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HOUSTON (AP) — Federal officials are refusing to release the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop in Houston, and scrutiny of the shooting is growing after authorities said the man killed was not the person ICE was trying to find.

The shooting in Houston has revived critical voices deriding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and how ICE operates, especially after immigration arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a recent five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

No evidence has emerged to support the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events that led to the killing early Tuesday of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — that he rammed an ICE vehicle when it was chasing his white van and that an officer opened fire in self-defense.

Three other men inside the van told an attorney that officers are lying about what happened and that Salgado Araujo did not ram an ICE vehicle but that he was shot through the passenger side window.

The officers were not wearing body cameras and neither ICE nor DHS, which oversees that agency, have released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene.

Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he drove his crew to a construction site, was not who ICE was looking for, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said. Salgado Araujo’s family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.

ICE detained the other three men in the van and a lawyer who said he has spoken to them said the version told by DHS is “completely false.”

“At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents lives ever in danger,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said on Instagram.

The other men detained by ICE included Salgado Araujo’s brother. ICE has not released their names, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them.

ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, and Daniel Tirado Pantoja has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record, his stepdaughter said.

“We just told him not to sign anything, that we’re going to fight this case,” Juana Degollado told The Associated Press.

DHS said these allegations are “categorically false.”

When asked if officers were specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks before the shooting saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement.

DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.

DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is administrative leave. The department has taken a similar stance after previous fatal shootings involving its officers, unlike many local and state agencies that routinely identify and provide biographical details about officers involved in critical incidents.

Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo’s death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence but the positions of the vehicles means surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, Proaño said.

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GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to launch into space, has died. She was 87.

Funk died Wednesday at her apartment in an assisted living facility in the Dallas and Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas, Grapevine City Councilwoman Duff O’Dell said Thursday. O’Dell, who described herself as Funk’s caregiver, said she was by Funk’s side. Funk had fallen a couple of times recently and had an infection in her leg.

“It took its toll,” O’Dell said in a phone interview.

Funk was one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s but never made it into space with that agency. In 2021, she got her chance aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket.

At the time, the 82-year-old was the oldest person to go into space, though the record was later broken by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate. They were both 90.

Bezos chose Funk as an “honored guest” to ride alongside him and two others on an up-and-down hop from West Texas.

In a post on X, Blue Origin said Funk was a “pioneer in every sense of the word.”

“We were humbled to be part of her journey,” the post said.

O’Dell said Funk was the “most eternally optimistic person” she had ever met.

“She was told by many, many, many men, ‘No, you can’t do this. No you can’t do that,’ ” O’Dell said. “And she never got mad about it. She just was more determined.”

Funk was the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, according to a brief biography released by the City of Grapevine.

In the 1960s, she and other female pilots went through astronaut training in the Mercury 13 program, but they were not allowed to become astronauts.

“Wally Funk never stopped believing that one day she would reach space. Her passion for flight, perseverance, and love of exploration will continue to inspire generations of Americans. Godspeed, Wally,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted Thursday on X.

HOUSTON – A Mexican man living in the U.S. who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in a Houston operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Thursday.

The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said acting ICE Director David Venturella told her the agency has confirmed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”

Salgado Araujo was a homebuilder who had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed early Tuesday morning, according to his family.

“We’ve got to do something. This is just one more death too many,” Garcia said in an interview with MS Now. “And if we’ve got to bring outside, independent folks to come in and look at it, we should do that.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return an email seeking comment late Thursday.

DHS, which oversees ICE, previously said that federal officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest a person in the country without legal status when they attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Salgado Araujo. The agency has said Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and that a federal officer fired a weapon in self-defense.

Asked whether ICE agents had been specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said earlier Thursday that officers had been surveilling a property where they had previously observed two white vans.

“On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the department said.

The federal agents weren’t wearing body-worn cameras, DHS said, and few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since the encounter, unlike other deaths involving federal immigration officers.

In a statement, DHS said the agents at the scene in Houston had not yet been issued body cameras, which it blamed on Democrats and a record government shutdown that was fueled by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, a Democrat who also represents Houston, said if the agents didn’t have the devices, it was because Trump and Republican lawmakers did not want them to be carrying them.

“Houston is done accepting excuses from an agency that has more money than it knows what to do with and still can’t manage basic accountability,” he said in a statement.

The Harris County District Attorney’s office said it would conduct an investigation into the shooting. The office is consulting with local prosecutors in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, to learn how they have navigated investigations into federal immigration agents, spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.

“Although access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are pursuing investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect within our reach,” Lemaitre said in an emailed statement.

Three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained by ICE during the fatal traffic stop, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been communicating with their families.

LULAC has yet to obtain video footage that clearly shows what happened during the moments of the shooting and has offered a reward of $5,000 for information from witnesses, Proaño told The Associated Press. The position of Salgado Araujo’s van and ICE vehicles has obstructed security camera footage LULAC has reviewed, he added.

“It’s going to make it even more difficult to find the truth in all this,” he said.

DHS said the ICE agents involved in the incident were expected to receive body-worn cameras in the next 60 days.

In the aftermath of the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats had refused to fund ICE and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations designed to increase accountability and transparency. Republicans in Congress eventually passed legislation funding just ICE and CBP for three years.

LUFKIN — Sensitive information may have been stolen from a Lufkin accounting firm, a cyberthreat intelligence program reported in late June, according to our news partner, KETK. SOCRadar, which is an extended threat intelligence platform, helps warn organizations of cyber threats. It found that the accounting firm Todd, Hamaker & Johnson was attacked by ransomware Akira on June 30.

Approximately 40 gigabytes of client and employee data were breached in the attack, and Akira is threatening to release the information publicly, the Lufkin Daily News reported. Akira uses ransomware to impact a wide range of businesses in North America, Europe and Australia, threatening to breach and release information that is sensitive, according to the FBI.

Since 2023, Akira has been known to attack small to medium-sized businesses specialized in many industries, including financial services.
SOCRadar says Akira uses “double extortion tactics,” which encrypt data and exfiltrate sensitive information to pressure victims. The accounting firm has not commented to confirm the information breach, when contacted by news media.

HOPKINS COUNTY (KETK) — An East Texas breeder pleaded guilty last week to four counts of wire fraud after a viral dog shooting video led to the discovery of her unlicensed breeding facility in December 2025.

Kirstine Michelle Hicks, owner of Giant German Shepherds, appeared in federal court after being arrested on Dec. 21, 2025, for a social media video depicting her allegedly shooting at a dog three times and leaving it for dead, spurring an investigation into her breeding facilities.

In March, she was indicted for acting as an unlicensed animal dealer and four counts of wire fraud.
Further investigation found that Hicks had as many as 131 German shepherds on her property in devastating conditions by the end of December 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas said.

Additionally, the investigation into Giant German Shepherds found that Hicks has been running the business fraudulently. She advertised dogs as healthy, met certified parentage and were American Kennel Club (AKC) registered though the indictment found that they were not.

Information presented in court determined that the representations of the dogs she was selling online were false. Instead of selling purebred and AKC-registered dogs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Hicks sold mixed-breed dogs that were unhealthy, with fabricated documentation for an inflated price.

A March indictment identifies four alleged victims of Hicks’ wire fraud scheme, including a disabled veteran who prosecutors say received an aggressive dog accompanied by falsified paperwork. The dog reportedly had undisclosed medical issues and bit the buyer multiple times, drawing blood.

The indictment also states that Hicks knowingly violated the Animal Welfare Act by not obtaining a license from the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture before selling or transporting dogs from June 2024 to December 2025.

On Wednesday, Hicks pleaded guilty to the four counts of wire fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Love. She could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

“The depraved indifference to animal suffering we witnessed in this case was shocking,” United States Attorney Jay R. Combs said. “My office will continue to advocate for the victims who were defrauded by the defendant, as well as the animals who suffered, and often died, in cruel conditions. The concerned citizens who brought this to light are to be commended, along with the amazing animal rescue organizations who worked so hard to assist in caring for the animals, most especially Big Dog Ranch Rescue.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street and oil prices are holding steadier following their sharp swings the day before in the wait to see what will come next after President Donald Trump raised doubts about the temporary truce in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% early Thursday, even though the United States launched new airstrikes against Iran, which responded by targeting U.S. allies in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 33 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. The price of Brent crude slipped 0.3% after rising sharply a day earlier. Indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) – Texans lost more than $1 billion to scams involving cryptocurrency in 2025, according to the FBI, second only to California in the amount siphoned away by fraudsters.

Scams using crypto often involve fraudulent investment opportunities, but criminals are increasingly turning to the digital currency as a fast payoff that is difficult for law enforcement to track.

With cryptocurrency scams on the rise, here’s what to look for and what to do if targeted by scammers.

What are the most common cryptocurrency scams in Texas?

Scams generally fall into two categories, said Michael Levine, chief felony prosecutor for the Cyber and Financial Crimes Division of the Harris County district attorney’s office.

The most common are investment schemes where victims buy fraudulent cryptocurrencies or use crypto to invest in fake businesses.

Even legitimate-looking websites can be a front for a fraudulent operation, Levine said, which is why it’s important to vet sites by seeing if the company has been written about in reputable publications or approved by certain banks.

“The software in these things is wonderful, it looks just like an Ameritrade or E-Trade,” Levine said. “It looks just like a legitimate trading platform to the victim, and because it’s all fake, it looks like they’re making a lot of money.”

The best way to ensure your money is safely invested in cryptocurrency is to use verified, known exchanges. Be sure to do research beforehand or ask your banking institution for guidance.

Another common technique — known as romance scams or “pig butchering,” playing on the image of fattening a hog for slaughter — entices would-be victims through flattery and kindness. Once a relationship is established, the victim is directed to invest through a website or app, or directly asked for money through cryptocurrency.

Scammers are also impersonating law enforcement or state agencies, sometimes providing names of real people who work at the departments they are impersonating. Common tactics include telling victims they missed jury duty and now owe fines, or that someone falsified their signature on a legal document.

To bolster the illusion, scammers can “spoof” phone numbers, allowing them to call victims from numbers of reputable sources like a sheriff’s department or city clerk. The easiest way to determine whether you’re speaking to someone from the agency is to simply hang up and call back, or visit in person.

Texas has also seen a spike in cryptocurrency kiosk scams, ATM-like machines that convert cash to digital currency. Scammers impersonating bank employees or law enforcement direct people to pay bail money or transfer “vulnerable” account funds into these machines, which then send crypto directly to the scammer.

No bank or government agency, including a court, police department or licensing board, will ask for cryptocurrency or request payment through a crypto kiosk. If asked to do so, contact your local authorities.

How can I tell if I’m being scammed?

Whether receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be with law enforcement or a text message about a quick investment opportunity, watch out for:

• Strangers offering business opportunities over social media or text.

• Phone numbers that don’t match the official contact info of an agency or business.

• Conversations directed to a third-party app like WhatsApp or Telegram.

• Being discouraged from sharing your situation or the conversation with others, sometimes under threat of financial or legal consequences.

• Being sent official looking legal documents by text message.

• Being provided a callback number that doesn’t match the original caller’s number.

What if I’m scammed or know someone who was swindled?

After ensuring those involved in a scam are safe, immediately contact your banking institution and local law enforcement to file a police report. Be sure to keep all records, documents and messages involved in the scam.

You should also submit complaints and reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, and the Texas attorney general’s office. IC3 gathers data and complaints to help track scammers, and the attorney general can take action against businesses that falsely advertise services.

Because cryptocurrency is able to move so quickly once deposited into a digital wallet, most law enforcement agencies have roughly 36 to 48 hours to secure stolen funds. Most victims do not recover stolen money — but officials stress that reporting the scam is still important.

Scamming victims often feel shame or guilt about being tricked — a side effect that can deter reporting and hurt victims long after the fraud. Yet being victimized by fraud is not uncommon: one in four U.S. adults have been scammed in their lifetime, according to a 2025 Gallup poll, and one in 10 report being scammed more than once.

“There’s a saying in the [scam] world that no one is unscammable, you just haven’t tried the right script yet,” Levine said. “Please don’t feel like you must be a fool if you fall for one of these scams.”

Who is most at risk for cryptocurrency scams?

Those 60 or older are the most frequently targeted for cryptocurrency scams and who lose the most money, according to FBI data, but anyone is susceptible to scams. Those over 60 lost more than $396 million in 2025 in Texas.

For those with family members who are older or less technologically savvy, it can be helpful to walk them through how to identify spam texts or calls and ask them to inform you whenever strangers ask for money.

How is Texas responding to crypto scams?

Texas has a Financial Crimes Intelligence Center based in Smith County that helps law enforcement statewide investigate financial crimes, including cryptocurrency scams. The Texas State Securities Board also investigates fraudulent cryptocurrency activity.

Before the start of the next legislative session in January, state lawmakers are holding committee hearings on a list of issues designated by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the Senate and House Speaker Dustin Burrows. Those topics include reducing elder fraud and regulating cryptocurrency and associated technologies, including crypto kiosks.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

LUBBOCK (The Texas Tribune) – Faculty groups sued Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the university system’s regents Wednesday, asking a federal judge in El Paso to block classroom restrictions they say have censored professors who teach about race, gender identity and sexual orientation and intentionally discriminated against Black faculty.

The lawsuit, brought by the Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers and the national American Association of University Professors, challenges two memos Creighton issued after becoming chancellor last year.

The groups argue the restrictions outlined in the memos violate the First Amendment by allowing Texas Tech officials to suppress viewpoints they dislike, violate the Fourteenth Amendment by leaving professors unsure what they can teach without being disciplined and discriminate against Black faculty by singling out instruction about Black history, racial inequality and efforts to remedy it.

Creighton’s first memo, issued Dec. 1, told faculty they could face discipline if they did not comply with new limits on course content involving race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. It required faculty to submit course material related to those topics for regents to review and approve. 

A second memo, issued April 9, went further, ordering the phase-out of academic programs centered on sexual orientation and gender identity and requiring professors in core and lower-level undergraduate courses to use alternate materials if readings, assignments or lectures included those topics. 

The memo said some material could still be taught if needed for patient care, professional credentials or advanced coursework, but the lawsuit argues those exceptions were applied inconsistently.

The policies apply across the five-institution system, which includes Texas Tech University, two health sciences centers, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University.

The complaint includes new accounts of how the restrictions have been applied. It alleges a Texas Tech Health Sciences Center professor in Lubbock was told medical students could not participate in or observe care for transgender patients, even when those patients sought treatment for unrelated conditions such as hypertension, migraines or cancer. It also says a professor was told a Holocaust course would have to leave the core curriculum if it included instruction on gay and bisexual victims of the Nazis, and that regents barred professors from teaching Plato’s Republic and Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ National Book Award-winning book about racism in America.

The complaint also alleges an instructor at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso was told to not use the word “disparity” in class, affecting their ability to adequately teach students because El Paso County residents have a higher prevalence of diabetes. In addition, women along the Texas-Mexico border have a higher rate of cervical cancer mortality, children are hospitalized more for asthma in border counties, and the pregnancy-related mortality rate among Black women in Texas is 2.5 times higher than that of white women, according to the complaint.

One of the medical-training allegations underscores the lawsuit’s claim that Texas Tech’s stated exceptions were confusing and inconsistently applied. Creighton’s memos said some material could still be taught when needed for patient care or professional credentials. But the complaint says the Lubbock professor was initially required to remove material about transgender and intersex patients from a medical school course, even though the professor considered it vital to the course and necessary for medical certification exams. The professor was later told medical students could treat transgender patients during third- and fourth-year clinical rotations, according to the complaint, but only after some students’ rotations had already passed.

The groups are asking a judge to declare Creighton’s memos unconstitutional and block the system from enforcing them or any similar policy. The lawsuit, saying faculty members have already had to certify compliance for summer and fall courses, argues the restrictions will continue to harm them as well as deprive students of instruction they would otherwise receive.

A Texas Tech System spokeswoman rejected the lawsuit’s allegations.

“Our commitment to academic integrity and the First Amendment rights of our students will not be distracted by lawsuits as we continue to deliver rigorous academic programs, relevant coursework and groundbreaking research,” spokeswoman Erin Wilson said in a statement.  

Wilson also pushed back on several allegations in the complaint. Teaching about civil rights and historical events, including Nazi crimes, is permitted and instructors are not required to redact or remove works when sexual orientation or gender identity appears in adopted, industry-standard text or as an incidental reference, she said. 

The board of regents also has not altered or rejected any course at Texas Tech’s health sciences centers, she said.

Creighton has previously defended the restrictions as necessary to comply with state and federal law and ensure students are provided with “degrees of value.” 

In a December interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education cited in the complaint, Creighton said Texas Tech works to send a message that its “door is open to every walk of life” and said the restrictions were meant to foster “diversity of viewpoint.” Asked whether restricting teaching on gender identity, sexuality and race helped achieve that, Creighton said yes and described the guidance as a “continuum of common sense.”

Creighton, a former Republican state senator, became chancellor in November. In the Senate, he chaired the Higher Education Committee and authored Senate Bill 37, a 2025 law that gave governor-appointed regents more authority over curriculum. Creighton’s Dec. 1 memo described Texas Tech’s course review as the “first step” in implementing that law.

The lawsuit argues Creighton’s memos go beyond what lawmakers ultimately passed. An earlier version of SB 37 would have required regents to eliminate curriculum that taught “identity politics” or was based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in the U.S. or Texas institutions. That language did not become part of the law, but the faculty groups argue Creighton later imposed those restrictions after becoming chancellor.

The complaint points to his broader record as a lawmaker to support its claim that the memos were motivated, at least in part, by racial discrimination. It says that after the George Floyd protests, Creighton opposed efforts to remove Confederate monuments and symbols, backed unsuccessful restrictions on teaching called critical race theory at public universities and colleges and authored Senate Bill 17, the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs in higher education.

“Chancellor Creighton is trying to do through fiat what he couldn’t accomplish in the Texas legislature: erase the history, identities and lived experiences of LGBTQ people and people of color from the classroom,” said Nicholas Hite, senior attorney at Lambda Legal.

The faculty groups are represented by Lambda Legal, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.

Texas Tech is not the only Texas university system to restrict course content involving race, gender identity or sexual orientation. Texas A&M University System regents approved a similar policy in November, after a viral recording showed a student confronting a Texas A&M professor over gender identity content in a children’s literature class. That controversy led to the professor’s firing, the removal of two college leaders from their administrative roles and the resignation of the university president as well as a systemwide course audit.

The A&M policy, which was approved before Creighton’s memos, says no system academic course may advocate “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” unless the course and relevant materials are approved in advance by the university president. It also says faculty may not teach material inconsistent with a course’s approved syllabus.

Asked why the groups sued Texas Tech and not Texas A&M, Texas AAUP-AFT President Teresa Klein said the organizations are focused on Texas Tech for now but “will be exploring everything.” 

Antonio Ingram II, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Texas Tech represents “one of the most egregious forms of censorship we’ve seen nationwide,” pointing to restrictions on graduate student research and the closure of entire departments. A favorable ruling could affect other systems, including Texas A&M and the University of Texas System, though additional lawsuits might still be needed, he said.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Chronicle of Higher Education, Open Campus, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) – State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, raised a staggering $30 million from April through June, his campaign announced Wednesday — more than triple the amount brought in by his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The haul is a record total for a U.S. Senate candidate in the second quarter of an election year, Talarico’s campaign said, noting he has now raised more than $70 million from over 1.5 million donations, including 780,000 individual contributors, since launching his bid in September.

“I’m honored to stand alongside more than 780,000 neighbors who are tired of being divided into teams — red versus blue, left versus right, rural versus urban,” Talarico, D-Austin, said in a statement. “We are uniting Texans onto one team to change this broken, corrupt political system and bring down costs for working families.”

Earlier Wednesday, Paxton’s campaign said he had raised over $9 million in the second quarter of the year — a personal best and the largest amount announced by any non-incumbent Senate GOP candidate this cycle, per his campaign. Both campaigns had yet to file their second-quarter reports, due July 15 to the Federal Election Commission, identifying their donors and how much cash they have on hand.

Talarico’s mammoth fundraising has boosted Democratic hopes that he could become the first Democrat to turn a Senate seat blue since 1988, particularly against Paxton, the Republican nominee who has historically posted relatively weak fundraising totals. Some of Talarico’s fundraising edge could be neutralized, however, by a recent Supreme Court ruling that empowers Paxton to tap into the national GOP’s deep coffers.

Recent public polling has found the race essentially tied.

Talarico’s second-quarter haul easily outpaced those of Texas’ recent Democratic Senate nominees, including the $10.4 million raised by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the same period in 2018. Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred raised $7.9 million from April through June 2024 on his way to besting O’Rourke’s then-record fundraising.

Talarico broke records in the first three months of this year, too, when he took in a whopping $27 million — more than any other federal candidate in the country over that stretch.

“Running a truly competitive campaign in a state with nearly three times the population of any other battleground state will take unprecedented resources,” Talarico campaign manager Seth Krasne said in a statement. “While the Supreme Court creates new loopholes for billionaires and special interests to prop up their puppets, we’re going to continue building a movement to take back power for working people. Because Big Money is nothing compared to People Power.”

Talarico has sworn off corporate PAC donations, and his campaign said 97% of donations to his bid were $100 or less. The most common profession among his contributors, his campaign added, was teachers.

Texas did not land on national Democrats’ initial list of top Senate targets this cycle, with Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio seen as the party’s prime pickup opportunities. But turmoil surrounding Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee in Maine, this week has sharpened the importance of Talarico’s campaign to Democrats’ quest to retake the Senate.

Platner ended his bid Wednesday after a woman who dated him told Politico he raped her nearly five years ago and numerous Democrats called on him to drop out of the race. He has denied the allegation.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.