By Jim Ellis — Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023
Financials
Fund Raising: Nearly $1 Billion Taken In — Together, the Senate and House campaigns have raised an aggregate of close to $1 billion dollars ($926.5 million to be exact) for the 2024 election cycle. This, according to the Federal Election Commission’s Oct. 15 campaign finance reports for the 3rd Quarter period ending Sept. 30.
Twenty-eight senators are seeking re-election, along with the 55 challenger and open seat candidates, and they have combined to raise just under $443 million for the cycle; the 638 House incumbents and candidates who filed reports combined to record ‘24 cycle receipts of almost $484 million.
As they have done for every reporting period, the Daily Kos Elections statisticians published summary figures for all the candidates.
The combined Senate campaigns raised over $88.3 million (83 total candidates) for the 3rd Quarter and had an aggregate current cash-on-hand figure of $273.5 million. The 28 incumbents raised $44.7 million of the aggregate receipts figure, and the office holders have a combined total of almost $167 million in their respective campaign bank accounts.
The average among the 28 Senators seeking re-election was almost $1.6 million raised for the quarter, with each having an average of just over $6 million in the all-important cash-on-hand category.
According to the Daily Kos Elections data, the House re-election, challenger, and open-seat contenders accumulated just under $161 million for the Q3 fundraising segment. Among the House incumbents, the average raised for Q3 was just under $296,000, while the mean cash-on-hand figure for the reporting incumbents was $1.15 million.
Comparing the Senate Q3 aggregate dollars raised amount of $88.3 million to the Q2 effort, we see an actual decrease of approximately $3 million. On the House side, the combined receipts total of $161 million is about $10 million lower than the aggregate figure for Q2. The slight decreases suggest that less fundraising was done over the summer months as compared to the period ending June 30.
The 2nd Quarter also tends to be the kick-off for the candidates’ next campaign cycle so activity during this period is typically more intense.
Not surprisingly, the top Senate fundraisers were the incumbents and candidates in the most hotly contested campaigns. California Senate candidate, Rep. Adam Schiff (D), led all statewide contenders with $5.9 million raised for the quarter and $21.9 million for the cycle-to-date. He holds a whopping $32 million cash-on-hand.
Senate contenders raising more than $3 million for Q3 were:
- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH; $5.6 million
- Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT; $4.9 million)
- Rep. Colin Allred (D-Dallas; $4.7 million)
- Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA; $3.4 million)
- Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA; $3.1 million)
- Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI; $3.07 million)
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX; $3.06 million)
- Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ; $3.02 million)
The Senate candidates with the most cash-on-hand at the end of the 3rd Quarter are:
- Rep. Schiff ($32.1 million)
- Sen. Tester ($13.0 million)
- Rep. Porter ($11.9 million)
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV; $11.3 million)
- Sen. Sherrod Brown ($11.2 million)
- Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ; $10.8 million)
In the House, as is typically the case, the party leaders are the top fundraisers. Those not in leadership who raised the most in the 3rd Quarter are:
- Challenger Adam Frisch (D-CO vs. Rep. Lauren Boebert-R; $3.37 million)
- Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL; $1.2 million)
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA; $1.19 million)
- Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT; $1.17 million)
- Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY; $1.16 million)
- Challenger Mondaire Jones (D-NY vs. Rep. Mike Lawler-R; $1.14 million)
- Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ; $1.110 million)
- Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA; 1.09 million)
- Rep. John James (R-MI; $1.04 million)
It appears the electoral participants are again on a record fundraising pace. It is highly likely that the 2024 election cycle will be the most prolific ever in terms of fundraising and campaign spending.