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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Trump fundraising intensifies, Democrats post big hauls and other
first-quarter takeaways
By David Wright, Fredreka Schouten, Alex Leeds Matthews and Matt Holt,
CNN
Updated:
2:40 AM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Former ’s fundraising operation picked up the pace during the first
three months of the year while Democratic Senate and House candidates
reported massive quarterly hauls as the takes shape, new federal
filings show.
Democrats and Republicans are defending narrow margins in the Senate
and House, respectively, and control of Congress is likely to come down
to just a handful of seats this fall.
In the fight for the Senate, Democratic incumbents and nonincumbents
alike raised millions in the first quarter that ended March 31 while
stockpiling crucial cash reserves for what are likely to be expensive
general election contests, several featuring wealthy Republican
opponents.
And on the House side, the latest reports show many vulnerable
Republican incumbents under pressure, with Democratic challengers from
California to New York outraising them during the first quarter.
Here are a few takeaways from the latest filings with the Federal
Election Commission as of March 31:
Trump boosts his fundraising
As Trump’s , the new filings show his fundraising has cranked up. Big
donors began writing six-figure checks to support a new fundraising
arrangement he established with the Republican National Committee and
state parties after he became his party’s presumptive nominee last
month.
The Trump 47 Committee, as the new joint operation is known, reported
raising more than $23 million in the first quarter of the year –
including from nearly two dozen people who donated at least $600,000
apiece to the effort.
Those Republican megadonors included TD Ameritrade founder J. Joe
Ricketts, former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler and billionaire investor
John Paulson, who hosted a Trump fundraiser earlier this month that the
campaign said for Trump and the GOP.
The committee transferred about $10 million to the RNC, which had
started the election year facing a serious cash crunch.
The Trump 47 Committee – formalized last month – is also designed
to direct money to Save America, a leadership PAC that the former
president has relied on , but the filing covering January 1 through
March 31 did not show any immediate transfers to Save America.
A separate and long-standing Trump committee, called the Trump Save
America Joint Fundraising Committee, reported bringing in more than $65
million during the first quarter of this year.
Monday’s filings offer a partial snapshot of the fundraising and
spending by Trump’s political organization. Other groups in his orbit
are slated to file reports later this week.
Trump is scrambling to catch up with ’s financial operation. Biden
and the Democratic Party previously reported bringing in $90 million in
March, far surpassing the $65.6 million that Trump reported raising
with the Republican Party in that month alone.
Biden – and the general election showdown – with a war chest of
$192 million, more than double the cash stockpile Trump and the GOP
announced.
Biden has used that financial advantage to start spending heavily –
as he tries to combat persistently low approval ratings and gain a
polling advantage over Trump.
In March alone, the president’s principal campaign committee reported
more than $29 million in disbursements – more than four times the
roughly $6.3 million the campaign spent during the previous month,
according to a report filed late Monday.
Among the big-ticket items: Nearly $21.8 million to produce and place
campaign ads. Another $1.7 million went to “text message outreach.”
The campaign’s report was not due to federal regulators until
Saturday, but the Biden campaign filed it early – alongside reports
for other parts of his political apparatus.
Democrats raise big sums in Senate battlegrounds
Democrats dominated CNN’s most recent list of the , with the most of
the races taking place in states that either Trump carried or Biden
narrowly won four years ago.
But at least in the money race, FEC records show the Democratic
incumbents or front-runners in these battleground states well armed for
the fall fight, several of whom are likely to face wealthy Republican
challengers.
In Montana, vulnerable Democratic Sen. Jon Tester raised $8 million in
the first quarter and ended March with $12.7 million in the bank. In
Ohio, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown reported a first-quarter haul
of more than $12 million, which his campaign touted as an Ohio record,
and entered April with nearly $16 million on hand. Both senators are
running in states that backed Trump twice and have drawn wealthy GOP
challengers who have already put in seven-figure sums into their
campaigns.
Other Democratic incumbents posting big hauls in the first quarter
include Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey ($5.7 million), Wisconsin’s Tammy
Baldwin ($5.4 million) and Nevada’s Jacky Rosen ($5 million, which
her campaign touted as a quarterly record for the state). Casey and
Baldwin are facing Republican challengers who have demonstrated strong
self-funding capabilities, while the GOP front-runner to take on Rosen
is Purple Heart recipient , who raised $2.4 million in the first
quarter.
Democratic candidates in open battleground seats also took in massive
sums during the first quarter. In Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben
Gallego significantly outraised his likely GOP opponent, 2022
gubernatorial nominee , $7.5 million to $4.1 million. And Michigan Rep.
Elissa Slotkin took in about four times the amount raised by former
Rep. Mike Rogers, the leading GOP candidate, $4.4 million to $1.1
million.
Self-funding Senate GOP candidates make their mark
Awaiting several of these Democrats in the fall will be GOP challengers
hailing from a variety of business backgrounds and some with net worths
in the hundreds of millions.
Ohio businessman , who, buoyed by a Trump endorsement, clinched the GOP
nomination to take on Brown last month, loaned his campaign $1.5
million in the first quarter, bringing his total self-funding so far
this cycle to $4.5 million.
In Montana, entrepreneur and retired Navy SEAL , who appears well
positioned to win the GOP nod in June, has loaned his campaign nearly
$1.5 million so far, including $500,000 in the first quarter.
Former hedge fund executive , who recently secured Trump’s support,
made a nearly $1 million first-quarter loan to his campaign in
Pennsylvania. (He loaned his unsuccessful 2022 bid for the state’s
other Senate seat more than $14 million.) And in Wisconsin, Republican
bank executive Eric Hovde lent his campaign $8 million since launching
his challenge to Baldwin in February, according to the latest reports.
The presence of these self-funding Republicans could help ease pressure
on national party finances and offset what has been a recurrent
disadvantage for the GOP, which has struggled to match Senate
Democrats’ powerful small-dollar fundraising machine.
Meanwhile, the biggest self-funder by far this cycle is Maryland Rep. ,
who is seeking to succeed retiring fellow Democrat Ben Cardin. The
owner and founder of Total Wine and More, Trone reported loaning his
campaign $18.5 million in the first quarter, his fillings show,
bringing his self-funding total for the cycle to almost $41.8 million
– a Senate primary record.
Trone’s main challenger for the Democratic nomination is Prince
George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who hauled in $2.1
million during the first three months of the year. The race, which
debuted on CNN’s Senate rankings this month, has taken on added
importance with the entry of Republican , a popular former governor who
has raised GOP hopes in the deep-blue state.
Democrats hold fundraising edge in House swing seats
A competitive fight is also underway for control of the US House as
Republicans look to hold on to their narrow majority, which has been
further eroded - at least temporarily - through a series of member
exits in recent months.
Across several battleground districts, the first-quarter reports show
House Democratic candidates matching their Senate counterparts in the
money race. Of the 22 races rated as “Toss Up” contests by , the
top Democratic fundraiser overperformed the top Republican in 20 of
them during the first quarter.
Many of these Republican incumbents are from either California (John
Duarte, David Valadao, Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert) and New York
(Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro). The two states
collectively host the biggest concentration of GOP lawmakers holding
seats that Biden would have won in 2020. All the Republicans mentioned
above, save for Calvert, fit this definition.
Meanwhile, vulnerable Democratic incumbents posted bigger first-quarter
hauls than their top GOP challengers in several battleground races,
including in Ohio (Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes), Pennsylvania (Susan
Wild and Matt Cartwright), Colorado (Yadira Caraveo), Maine (Jared
Golden), North Carolina (Don Davis) and Washington state (Marie
Gluesenkamp Perez).
‘Squad’ members armor up for primary fights
Several members of the House ‘squad’ of progressive Democrats who
face competitive primaries reported strong first-quarter hauls.
Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee, a first-term lawmaker from the Pittsburgh
area, outraised challenger Bhavini Patel, a local council member,
nearly $920,000 to roughly $291,000 through early April, according to
pre-primary reports filed with the FEC. But Patel has had significant
support from an outside group called the Moderate PAC, which says it
backs champions of “moderate fiscal policy.” Jeffrey Yass, a major
Republican donor, has been a top contributor to the PAC, according to
federal records.
The race could serve as an early test of how the affects congressional
contests, with the Gaza conflict becoming a flashpoint in the primary.
More broadly, pro-Israel groups have pledged to spend heavily in
several key House races to elevate more moderate candidates.
Other “squad” members facing strong primary challenges include New
York’s Jamaal Bowman, Missouri’s Cori Bush and Minnesota’s Ilhan
Omar. Bowman was lapped in fundraising during the first quarter by
Westchester County Executive George Latimer, while Bush underperformed
against primary challenger Wesley Bell, the elected prosecutor for St.
Louis County.
Omar, who reported raising nearly $1.7 million in the first quarter,
faces a host of primary challengers, including former Minneapolis City
Council Member Don Samuels, whom she in the 2022 primary. He posted a
first-quarter haul of roughly $400,000.
Some McCarthy foes face well-funded challengers
Virginia Rep. Bob Good – who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as House
speaker last year – raised more than $307,000 during the first three
months of the year, new filings show.
It marked the House Freedom Caucus leader’s strongest fundraising
quarter of the 2024 cycle, but primary challenger John McGuire, a state
senator, raised nearly as much – about $290,000 over the same period.
His haul included a $10,000 infusion in late March from McCarthy’s
leadership PAC.
As , some House Republicans – embittered by the party infighting that
led to McCarthy’s ouster – are looking for ways to boost McGuire
ahead of the June primary.
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace and top primary challenger Catherine
Templeton reported raising similar first-quarter hauls, though
Templeton, who served in former Gov. Nikki Haley’s administration,
received more money from individual contributors than Mace did.
Mace, however, has Trump’s endorsement – a valuable commodity in a
GOP primary.
In Arizona, Rep. Eli Crane, the only House Republican freshman who
voted to boot McCarthy, raised more than $1.1 million in the first
three months of the year, fueled, in part, by small-dollar
contributions. He recently drew a primary challenge from Jack Smith, a
former Yavapai County supervisor.
At least two Republicans who helped push out McCarthy are not returning
to Congress next year: Montana Rep. is retiring, and Colorado’s
resigned last month.
Celebrity sightings
Celebrity donors during the first quarter included actor Sean Penn, who
gave $5,000 to former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s independent
House campaign for a GOP-held Ohio seat, and “Family Guy” creator ,
who gave $1 million to Future Forward PAC, a key super PAC supporting
Biden’s reelection.
Several media personalities wrote checks to former CNN anchor John
Avlon’s bid for New York’s 1st Congressional District on Long
Island, including Ken Burns, Maury Povich, Connie Chung and Barry
Diller. Avlon is seeking the Democratic nomination to take on freshman
Republican Nick LaLota.
Former Republican Rep. , who is challenging LaLota as an independent,
filed a report showing that he raised zero dollars from March 7 through
March 31. Santos, who faces a slew of federal charges, represented a
neighboring district last year.
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