Small-dollar donors also gave $1.7 million to Boebert opponent
Indicted New York Rep. George Santos aside, House Republicans facing competitive races next year had a better spring fundraising than Democratic colleagues in similar positions, new disclosures show.
But the House GOP’s vote last month to censure Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff in June also may have done him a big favor in his bid for California Senate, a race that is sure to be one of the year’s most expensive even though it won’t likely affect the party balance in Congress.
Vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Senate, meanwhile, continued to build warchests, some as they waited for Republicans to pick or even find a candidate. The Senate Democrat with the biggest bankroll, however, may run for president instead.
The new data cover reports filed over the weekend to the Federal Election Commission spanning the three months ending June 30. To be sure, the spate of candidates in battleground races who didn’t announce they were running until after July 1 is a sign the 2024 picture is still coming into focus. But here are five takeaways on what the latest data show.
Targets prepped
Democrats need to pick up a net of five seats next year to take control of the House, and the party’s campaign committee has already put targets on 33 districts, including seven in California and five in New York.
But most of those targeted members got to Congress by winning tough races, and being in the majority seems to have made it easier to tap donors.
In the 33 Republican-held districts rated as competitive by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, three incumbents — Michelle Steel and Young Kim of California and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — raised more than $1 million during the quarter.
Twenty of the 33 had more than $1 million in their campaign accounts on June 30, led by Fitzpatrick and Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, who each had nearly $2.9 million.
By comparison, just five of the 30 Democratic incumbents in districts with competitive Inside Elections ratings — Pat Ryan of New York; Abigail Spanberger of Virginia; Angie Craig of Minnesota; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Kim Schrier of Washington — had more than $1 million in cash on hand. None raised more than $1 million in the quarter, with Craig posting the biggest quarterly haul, $840,000.
Put another way: The average Republican incumbent in a competitive seat raised $715,000 and had $1.2 million in cash; the average Democrat in that situation raised $465,000 and had $714,000, a CQ Roll Call analysis found.
For the average member of each group, PACs favored Republicans $222,000 to $161,000. But the GOP also had the advantage, by $68,000 to $43,000, in average donations from so-called small donors, those giving $200 or less.
Dollars and censure
When it comes to small donors, however, no one came close to the tally posted by Schiff, who reported taking in nearly $4.4 million in amounts under $200 for his Senate bid. Candidates do not have to reveal details for such donations, but Schiff’s campaign reported a surge after the House voted last month to censure him over his role as chairman of the Intelligence Committee and investigator of then-President Donald Trump during Trump’s first impeachment. Democrats on the floor rallied around Schiff after the vote, shouting “shame” and “disgrace” at their GOP colleagues.
Schiff is running in a crowded field that includes fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
Porter notched the second-highest haul of small-dollar donations among House and Senate candidates in competitive races, taking in $2 million, which was part of a $3.2 million total. But Schiff’s total receipts for the quarter were $8.3 million. He had $29.8 million in his account on June 30, to Porter’s $10.4 million, Lee’s $1.4 million and $625,000 for tech executive Lexi Reese.
Lightning rods fizzle?
The Republican who sponsored the censure resolution, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, raised $355,000 during the quarter — the second-lowest amount for a GOP battleground member. Luna’s seat is targeted, but no Democrat reported raising any money to run against her, according to the FEC. Inside E
