With primary elections already off the table in many states and the final Republican-Democrat showdown ending before the first term, candidates – especially those facing cluttered primary battles – need cash to expand their campaigns in the final months before the November election. For Democrats, mostly those running in battleground states or red states, that means casting as wide a net as possible to capture campaign contributions from sympathetic donors in other states who aren’t even voters.
The latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings for the second quarter of 2022 showed how many candidates relied on out-of-state donors – according to detailed individual donation requests reviewed by Townhall – to achieve campaign goals, with a significant number of contested races receiving more donations from outside rather than from inside the state, where voters will decide who will represent them.
From April 1 to June 30, New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan earned more than $5 million, including $3.1 million from itemized individuals. More than 88 percent came from donors outside New Hampshire, while just 11.43 percent came from Granite State residents. More of Hassan’s donations came from New York (12.82 percent) and California (18.73 percent) than from her own state.
In Nevada, where US Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is defending her seat against Republican Party challenger Adam Laxalt, her campaign is also financed from outside the state. Of the more than $3.8 million that Cortez Masto raised between May 26 and June 30, $1.9 million went to individuals. More than 93 percent of these donations came from outside Nevada, with just 6.75 percent of donors coming from Nevada. More than 11 percent of reported individual Cortez Masto donors were in New York, nearly 25 percent were in California, and more than 10 percent were in the Washington, D.C. area
In Ohio, Republican U.S. Democrat Tim Ryan — who is currently running for U.S. Senate against GOP candidate J.D. Vance — raised more than $8.6 million from April 14 to June 30. Of that amount, detailed FEC filings show that $4.3 million came from individuals, but only 30 percent came from Ohio. Nearly 70 percent of Ryan’s individual donors don’t even live in Ohio, and almost as many donations (over 23 percent) come from California and New York.
A similar situation is unfolding in Georgia, where Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is running to keep his seat and his first full term in the next Congress against Republican candidate Herschel Walker. From May 5 to June 30, Warnock earned more than $11.6 million, with itemized individual receipts totaling more than $5.4 million. But more than $4.8 million, or about 88 percent, of his contributions came from outside Georgia, while just 11.4 percent of his campaign funds received in the second quarter came from Peach State residents. More donations, 19.8 percent, came from California.
In Pennsylvania, current Democratic Gov. John Fetterman is running for U.S. Senate against Republican Mehmet Oz. From April 28 to June 30, Fetterman raised more than $10 million, even though he suffered a stroke in May that sidelined him from the campaign for about two months. Noting itemized individual contributions of more than $4.4 million, his financial supporters also came from out of state (62 percent), with just 38 percent coming from Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, nearly 30 percent of Fetterman’s donations came from New Yorkers, Californians and people living near the nation’s capital.
Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly is running for re-election in Arizona, but he is also counting on money from outside the state to assist him survive until November. Kelly donated more than $13.5 million between April 1 and June 30 and reported individual contributions totaled more than $7 million. Of that, about 20 percent came from the Grand Canyon State and nearly 80 percent came from non-voter states, including more than 25 percent from donors in New York and California.
As current Democrats, who want to maintain their seats in an unfavorable midterm environment under a chronically – and increasingly – unpopular Democratic president, have made clear, they are not focused on representing the needs of their states. Instead, they focus on changing the way the United States operates and striving to amass as much power for themselves as possible. Senators who vote in line with their constituents – such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – are criticized for allegedly not playing as a team. The contributions from outside the states, especially New York and California, are part of Democrats’ plan to stay in power to continue their radical agenda regardless of what the people of each state want. Court packing, federal takeover of elections, codification of radical abortion protections, undermining law and order – all of their priorities rest on a majority in Congress, which they do everything in their power to protect.
