The congressman from El Paso has raised $6.7 million with a genuine grassroots campaign.

One of 2018’s most remarkable campaign stories is unfolding on the back roads and small-town squares of rural Texas, where Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a three-term congressman from El Paso, is within striking distance of unseating arguably the nation’s most despised senator, Texas Republican Ted Cruz.

The most visible marker of O’Rourke’s success is his announcement this month that he raised $6.7 million in small donations from 141,000 people, breaking a three-decade record for the most money raised in a reporting period in a Texas U.S. Senate race. O’Rourke isn’t taking any political action committee money, because he’s a progressive who doesn’t want strings attached.

Even Cruz, who just launched his re-election bid, acknowledged O’Rourke’s fundraising.