The final pre-election campaign finance reports have dropped in Virginia, and they’re full of more good money news for Democratic candidates.
First, a quick look at the top of the ticket.
Democrat (and Daily Kos endorsee) Ralph Northam out-raised GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie yet again, $7.2 million to $4.4 million, in the month of September. But a closer look at those numbers reveals an even more unfortunate situation for Gillespie than the raw totals indicate.
Almost half of Gillespie’s total—$2 million, specifically—came from the Republican Governors Association and its associated PAC, A Stronger Virginia ($1 million from each). Meanwhile, only $1 million of Northam’s $7.2 million was donated by the Democratic Governors Association.
Even more troubling for Gillespie, however, is the respective number of small-dollar donors who gave less than $100 during September, a figure strongly indicative of grassroots enthusiasm. Gillespie pulled in these low-dollar donations from 2,739 donors, while Northam’s grassroots supporters numbered 6,860 for the same period—two-and-a-half times as many.
This trend holds further down the ballot, too. While both Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring and challenger John Adams each raised $1.6 million in September, 2,640 of Herring’s supporters gave $100 or less, while just 182 donors gave similar amounts to Adams.
Additionally, while $900,000 of Adams’s total came from the Republican Attorneys General Association, just $500,000 of Herring’s total came from the Democratic Attorneys General Association. And Herring’s total haul of $5.5 million to date has set a record for overall fundraising in a Virginia attorney general campaign.
Meanwhile, in the open-seat contest for lieutenant governor, Democrat Justin Fairfax out-raised Republican state Sen. Jill Vogel more than two-to-one, bringing in $606,846 to her $286,785.
But the good news for Democrats doesn’t stop there. Let’s look a little further down the ballot.
Team Blue’s House of Delegates candidates had a great month, too. Of the top 10 fundraisers for the month, eight of them were Democrats. VPAP has the handy visual:
| Candidate |
Party |
Total |
| Christ Hurst |
(D) |
$253,246 |
| Elizabeth Guzman |
(D) |
$251,660 |
| Hala Ayala |
(D) |
$220,573 |
| Joseph Yost |
(R) |
$198,601 |
| John Bell |
(D) |
$194,519 |
| Kathy Tran |
(D) |
$192,525 |
| David Reid |
(D) |
$191,641 |
| Karrie Delaney |
(D) |
$184,487 |
| Jennifer Carroll Foy |
(D) |
$158,947 |
| Jackson Miller |
(R) |
$154,771 |
Five of the next 10 on that list are Democrats, too, so 13 out of the top 20 fundraisers for the month are Democrats—even though Republicans have a two-to-one advantage in the 100-member chamber. And almost all of the Democrats are challengers, too: The only incumbent on the top 10 list is Del. John Bell, and Dels. Mike Mullin and Kathleen Murphy are in the 11-20 tier. Moreover, only one Republican challenger (Heather Cordasco) to a Democratic incumbent made the top 20 list at all, and not only did her opponent, Mullin, still out-raise her, but he also had almost five times as much cash-on-hand at the end of the month.
In total, 24 Democratic challengers out-raised their GOP opponents in this key fundraising period, improving on the number of challengers that achieved such a feat in the last reporting period (22).
In terms of cash-on-hand generally, Republicans still lead that race overall, but four of the top 20 on that list are just sitting on massive war chests and aren’t even facing Democratic opponents this year. Whatever they’re saving that money for, they’re running out of time to direct it towards bailing out their beleaguered colleagues.
But Republicans still have one huge advantage over Democrats: gerrymandering. Even though Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (twice) carried the state, Republicans hold 66 seats in the state House, versus just 34 for Democrats. So even in light of this fundraising strength, Democrats need to keep pushing hard in the home stretch.
Let’s help our team keep the pedal to the metal: Donate $3 to elect Daily Kos-endorsed Democrats in Virginia!
