Enlarge Illustration by Shelby Knowles

Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia announced he raised nearly $78,000 in the lead up to the Dec. 31 federal end-of-year fundraising deadline.

He will need every penny.

The Democrat is challenging longtime U.S. Rep. Gene Green of Houston for Texas' 29th District. Green sits on nearly $1.2 million, accrued over several years in the event a primary challenge on the par of Garcia surfaced. 

Fourth quarter fundraising books closed on Dec. 31, but federal candidates have until January to file their full campaign finance reports.

The primary matchup is already garnering national attention with many observers tagging this contest as one to watch on the effectiveness of the Latino vote. Politico recently named this as one of nine primaries to watch this year.

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Texans for Fiscal Responsibility announced two endorsements on Thursday — Bryan Hughes in the SD-1 Republican primary and Dan Morenoff in the HD-114 Republican primary.

Morenoff is challenging an incumbent, Jason Villalba, who has run afoul of movement conservative groups across the state, including TFR.

The SD-1 endorsement is more interesting because while Hughes has drawn the backing of statewide officials like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, Hughes' rival for the seat, David Simpson, has rounded up support from a couple of high-profile tea party voices — state Sen. Konni Burton and state Rep. Jonathan Stickland.

In other words, this is a big get for the Hughes camp.

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In an email newsletter to supporters, GOP Supreme Court, Place 5 candidate Rick Green said he’s raised more than $100,000 in the roughly three weeks from the announcement of his run and the end of year fundraising deadline.

That sum came from 340-plus contributors, according to Green.

Green, a former state representative, is challenging the incumbent, Paul Green, in the Republican primary.

The report detailing who gave those contributions and in what sums is due Jan. 15.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says that requiring Texas to pay his opponents’ attorneys fees in a long-running battle over the state’s redistricting maps would be unconstitutional.

The argument came in a brief filed Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court, which Paxton has asked to take up his challenge to a lower court’s ruling requiring Texas to pay more than $1 million in legal fees in State of Texas v. Wendy Davis, et al.

The case, which dates back to 2011, is complicated, and so is the fee issue.

Here’s a link to the brief.

“The district court had no authority to award attorneys’ fees under a law that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court nearly a full year prior,” Paxton said in a statement. “As numerous courts have recognized, opinions by the highest court in the land take effect the moment they are handed down from the bench. As such, the fee order by the lower court should be reversed.”

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Former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte has signed on as a host of a campaign event for her successor, José Menéndez, who is facing a primary challenge from state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer. 

Here's a tweet with the announcement from Menéndez.

The primary election is a rematch of the special election runoff from last year when Menéndez first won the seat vacated by Van de Putte when she chose to run for San Antonio mayor.

Van de Putte last year chose not to get involved in the contest between the two men, who were Texas House colleagues at the time. This announcement suggests at the very least that Van de Putte is more willing to play this time around.