Potential challengers to Governor Greg Abbot in the 2018 elections will be in for a fight, reports the Texas Tribune. Last month, Abbot raised $8.3 million over a period of nine days.
In the first six months of this year, Abbot’s campaign has spent $2.5 million, leaving him with a war chest of almost $18 million dollars—a daunting sum for even the most well-heeled of opponents.
Abbot is backed by a laundry list of wealthy Republican donors, many of whom gave a quarter of a million dollars each to Abbot’s campaign. These donors include San Antonio grocery store magnate Charles Butt, San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, Dallas investor Robert Rowling, and Dallas oilmen Ray Hunt, Trevor Rees-Jones and Kelcy Warren. More than half of Abbot’s massive contributions over the nine-day period came from about two dozen people, each of whom gave six-figure donations.