Democrat Patrick Murphy raised $508,000 in the second quarter of 2012, his campaign announced on Monday. Murphy, who is challenging Rep. Allen West in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, ended the quarter with more than $2.3 million in the bank– making him one of the best financed non-incumbent Congressional fundraisers in the country.
Murphy’s latest numbers are a record for the young Democrat who raised $350,000 in the first quarter of 2012 and $300,000 in the last quarter of 2011.
In April, Murphy was added to the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program highlighting the party’s top challengers.
West has not yet disclosed his fundraising totals for the quarter. The Tea Party firebrand collected more than $1.8 million during the first quarter of 2012, but spent more than $1.2 million in the same period–most of it on his direct-mail money machine.