Beto O'Rourke tops $70M as race with Ted Cruz passes $100M; ActBlue donors sent staggering $53M.

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WASHINGTON -- The cost of a U.S. Senate seat from Texas has never been higher, and Rep. Beto O'Rourke's insurgent bid to topple Sen. Ted Cruz has now attracted $70 million as the El Paso Democrat keeps setting new national records.

Three-quarters of that, a staggering $52.8 million, came in via ActBlue, an online portal that has allowed O'Rourke and other Democrats to crowdsource the otherwise arduous task of fundraising.

With Cruz raising $29.7 million since early 2017, when O'Rourke joined the race, the combined total has now crossed $100 million, a first for any U.S. Senate race in history.

The Democrat's latest campaign report, filed early Friday with the Federal Election Commission, showed he brought in nearly $8.5 million from Oct. 1 to Oct. 17, padding a tally that was already the most for any Senate candidate anywhere, ever.

Cruz's tally since the start of the election cycle, after his election in November 2012, is $40.5 million.

O'Rourke's campaign spent $21 million in the first 17 days of this month and still had $10.3 million in the bank. Cruz spent $9.7 million and entered the final stretch with $6.7 million.