Surce: ExpressNews.com

El Paso Democrat Beto O’Rourke, the underdog challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, recently burnished his grass-roots credentials by completing a tour of all 254 counties in Texas. Now O’Rourke has proven his fundraising chops as well, raising a staggering in the past three months, more than double the $4.6 million reported by Cruz, a former presidential candidate defending his Senate seat in November. The cash haul for the three-term congressman laid down a marker in a Senate race that has already brought national attention to a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since the Clinton administration. O’Rourke, a rare challenger out raising an established incumbent, now enjoys a substantial cash advantage over Cruz, whose large lead in the polls appears to be tightening with less than four months to go before the election.