Democrats trounced Republicans in third-quarter fundraising in what are anticipated to be the closest House races of the 2024 campaign.
Of the 32 contests identified by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales as either tilting in a direction or a pure toss-up, Republicans led the fundraising in just two of them. And all told, Democrats had $82.9 million in receipts in those races, compared with just $37.6 million for the Republicans.
About $5.4 million of that disparity comes from just one race: the battle for Virginia’s 7th District, which Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., is vacating to mount a full-time run for governor of the commonwealth in 2025. Democratic candidate Eugene Vindman pulled in $6.5 million compared to Republican Derrick Anderson’s $1.1 million.
Vindman has been a small-dollar fundraising machine, bringing in $8.9 million this cycle in less than $200 increments. He’s the twin brother of Alexander Vindman, both of whom were relevant characters in the first impeachment proceedings against former president (and current GOP nominee) Donald Trump.
Will Rollins, the Democratic challenger to GOP Rep. Ken Calvert in a Southern California race, brought in $3.7 million in the third quarter, bringing his total receipts to almost $10.7 million.
He bested Calvert’s quarterly number by $2.2 million in a race that tilts in favor of the incumbent, who is chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
Calvert’s likely to seek a waiver to remain in his Appropriations subcommittee role if reelected.
“In 20 days, we are going to flip this seat, and when we do, we are going to push a reform agenda that gets Washington back to prioritizing people over politics, starting with term limits,” Rollins said in a statement announcing his fundraising numbers.
In Arizona, the combined quarterly haul for Democratic challengers Amish Shah and Kirsten Engel totaled $6.5 million, compared with $2.4 million for Republican incumbent Reps. David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani.
Both of those Arizona races are rated Tilt Republican by Inside Elections, and Ciscomani defeated Engel in the last cycle.
The two races in which the Republican candidate outraised the Democrat among the closest contests came in races rated Tilt Republican by the Inside Elections team. In California’s 45th District, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel outraised Democratic challenger Derek Tran by close to $600,000.
The fundraising in Virginia’s 2nd District was the closest to a dead heat, with a quarterly advantage of nearly $75,000 to Republican incumbent Rep. Jen Kiggans over veteran Missy Cotter Smasal.
All of these contests are expected to be key in the battle for control of the House in 2025.
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