This story was updated at 4:35 p.m.
In the three months spanning his victory in the Democratic primary and the first stint of his general election campaign for one of the country’s most important U.S. Senate seats, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman raised $11 million, a record-breaking number his campaign said, which is indicative of the expensive affair the race is shaping up to be.
Mr. Fetterman’s haul, the most money any Senate candidate has raised in a single quarter in Pennsylvania history, flew into his coffers between the beginning of April and the end of June.
His campaign said $8.3 million was raised after he clinched the Democratic nomination on May 17 and moved to the general election contest with Republican Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and TV celebrity. He defeated U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the primary.
Line-by-line details on Mr. Fetterman’s donations and expenditures won’t be available until, at the latest, by Friday. That’s the deadline for Senate campaigns to submit quarterly reports to the Federal Election Commission.
For now, the Fetterman campaign is touting the fundraising total as a testament to grassroots energy. with 69% of donations coming from new donors.
In a statement, campaign manager Brendan McPhillips said Mr. Fetterman’s opponent, Mr. Oz, is “an ultra-millionaire who can pour millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign.”
Though exact numbers aren’t yet available, it appears that the Fetterman campaign is spending money at a high rate. He entered the quarter with $4.1 million cash on hand and ended it — despite the $11 million haul — with $5.5 million on hand. The time period also included the run-up to the Democratic primary.
The Fetterman camp noted that many of its donors haven’t yet hit the maximum contribution limit and can keep giving. Mr. Fetterman, in a statement, said the campaign has received donations from more than 109,000 donors in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Oz’s campaign hasn’t yet shared its second-quarter fundraising total. He entered the final stretch of a brutal Republican primary race with less than $1 million on hand in his campaign account, diminished from a hefty amount of spending, but he’s consistently put his own money into his political pursuits. His personal fortune is worth between $76 million and $300 million, he disclosed in a government filing, and he’s sunk at least $5.3 million in his Senate campaign, The New York Times reported in April.
Political analysts say this Senate race could fuel an outpouring of spending that rivals the Pat Toomey-Katie McGinty Senate contest in 2016, which hit $164 million. The seat could determine control of the chamber, and political groups have already booked at least $67 million in advertising spots, with most of the reservations starting in the fall, according to a recent Post-Gazette survey of political advertisers.
Mr. Fetterman hasn’t yet officially returned to the campaign trail after suffering a stroke a few days before the May primary. In the meantime, he’s gone up on the airwaves with TV ads framing his candidacy as a backlash to the politics as usual of Washington — and his opponent as “Doc Hollywood,” out of touch with the concerns of Pennsylvanians. This past weekend, he dropped by a Democratic Party volunteer training session in Pittsburgh and said, “We will be back out on the trail soon. We’re almost at 100%,” according to a video posted by his campaign.
Mr. Oz has continued to hit the campaign trail hard, posting near-daily videos and photos from different sites across Pennsylvania and sticking to his main campaign messages. On Tuesday, he decried fuel shortages and price increases across Pennsylvania, saying in a video shot at a trucking company facility in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area that truckers can’t find enough fuel to supply their fleets.
“We can do better,” said Mr. Oz, who has — like other Republican candidates across the country — lambasted the Biden administration’s economic record.
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 12, 2022, 3:46 p.m.
