussions.

He has criticized the approach of Christian nationalists to Christianity, describing their characterization of Jesus Christ as turning him into a “gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fearmongering fascist” in a 2023 guest sermon.

The funding explosion positions Talarico as a clear front-runner in the Democratic primary. He is facing Allred and retired astronaut Terry Virts.

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The winner of that primary will face off against the victor of a particularly contentious Republican primary between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

Paxton was leading Cornyn by double digits until he was rocked by an infidelity and corruption scandal, which allowed Cornyn to erase his deficit.