Here is a look at the key findings of the reports that candidates and political action committees submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Friday:
Two of the most vulnerable Democratic senators this year, Rafael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona, have amassed some of the campaign’s biggest military chests in the cycle.
Warnock raised nearly $ 13.6 million in January-March to raise funds – his campaign highlighted as a new peak for a Senate candidate in the first quarter of the election year.
The Georgia senator, who is running for a full six-year term this fall after winning a special election last year, entered April with nearly $ 25.6 million in his campaign bill. That’s more than three times the amount pledged by Herschel Walker, considered a favorite for the Republican nomination. Former President Donald Trump has encouraged Walker to run for office, and the former football star has also consolidated support from the Republican wing, often at odds with the former president.
In Arizona, Kelly said he raised $ 11.4 million in the first quarter and had $ 23.3 million in cash on March 31, well ahead of Republicans struggling to challenge him.
Two other vulnerable Democrat senators, Catherine Cortes Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, also outscored their leading Republicans this quarter and ended March with bigger cash reserves.
Democratic contenders are collecting large sums
Even in less competitive Senate battles, Democrat contenders are attracting large sums.
In Florida, donors continue to flood the campaign of Republican Representative Val Demings with money in her challenge to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, whose place independent political handicaps believe is likely to remain in the Republican column.
Demings raised $ 10 million in the first quarter, while Rubio raised nearly $ 5.8 million in the same quarter. Each had approximately $ 13 million in the bank at the end of the quarter.
Demings, whose national profile grew when he was governor of the House of Representatives in Trump’s first impeachment process, took about half of his contribution from individuals in small dollar steps. Contributions from small dollar donors accounted for just over a third of Rubio’s quarterly recovery.
And in North Carolina, where Democrats are trying to get an open seat from the Republican Party in a state that has twice backed Trump, Democrat Cherry Beasley surpassed leading Republican candidates in the first quarter.
The former chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court accepted more than $ 3.6 million and ended March with $ 5.1 million in unspent money.
Trump’s support for US envoy Ted Bud has so far failed to clear the Republican field in order to remove Republican Sen. Richard Burr, leaving former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory in the primary.
Budd and McCrory raised about $ 1.1 million each and ended the quarter with approximately $ 2 million in cash.
Recent political history emphasizes that financial firepower alone does not win competitions. In solid red South Carolina, for example, Senate Democratic nominee Jamie Harrison has repeatedly broken records for fundraising in the 2020 election, only to lose by double digits to incumbent Republican President Lindsay Graham.
The self-financiers are looking for an advantage in the crowded Republican primary elections
In Pennsylvania – where the Senate open quarrel has caused huge airtime costs – Republican candidates have opened their own wallets, seeking an advantage in the crowded primary.
David McCormick, a former hedge fund chief executive, ran a nearly $ 7 million campaign in the first quarter, more than any other candidate.
One of his main rivals in the Republican primary, former television host Mehmet Oz, invested nearly $ 6 million in his campaign during the same period, documents show.
Trump recently backed Oz, bypassing McCormick, who had hired several former Trump aides and is courting the former president.
Republican candidates with deep pockets in other states are also betting big on their candidacies. In Ohio, for example, millionaire investment banker Mike Gibbons ran his $ 5 million campaign in the first quarter.
On Friday, Trump backed Gibbons’ rival, venture capitalist and Hilby Elegy author Jay Dee Vance, in the Republican’s packed primary election to replace retired Republican Sen. Rob Portman.
Vance launched his $ 600,000 campaign in late March, according to his FEC report.
Holders clash in West Virginia
In a bitter Republican primary in New West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, U.S. President David McKinley raised more than $ 481,000 in the first quarter, ahead of U.S. MP Alex Mooney, his $ 465,000-approved rival approved by Trump. .
But Mooney started April with more money for the campaign, $ 1.4 million compared to McKinley’s $ 1 million.
The May 10 primary is the first election this year to pit two incumbents against each other since the reshaping of Congress once a decade.
West Virginia lost one of its seats after the 2020 census.
In the first quarter, McKinley noted endorsements and donations from Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who and his wife, Cathy, donated $ 5,800.
Republican billionaire donor Ken Langoun and his wife Elaine donated a total of $ 11,600 to McKinley’s re-election, documents show.
The Conservative Powerful Growth Club and the Freedom of the Houses Fund donated to Mooney’s campaign in the first quarter.
Cheney is again superior to Hagemann
Wyoming Republican Harriet Hedgeman, a lawyer and activist seeking to oust US Liz Cheney in the August primary, saw her fundraising jump to $ 1.3 million in the first three months of the year. House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy and dozens of other Republicans in the House of Representatives raised funds for the candidate in March.
Trump, who called for Cheney’s ouster after she voted to impeach him last year, supports Hagerman.
But Cheney, one of Trump’s best-known Republican critics, set a new personal best in the first quarter, raising nearly $ 2.9 million. The third-term congresswoman has amassed $ 6.8 million in cash, compared to Hedgeman’s $ 1 million as of March 31, documents show.
In another race that pitted Trump’s winger in the GOP against an established Republican leader, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski continued to overtake Trump-backed main rival, Kelly Chibaka. to approximately $ 670,000 on Tshibaka in the first quarter. The current president had more than $ 5.2 million in cash, compared to about $ 968,000 for her candidate.
The primary GOP election in Alaska is also in August.
GOP billionaires are betting big on battles in Congress
The Super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts to shape election results, is preparing to help Republican candidates overcome any shortcomings in fundraising ahead of the November general election.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican super PAC focused on Senate competition, raised $ 27 million in the first quarter. Among his donors: Stephen Schwartzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, which contributed $ 10 million; Citadel hedge fund chief Ken Griffin, who donated $ 5 million; and Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch with $ 2 million.
Schwartzman also contributed $ 10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which focuses on the Republican House.
Griffin donated $ 7.5 million to House GOP super PAC and sent $ 2.5 million to Honor Pennsylvania, a super PAC working to stimulate McCormick in Keystone State, documents said Friday.
Key Super PACs for Democrats and Republicans are submitting their public reports on various schedules, but recent documents show that Republicans will have big cash benefits.
The Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund reported a combined $ 165.7 million in cash in late March. The PAC with a majority in the House of Representatives and the PAC with a majority in the Senate, their Democratic counterparts, reported a total of $ 82.4 million available at the end of February.
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